Someone once said that painting and flying have more in common that might be evident at first glance. The processes of taking off and landing are also part of painting. Flying can no sooner be reduced to being simply a means of getting from A to B than painting can be reduced to simply filling a canvas. The pilot who has no pleasure in flying doesn't exist. Just as unlikely is a painter who doesn't care about what happens on the canvas. A healthy portion of fanaticism characterizes both. Flight passengers do not generally realize the enthusiasm and even infatuation a pilot feels for his airplane. Pilots love their birds. It is therefore astonishing that not more pilots feel compelled to give expression to their passion. Saint-Exupéry did, along with others. A tradition of aeronautic painting exists, primarily in the United States. However, a pilot who is able to transmit his joy of flying and of airplanes in such a direct and vivid way is rare. René Beuret's paintings succeed at doing that. They are capable of communicating to the beholder some of the passion that seizes a pilot when he climbs into the cockpit. They vividly render how elegant the form of a wing can be, how a bird's color stands out against the sky. Details are painstakingly and lovingly illustrated and at the same time so artistically presented that appealing compositions emerge from them–paintings, indeed, that only someone who knows why an airplane flies can paint.
Jean Willi
1936
I was born on the 14th of January in Basel.
1941 I liked to draw airplanes, locomotive engines, horses, cars and soldiers. With boards from my sandbox I built a «plane». I imagined that I could fly with it and got laughed at.
1945
My grandfather ordered a «Jelmoli1» airplane construction kit for me. My father helped with the construction. We did not succeed in making it fly. A Liberator, an allied forces bomber, landed at Sternenfeld. I was allowed to go and see it with my parents. In the department store Zur Rheinbruecke there was an exhibition about the Royal Air Force. They showed a documentary about the Battle of Britain. Thanks to my mother's connections, I was allowed to view the film even though I was only nine years old.
1948
I collected empty bottles and sold them. With 15 Swiss francs in my pocket I bicycled to Witterswil. From the airfield there I took a pleasure flight in a Piper J3C. The pilot sat behind me. I saw my family home from above--marvelous.
1952
I was not sure if I should become a technician or a graphic designer. I did a trial apprenticeship at Sauter AG as a draftsman. I earned 50 Swiss francs and bought a model glowplug-engine. Among other purposes, it served as a model in the object drawing class in the general vocational school. I decided to become a graphic designer and attended the four-year diploma program.
1957
I worked for several years in design studios and advertizing agencies in Basel and Zurich and then as a self-employed graphic designer.
1970
I married Charlotte Eggli. I started building model airplanes in the kitchen...and flying them.
1972
I had the chance to take an acrobatic flight in a Zlin Trener.
1978
I quit smoking and finally started learning to fly at the Klemm flight school.
1979
I earned my private pilot license. 1983 I bought a Piper J3C that needed overhauling. The plane was overhauled in the Mulhouse Air-Service (MAS) at the «Aérodrome de Mulhouse-Habsheim». I was allowed to help.
1989
I helped with the rebuilding of a Stampe SV4 at the MAS. The Airfield Mulhouse-Habsheim slowly became my second home.
1993
I began painting in acrylics. 2001 Exhibition in the Restaurant «Zum Schmale Wurf», Basel
2003
Second exhibition in the Restaurant «Zum Schmale Wurf», Basel
Exhibition in the Galerie Etienne de Causens, Paris
2004
Exhibition in the Restaurant Holding at the aviation museum, Dübendorf.
Exhibition in the Hotel Radisson, Basel
2005
Exhibition in the Hotel Radisson, Basel
Exhibition in the Restaurant «Zum Schmale Wurf», Basel
2006
Exhibition at the place of Niki Hasler SA, Ferrari and Maserati
2008
Exhibition at Gallery Carzaniga Basel