Paul Vivier, a 1988 Patrick County High School graduate, is showcasing a collection of paintings and sketches this August at Roanoke’s Left of Center Art Space. His work captures moments of transition — the temporary and the changing — inspired by his surroundings and recent move to Roanoke.
Vivier is the son of Hilda Stanley and Charles Vivier of Meadows of Dan. He lives in Roanoke with his wife, Lindsey.
The exhibit features about a dozen paintings and another dozen sketches.
Vivier estimates he has been painting on and off for about 30 years. While he attended Virginia Commonwealth University for art, he graduated with a degree that would help him do digital work such as web design.
“I was in my 30s, and I started getting frustrated by everything that was digital not being permanent. Everything that I was doing was just getting overwritten in new versions, so I wanted something that if I was going to spend time on it would kind of stick around for a little while,” he said. “I’ve been drawing and sketching for most of my life, but I took up oil painting as the result of trying to do something more permanent.”
Vivier said he sees two primary themes in his work. One focuses on the general discovery of his surroundings.
“Sometimes that’s traveling, it’s whatever’s in front of it. I moved to Roanoke last year, and so just moving to a new area and going to new places,” he said.
His other main theme is immortalizing the temporary.
“So things that I’m fascinated by that look like they’re on their way to not existing anymore or not being the same or changing or something like that. Kind of a moment of time,” he said.
Flowers are one recurring subject in that theme, as they are short-lived.
“I like to capture those, and they’re usually super complicated. I like complicated, hard-to-understand visuals. Sometimes it’s also a decayed building that’s fallen down,” he said.
Vivier said he also painted scenes of the U.S. 58 construction around the Lover’s Leap area as it was happening.
“The idea that it was neither the mountain it was before nor was it yet the road it would be — it was somewhere kind of in between,” he said.
The time it takes him to complete a piece varies by size. Larger works can take three weeks to a month.
“Sometimes also one week or two weeks. I mean I do sketches in 30 minutes, so it’s partially whatever the time is going to allow, but with the paintings, the ones that are more complicated take a longer time,” he said.
Vivier was invited to exhibit after the gallery owners attended an open studio he held when he first moved to Roanoke.
“They came in and saw my work and then asked me almost immediately if I wanted to display there and if I wanted to be on the Roanoke Open Studio tours in the future,” he said.
While it hasn’t officially been announced, Vivier said he will participate in a future Roanoke Open Studio tour. He is also interested in showing his work locally in Patrick County.
“That would be great. I think I had a couple of photographs at the Reynolds Homestead when I was in high school,” he said.
While he occasionally takes commissions, Vivier said it is rare.
“I’ve usually got my own backlog of ideas I’m trying to get through,” he said.
He also rarely sells his work online, noting that most buyers are people he knows.
“A small following of people I guess that I managed to get. I sold a lot in Richmond before I left. I had a few really large paintings that sold as well as some small paintings,” he said.
For more information about the exhibit, visit www.leftofcenterartspace.com or Facebook.com/LeftofCeterArtSpace.
For more information about Vivier or to view his work, visit www.vivier.net.
