Carole Belliveau’s current paintings explore light as both a visible effect of nature and the ephemeral life force it has come to represent. Experimentation with a variety of media captures light and reflects it back to the viewer in a dynamic journey through her visual world while the use of luminous materials such as gold leaf and iridescent color draw the eye to light dancing across the surface. “My use of formal gesture in the figurative work recalls early Renaissance and iconic art forms. These images combined with my poetry invite the viewer to his or her own experience of this symbolism.” Belliveau's figures are layered with brilliant colors and gold, along with handwritten text that offers the viewer a visual puzzle to unravel.

 

Belliveau attended Parsons School of Design and had a successful career as an international award winning designer, before moving to the West Coast to focus on painting. Conversations with a federal judge about her vision of man’s relation to the land, led to a government commission to create a series of paintings for the Federal Courthouse in Salinas, CA. This collection, called “The Work We Do”, celebrates the beauty of the world’s most productive agricultural region as well as the daily lives of the people who live and work in Steinbeck Country. Belliveau was also commissioned by Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital to create a landscape series based on the vanishing scenes of rural San Benito County. Belliveau earned a BFA from Academy of Art University and is a member of Oil Painters of America and Monterey Bay Plein Air Painters Association. Her paintings are included in numerous private and public collections.