Like his house, Desmarais is comfortable in his own skin. A trim man, he looks far younger than his 56 years. A lifetime as a highly placed executive at Swank Inc., an international jewelry company, taught him the importance of being organized, of getting to the heart of things without a lot of wasted effort.
And so it is with his paintings, exquisitely executed oils mirroring seaside summer days so inviting that you wish you could crawl into them and float away. There are no storms in Arnold Desmarais's paintings--this is our Cape world at its very best, the skies a perfect eggshell blue, the marshes glowing in the light of sunset. And the ocean--it is the marine world that Desmarais returns to again and again in his paintings, revealing a fascination that began when he was a young boy vacationing on Block Island with his family.
"I feel that what's happening on the Cape and Islands, where the beauty is being taken over by these monster homes, is a shame," says Desmarais. "I want to paint this world as it used to be--some people would call it 'a gentler time.'"
Desmarais spent most of his adult life as a business executive. He designed and marketed high-end jewelry for several years, jetting around the world. After graduating from Bryant College, he went to work for Swank. By the time he was 24, he was managing a huge staff. But art always beckoned. And so, at the age of 38, he retired from Swank, set up a business as an international design consultant in jewelry and fashion accessories, and moved to Centerville with his wife and son to be a painter. He studied with Joseph McGurl, Donald Demers, and Jim Wilcox, determined to become an accomplished painter.
When you look at Desmarais's paintings, you notice his attention to detail. Like each expertly captured ripple in his painting Edge of Tide, it is evident that this is a man who has come home. And yet, Desmarais, who stoked his creative spark in Mystic Artists' Association workshops with Demers and in Boston's Copley Society workshops with McGurl, will tell you that he is constantly working at his art. When he is not painting in his meticulous second-floor studio, he is taking photographs of possible subjects, reading books by his mentors, applying pot after pot of gesso to the panels that give his paintings that smooth, mirror-like sheen.
"I am a classically trained painter," says Desmarais, who notes that he reads several books a week on painting. His serious work ethic requires hours of preparation time. "I work primarily on artist's masonite, because I want a very smooth surface," he explains. "It just gives a much more refined look. I prepare my own gesso--sometimes I'll do 50-75 panels at time. Then I do pencil and charcoal sketches, working with several photographs of antique boats and sea scenes."
Desmarais's art has brought him success and fame--he is represented by galleries all along the East Coast from Tree's Place gallery in Orleans to the Admiralty Gallery in Vero Beach, Florida. He regularly teaches classes at the Cape Cod Art Association--and donates all the proceeds to the organization. His art has been exhibited in dozens of Cape shows, including at the Addison Art Gallery, the Cahoon Museum, and the Cape Cod Museum of Art. He recently had a marine painting accepted into a national touring show of the prestigious American Society of Marine Artists.
The tranquility of his life seems almost effortless. Like his paintings, however, it is evident there is structure born of endless hours of work beneath the shimmering beauty in Arnold Desmarais's world. Like the jewels he spent years designing, you know that his artistic gems will endure, transporting those lucky enough to own them to the world all around us that he has captured so masterfully.
Arnold Desmarais's work can be seen at Tree's Place gallery, Orleans, at the Cape Cod Art Association, Barnstable, at the Cavalier Gallery, Nantucket, and on his Web site, www.finemarineart.com.