Cherished Children:

Beigneux’s Portraits In Oil At Wilton Library

WILTON — The wide-eyed innocence of children is captured beautifully in Ariane Beigneux’s portraits, which will be featured during her exhibition at Wilton Library, “Mostly Children: Portraits in Oil,” on view until January 30.

The Norwalk artist is entering her sixth decade in which she exquisitely portrays the individual personalities of the young people she paints. Her work has spanned several generations with many young subjects having reached adulthood, now commissioning her for their own children.

Three or four times a year she ventures from her Norwalk studio to visit with clients all over the US. She spends several days in the hosts’ homes, sketching and engaging her young charges, to familiarize herself with their personalities before she begins to create their likenesses on canvas. Her technique has been classified as that of an impressionist.

She works with a flexible palette knife that allows her to achieve the right feel to her paintings. According to the artist, “For me, the painting knife technique seems to increase the richness of surface texture. Bits of pure color may be applied with the tip of the knife to make an area vibrant.” She often mixes color directly on the canvas using this method, allowing her to achieve subtle blending and tonality to her work.

Her lifelong interest in art can be traced back to her own childhood years, having grown up in an artistic family. She was born in Roxbury to French parents and was encouraged in the arts by an uncle who had worked with the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, whose notable works included the $20 double eagle gold piece and the $10 Indian Head coin in the early 1900s. Parties, conversations in French and sketching in the countryside were all part of her life.

Her formal training was at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League of New York. She won the Pulitzer Traveling Scholarship for her murals, “Westward Ho!” which became a turning point in her career. That was when she began to concentrate on portrait painting.

She created a series of calendar paintings of children which eventually came to the attention of Portraits, Inc, the well-known portrait gallery and agency, leading to a lifelong association with the organization. Ms Beigneux is a member of the Council of Leading American Portrait Painters, a group of artists that represent the elite corps of contemporary American portrait painting, and has painted the children of prominent Americans such as Andrew Rockefeller and former IBM chairman John Open, among many others. She was honored in 2006 by the Connecticut Society of Portrait Artists with its Lifetime Achievement Award.

Wilton Library is at 137 Old Ridgefield Road (Route 7), in the heart of Wilton. Hours are Monday through Thursday, 10 am to 8 pm; Friday,10 am to 6 pm; Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm; and Sunday, 1 to 5 pm. The library will be closed in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr Day on Monday, January 21.

For directions and additional information, visit WiltonLibrary.org or call 203-762-3950.