Thonson Gallery

Marceau Verdiere is a French-born, California-based artist whose work explores the emotional and aesthetic resonance of the passage of time. For over two decades, his practice—Abstract oil painting and photography—has focused on memory, impermanence, and the quiet beauty found in worn and weathered surfaces.

Marceau Verdiere, Crepuscule en bleu

Living and working in Humboldt County for the past 23 years, he draws inspiration from the textures of his surroundings and the emotional traces they carry. In addition Verdiere has been influenced by his extensive travels around the world and the humans and artists he encounters. In Japan, he began to engage with and study traditional Japanese aesthetic philosophies; Verdiere’s abstract works embrace imperfection, erosion, and transience. Through the layered application and removal of pigment, he creates surfaces that mirror the way memories arise and recede in the mind. His paintings do not seek to represent specific stories, but rather to evoke the shared human experience of aging, remembering, and existing in the in-between spaces of life. Marceau holds a masters in Studio Art Education from the University of Strasbourg, France. His work has been exhibited extensively not just in Humboldt County but internationally as well.

“This exhibition is the culmination of a 20-year inquiry into memory, time, and the emotional landscapes

that shape us. The title—The Calm, the Storm, and the Forgotten In-Between—reflects a central belief in my work: that life moves between periods of calm and upheaval, but what truly defines us are the quieter, often overlooked moments in between.

Through abstract paintings that mimic decay, erosion, and faded surfaces, I try to give form to those in-between states—moments of doubt, silence, tenderness, or quiet fear. These are not grand narratives, but small emotional traces that accumulate over time, leaving marks that are barely visible but deeply felt. Like memory itself, these works are layered, textured, and at times partially obscured—inviting viewers not only to observe, but to reflect on their own place in time.

This exhibit invites a slow gaze. It asks: What remains within us between joy and grief, between clarity and confusion? What do our own inner landscapes look like when we stop to notice the marks time has left behind?”-- Marceau Verdiere