Antiques

Most people believe canes and sticks have but one function, that of a walking aid, but there is much more to it than that.

“In the millennial history of mankind, there isn’t an era when the stick hasn’t played a role, sometimes as a working tool, sometimes as a symbol of power or social status, sometimes as a bizarre and ingenious transformable object, more often as a walking aid.” ¹

Text by Michelle and Robert Picard

When Vibrationism Meets the Freedom of Abstract Art

On Exhibit

Ensconced in his lakefront studio in the Appalachian mountains of Quebec, the region where he was born, François Faucher took advantage of the summer months to perfect his new artistic approach.

After fifteen years on a creative path that generated the vibrationist movement, its instigator unveils his most recent foray into abstraction with works that undoubtedly still bear his distinctive signature.

Texte de Dominic Villeneuve 

Vivid colours and curved shapes

Delight in discovery

A man of few words, Michel Mecteau nevertheless speaks volume through his brushes as he reveals a universe essentially composed of brilliant colours and graceful arabesques.

Facing the canvas, the artist’s creative verve is almost boundless, nurtured by an eye that constantly views all that surrounds him in terms of subjects and values. Definitely figurative, his landscapes nonetheless radiate an atmosphere of enchantment rendered in a vibrant palette that goes beyond reality and generous compositions where omnipresent curves lead the eye into graceful waltz. Typical Quebec heritage houses thread along winding roads, forming a lengthy coloured necklace, bordered by imposing mountains with rugged  hillsides.

 Text by Lisanne Le Tellier

Studio visite

After twenty years at his craft, highly regarded pastellist Richard Savoie felt a need to realign his artistic direction, which prompted him to abandon the use of a medium that had garnered him enviable success.

Born in Moncton in 1959 and raised in an artistic environment – works of his uncle Roméo Savoie hang in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada – he studied with Gabrielle Messier, assistant to Ozias Leduc, and Yolande Lefebvre, thus supplementing his innate talent with masterful technical skills that ensured his renown. Then one day he suddenly feels the urge to move on to something else. He abandons pastels and turns to oil painting, which means he has to learn a whole new technique, from the use a brush to harmonizing colours and, most importantly, rendering light.

Text by Catherine Guex

Luminescent presence of the feminine body

Forms, volume and space

“Light can be diffused, fleeting, changing, capricious even. It knows all the tricks. Th us is it difficult to be satisfied with one’s work, however beautiful it may be!” – Rosal de Sainte-Croix, master glazer.

In all forms of advertising, from the simple poster to giant billboards, in cinema and television, on t-shirts and shopping bags, women are most often then not depicted in superficial, toxic and even pernicious fashion in our society. This being said, how refreshing it is to meet a woman, a talented artist, who embraces her freedom of action and innate sensibility and presents us with sculpted creations featuring the feminine body in an effort to shed some light on the notion of objective beauty! Artist Jacinthe Lagueux is passionate about thermoformed glass sculpture and has exhibited her works on numerous occasions in the past. Hence are we able to testify to the evolution of this brilliant artist, in full command of her craft, who diffuses her radiant sensitivity through sparkling luminous works.

Text by Michel Bois

Painting the inner beauty of beings and things

Great Encounter

“Art has for object to infuse sentiments in us rather than express them.” – Henri Bergson

For a great many art historians and critics, inventiveness in painting is a thing of the past since they believe everything has already been done and said, and this, as much in regards to theory and technique as to mediums used and themes developed. Hence, it is the contention of many artists emerging from the academic world that creative painting must necessarily go through the computer mill to ensure some sort of definition of innovation aiming at durability. Th is being said, it is a fact that the art of painting has for many years been subjected to a turmoil of opinions. But wouldn’t true audacity rather consist of letting discussions abate and allowing the mind to impress the human hand movement with the leisurely distillation of emotion and spirituality? Obviously, aspiring to suspend time in its tracks is a concept artist Sean Rudman has totally grasped and mastered.

Text by Michel Bois

likes to pump up his colours

Painting a country 

Doug Purdon likes to paint the sea and landscapes but when it comes right down to it he prefers to paint the sea, partly because of its propensity for atmospherics.

He does the occasional urban landscape and enjoys doing it, but really he prefers the sea, the sky and usually a boat or two or some figures. “I love the water, I love the sea, I love the sky! There is so much colour you can get into them and I love the movement,” says Purdon who usually paints 20-22 paintings a year. “The maritime coasts of Canada, Britain and Scotland are some of my favorite painting places.”

Text by Noel Meyer

Running through until november 4, 2013, at the Art Gallery of Alberta is, Water Into Art: British Watercolours from the V&A, 1750-1950 . The English have always had a special relationship with watercolours and at some points, painting in watercolours was almost a national obsession.

The exhibition consists of 100 works ranging from small sketches to fully executed works and includes all the major British painters from 1750 to 1950. Amongst all the others, are works by William Blake, J.M.W. Turner and William Henry Hunt.

Autumn 2013

Annabelle Marquis

Art in a feminine perspective

To feel simultaneously sucked-in and blown-away while contemplating a work of art is undoubtedly an uncommon analogy. The breathtaking atmospheric works of Annabelle Marquis could certainly be qualified as ethereal but the sensory perception they induce is so complete, it doesn’t require further explanation.

In brilliant displays of colours and contrasts, her paintings harmoniously generate opposite qualifiers: airy while sombre and colourful, soft and forceful, tranquil and agitated. Far from being concerned with these antinomies, the artist gives free reign to her inspiration and readily follows the fl ow of her creative gesture. “I start each work by setting the composition. Once all elements are in place, the painting slowly reveals itself.”

Text by Isabelle Gauthier

Quebec City is a beautiful place, especially during the autumn. I’ve often thought that parts of Old Quebec look exactly like what most people think Paris looks like. Now if that isn’t enough to persuade you to visit one of the oldest cities in North America then this should.

From October 10, 2013 until February 16, 2014 , the Musee National des Beaux Arts du Quebec will be presenting The William S. Paley Collection: A Taste for Modernism.

The exhibition is made up of 62 French Impressionist and post-Impressionist, paintings sculptures and graphic works from the collection of Paley, who along with having a fine eye for art also founded the CBS television network.

Artists featured in the exhibition include Cezanne, Paul Gauguin, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Pierre Bonnard, Georges Roualt and Andre Derain. Paley described the way he felt when looking at his collection as, “voluptuous aesthetic delight.”

Autumn 2013