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Neil Sulier as an Artist:
"The purpose of my art is to capture the
spirit and excitement of the event, whether real or imaginary." Neil Sulier,
a native of Kentucky, has traveled extensively around the world. His
watercolor paintings are impressionistic. Many corporate and private
collections have acquired his paintings.
Sulier, a 1960 graduate of UK's Gatton
College of Business and Economics, has created water colors and mixed media
paintings as a serious hobby since 1979. Sulier, a Lexington native, is
primarily a self-taught artist, occasionally attending workshops with noted
working artists from around the country. He pursued the hobby in his spare
time throughout his career with the family business, Sulier Insurance. He
continued to paint after his retirement from the insurance business in 1987
and opened an event photography business. He also is a part-time inventor,
first launched with the development of a gardening tool called the Weed
Bandit. But painting is his first love. Sulier said he has no favorite
subject matter, and his landscapes range from ocean scenes to heavily wooded
images. He paints from his imagination, taking weeks or months to finish a
particular piece. He always has several paintings in progress so he can hop
from one image to another when he feels the inspiration. Many of his
renderings lean toward the abstract with a dash of impressionistic realism,
and some have a decidedly oriental flair. When he wants a change of pace, he
turns to his inventions.
"Everyday I'm working on something," Sulier
said.
He began painting watercolors almost on a
whim and not because he felt a particular talent with the brush.
"I just started," he said. "But I didn't
have any expectations. I used to go to a lot of the art shows and bought a
lot of art - not expensive art - but I always supported the art shows around
Lexington. I was also the president of the Lexington Art League when we had
our first official location, the studio and gallery in the Woodhill Shopping
Center before Loudon House."
In addition to the Lexington Art League,
Sulier is a member of the Kentucky Watercolor Society and Kentucky
Professional Photographers Association.
Neil Sulier as a Collector:
Works of art consist of all mediums, in
painting and sculpture.
His interest in building the Art Collection
is to have works of art that offer a variety of mediums, styles, and subject
matter. It is important for him, personally, to appreciate every work of art
on its own merit, or, if for no logical reason other than, "I just like it,"
and that is what really matters. "I feel the real value of art cannot be
measured in its market price but rather in the intrinsic value that people
individually derive when they view a work of art. It is impossible to
measure the psychological effect, the hours of conversation, discussion and
the stimulation that art may provide the viewer. It has feeling, expression,
dynamics and life as well as a part of the artist who created it. In an age
of problems and crisis, viewing art can give on a rejuvenation and inner
power to cope with these problems."
Neil Sulier as a Publisher:
 Selected works from the Collection are
being reproduced. Mr. Sulier personally supervises each step in the
reproduction process. Currently, there are about 180 works of art being
reproduced and new releases will be added to the line on a regular basis.
He feels that fine paintings should become
public once painted and are a part of our cultural heritage and should be
available for viewing by as many people as possible.
In art "the original" will always be the
original and a part of the artist. Through good reproduction, access is
given to a much broader audience and results in a greater appreciation of
the artist.
Art has the unique ability to give pleasure
to the artist, to the owner of the original, and to the owners of the
reproductions.
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