About the Artist

Biography

Born in Paris, France, Yves immigrated to the United States in 1965. Although he worked in the business world, he never stopped drawing and painting. His first works date back to the 1970's. In New York, he studied at the National Academy of Design School of Fine Arts and at the Arts Student League with Ray Everett Kinstler, Robert Liberace and Michael Shane Neal.

He moved to the Bay Area in 1989 where he studied at the Academy of Art in San Francisco, then returned to the East Coast where his studio is set up in Old Saybrook, Connecticut.

He dedicated himself totally to his art in the early nineties. Yves' many portraits and other works are in homes in Europe and across the United States.

Yves' has exhibited his work in California and in Colorado. He is a member of the Portrait Society of America.

THE ARTIST TALKS ABOUT HIS WORK

I work mostly in oils.

My passion is portraiture. An unforgettable face hinting at the person's inner feelings, the weightlessness of a dancer, the grin of a child or the wave of a hand would be irresistible subjects. I strive to capture the personality, the character and the mood of those I paint.

Yet, as well as a beautiful smile, a bright flashy flower, the gentle green of new growth on a Colorado spruce or a majestic Himalayan peak will also find its way to my canvas.

Light and color, grace and movement, sorrow and happiness are the essence of our world. These are the moods that I work to put on canvas for the viewers to sense and enjoy.

--Yves Masson