A naturalist painter, author of numerous books devoted to the great natural regions of the planet, also an engraver and sculptor. Born in 1958 in France, based in Geneva, Éric Alibert is a gold medalist in French animal artists, laureate of the Fondation de la Vocation, member of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators in the United States.
His painted works use various techniques, including watercolor, ink, drawing and oil and acrylic painting. Some large works also use gold leaf. Cézanne's sentence can be applied to this artist: "It is not so much nature that interests me as the forces of nature." By contemplating and studying the animals, the flora and the landscape, Éric Alibert shares a look that is both poetic and realistic about the wild world - a look that challenges man and his often irresponsible behavior towards the environment, because become insensitive. Some magnificent portraits of inhabitants of the regions visited or details of the historical heritage extend and complete the evocation of the world of the mountains or the desert. Certain oriental inspirations as well as the influence of lyrical abstraction give to its representations of the wild life, with its forms and its rhythms, a singular intensity and depth. Both the line and the colors magnify the fruit of patient observation, both by bringing it back to the essential and by projecting it to another place.
His works have been the subject of several exhibitions, notably at the Natural History Museums of Geneva and Paris. They are present in public and private collections.
On the occasion of an exhibition entitled "When comes the night ..." (Geneva, La Pinacothèque, April-May 2010), Éric Alibert defines his approach as follows: I went into nature to paint the arrival of the night. Sometimes in well-known places, like in front of the Salève, or in more "poor" places, like a simple dirt road or a bush near the river. The protocol is always the same. I settle down with the last rays of the sun and paint a series of watercolors or oils until nightfall. How to "see" a disappearing world? So what do we call the real? And how does our imagination take over to build "another reality"?
Publications
- Alpes. Calligraphies sauvages – éditions Slatkine, 2018
- Cœurs de Nature en Haute-Savoie, co-édition ASTERS-L’AGENCE NATURE, 2016
- Voyage d'un peintre autour du Mont-Blanc, éditions Slatkine, 2011
- Nature souveraine - Le Parc national suisse, avec Pierre Rouyer, éditions du Midi, 2008, 176 p.
- Couleurs du Venezuela. Des Caraïbes à l'Orénoque, bilingue français-espagnol, éditions Somogy, 2007, 173 p.
- Carnet d'un naturaliste amateur en Lubéron, avec Serge Bec, 2007, 125 p.
- Parc naturel régional des Monts d'Ardèche, avec un CD audio d'ambiances sonores, 2007
- Namibie: De l'Okavango aux chutes Victoria. Carnet de voyages dans le Caprivi, éditions Slatkine, 2006, 178 p.
- Archipel des Cyclades, avec François Arvanitis, Jacques Anglès et Anne-Sophie Bourhis-Pozzoli, éditions Nathan, 2005
- Couleurs de Syrie, éditions Somogy, 2004, 150 p.
- Parc naturel régional du massif des Bauges, éditions Gallimard Loisirs, 2001
- Léman mon île, éditions Slatkine, 2000
- Carnets Naturalistes en Provence, éditions Nathan, 2000
- La Cote d'Opale, éditions Gallimard, 1998
- Carnets Naturalistes autour du Mont Blanc, avec Daniel Aiagno et Jean-François Desmet, éditions Nathan 1996
- Guide du jeune naturaliste à la montagne, éditions Delachaux et Niestlé, 1993
- Le grand livre des espèces disparues, avec Jean-Christophe Balouet, préface de Jacques-Yves Cousteau, éditions Ouest-France, 1989, 197 pages