A creative spark ignites an artistic tradition in the USA

For the past several years, Lesaffre has intentionally provided access to the art world through art installations at its different sites. The Lesaffre Campus in France has two works of art by artists Bénédicte Dubart and Manon Thirriot. Other sites around the world recognize the importance of art in the workplace, such as Cedar Rapids, Milwaukee and Dothan in the USA.

A Maisons-Alfort, une peinture nous replonge au cœur de l’Histoire
It started simply. In Spring 2022, colleagues were brainstorming ideas for a retirement present for George Parry. George had worked for Lesaffre more than 30 years and was the manager of our Cedar Rapids (Iowa) plant.  It was their intention to offer him something special to remember the factory, our industrial site and the hundreds of colleagues with whom he worked over the years.

The idea came to work with a local artist, Paul Marlow, to make a painting of the impressive facility George helped to build during his career.  Paul visited the site to discover Lesaffre’s activities and values, and understand the vision behind this thoughtful gift.

“Some creativity was necessary to get the reference photo for this painting, I had to get permission from the Eastern Iowa Airport to fly the drone I used to take the photo.” recalled Paul Marlow

“I worked hard to give this painting an impressionist feel, in the spirit of Claude Monet. I’d like to believe that Monet himself would have painted this subject just like this … if he had access to drone technology!”

The results were so appreciated by George Parry and the employees of Cedar Rapids that additional copies of the painting – this time in a massive format – have been created and are now on display in Cedar Rapids and Milwaukee.

And this is becoming a tradition: For the recent retirement of Dennis Barry, the Director of our Dothan plant, Paul Marlow made a new creation!

To learn more about the amazing work of Paul Marlow: About the work of Paul Marlow — PAUL MARLOW (squarespace.com)