Draft:Laurence Sutton

In 1949 she is admitted to the Ecole des Beaux Arts de Nantes (Nantes Art School), then from 1950 she studies drawing, architecture and design. In 1951 she meets the statuary Robert Coutin,^[1] restorer in charge of the Cathedral of Reims, disciple of Boudelle, of Andre Lhote and honored friend of Henri Focillon^[2]. Robert Coutin was also the descendent of several generations of sculptors who transmitted a teaching that reaches back through epochs as distant as Roman and Gothic art. Laurence recognizes that what she had been looking for was precisely a form of art that she had now found in this type of transmission from a source of a living language.

After four years of intensive study and one year at the School of Fine Art in Milan (Beaux Art de Milan), she marries Mel.R.Sabre, an American lieutenant, parachuted into France behind the lines at Utah Beach the night of 6 June 1944 at the age of 19. Later, he obtained a grant for studying at the Sorbonne in Paris. They have an only son, Mike Sabre, known as a French guitarmaker.

The family move to Monaco, then to New York. Laurence becomes used to the fast-paced American city where she works as an illustrator for publicity agencies and publications such as The New York Times and Newsweek. However, she continues to draw for herself, consolidating her own form of art. She does numerous full foot portraits creating a very personal universe for each of her models. She earns appreciation amongst some of the most well know celebrities of Long Island which result in advantageous commissions.

After the death of her husband, Laurence returns to France and is recruited by the Editor Hachette for a long term project on the History of Civilizations^[3] alongside future famous illustrators of comics, Jean Giraud (known as Moebius) and Jean Claude Mézières as well as painter Constantin Andrieu Nepo.

In 1970, she is appointed Art Teacher where, for four years, she teaches drawing at the “Famous Artist School” of Monte Carlo.

In 1974, she leaves for England to spend a year in Sherborne House, Cheltenham at the Academy for Continuous Education Institute for the Comparative Study of Science, Philosophy, Art and Religion, with Mathematician, Director of Industrial Research and Philosopher John G Bennet^[4]. Here she hopes to find a source of inspiration for a new direction to her life and work. Later, during her travels, drawing and painting, the Orient attracts her and she makes several journeys to Turkey, Egypt, the southern Sahara, India, Cashmere, Ladakh, and Nepal. During these travels, she records her impressions in numerous notebooks with pencil and watercolor illustrations.

In 1978, she marries British subject Mike Sutton, and returns to illustration, now in the publicity sector. She continues her work over ten years where she forges a place for herself queening the sector where the “Rough” is king. The most prestigious publicity agencies, where the principal clients are international industries, constantly uphold commissions and assignments that keep Laurence busy, sometimes both night and day.

In 1988, Laurence Sutton^[5] began her first oil paintings on canvas. Laurence painted her everyday surroundings, under the Paris roofs seen from the sixth floor of her “quartier Latin” (Latin Quarter) studio : street scenes, markets, landscapes, and American tourists visiting the Eiffel Tower, or the Louvre museum, or café terraces. Her natal Paris became the source of inspiration for the majority of her work.

Mastering a rare technique, with a teaching and long-lost artistic knowhow, as she insisted unambiguously and without concern for others’ reaction, she did not seek photographic accuracy. Her principal intention was to capture the effects of modulated light and shadow. Her objective was not to represent story forms, but to express her perception of a much larger universal symbolism. International critics praised her work, naming her "Realism Inspired."

During her life, she created tirelessly and worked hard both professionally and personally, with impressive productivity. Her site is a mere tip of the iceberg of what Laurence Sutton created bearing in mind that her career of “painter” did not start until 1988 when she was already 60 years old.

Salah Stétié wrote : " The work of Sutton, secret painter, bears witness to the intangible but real presence of a "hijab", a veil between that of the order of view and that of the order of vision : over and above what might appear to be picturesque ; but this initial stroke in her work which is not the decisive stroke, but a research, a soft and melancholic quest for the essential, a grace... "^[6]

Laurence Sutton died at the age of 85, on october 22nd 2013, at Carcassonne.

1988 Galerie Herouet Personal Exhibition Paris^[7]

1989 Galerie Schlumberger Personal Exhibition Santa Rosa . CA . U.S.A

1989 Left Bank Gallery Personal Exhibition Santa Fe U.S.A

1989 Mac Adoo Gallery Personal Exhibition Santa Fe U.S.A

1990 Downtown Gallery Collective Exhibition New Orleans U.S.A

1990 Hahn Gallery Collective Exhibition Philadelphia U.S.A

1990 Galerie Carré d'Art Personal Exhibition Paris

1990 Galerie Wauters Personal Exhibition Paris

1991 Zenith Gallery Personal Exhibition Bussum . Hollande^[8]

1991 Centre Culturel Personal Exhibition Avernes St Gourgon . France

1991 Salon d'Automne^[9]Paris

1992 Galerie Simon Chaye Personal Exhibition Honfleur . France^[10]

1992 Salon de la Figuration Critique Paris

1993 Espace Saint-Severin Personal Exhibition Paris

1993 Palais Rastede Personal Exhibition Rastede Allemagne^[11]

1994 Centre Culturel de Sharjah Personal Exhibition Emirats Arabes Unis^[12]

1994 Fondation Culturelle d' Abu-Dhabi Emirats Arabes Unis Personal Exhibition^[13][14]

1995 Concours du Portrait Paul-Louis Weiler Academie des Beaux-Arts de Paris Institut de France Paris

1996 Fondation Culturelle Personal Exhibition Altrip Allemagne

1996 Majlis Gallery Personal Exhibition Beyrouth Liban

1997 Fakhreddine Palace Personal Exhibition Deyr-el-Qamar Liban

1998 Royal Academy of Art Collective Exhibition London England

1999 Royal Academy of Art Collective Exhibition London England

2001 Espace d'Art Personal Exhibition Rennes les Bains France

2003 Espace d'Art Personal Exhibition Rennes les Bains France

2007 Espace d'Art Personal Exhibition Rennes les Bains France

2009 Espace d'Art Personal Exhibition Rennes les Bains France