Great Encounter
“My advice is to not always paint a subject from nature. Art is an abstraction; distance it from nature through your reverie and rather imagine the resulting creation.” – Gauguin
Raynald Leclerc was born in 1961 in Saint-Michel-de-Bellechasse, a hamlet located on the River flats. The passage of foreign bound ships and the rhythm of tides remain the scenic reference for his personal propensity to always take a step further and look ahead in his creation as in life.
The painter has been applying this principle through all aspects of his inventive universe for some thirty-seven years. And even more, perhaps, for this series of twenty-five paintings gathered under the title “À vol d’oiseau” A Bird’s-eye View.
La haute-ville, 30 x 36 in
Text by Michel Bois
From May 4 to May 11, 2019
Vernissage Saturday May 4 at 12 pm
À la Galerie Internationale, 87, rue Saint-Pierre, Québec 418 692-1152
Raynald Leclerc was born in 1961 in Saint-Michel-de-Bellechasse…
Contemporary Realism
Every morning, Nancy Galianos starts her day by going up to her vast studio atop her home, never knowing what awaits her. Nothing is planned. The first thing she needs to do is start searching for a subject that will be willing to take shape in her eyes on that day.
The energy generated by the music she almost ritually turns-on in the room first leads her to reflect and reminisce, as it brings forth various emotional memories. At the whim of the happy or sad feelings she experiences, Nancy Galianos grabs a brush, a roller or a spatula and embarks on a new venture the issue of which remains uncertain almost until the very end. Whether there be rain, snow, intense sunshine, heath or cold, her total environment influences and guides her creative gestures.
Summer joy, acrylic, 18 x 14 in
Text by Lisanne Le Tellier
Every morning, Nancy Galianos starts…
Painting a Country
Sunshine fills painter Roger Ricard’s studio. The double doors, with glass panes painted by the artist, open to a coloured explosion of paintings upon paintings with vibrant scenes as heart-warming as a tight embrace in the heart of winter.
With either his landscapes or his fanciful interiors, Roger Ricard invites us into a dreamlike universe filled with fantasy, joy and humour. An experienced painter who is celebrating his 50th year of career, his artistic signature features vivid colours, fluid movements, rhythm of lines and a balanced composition in shapes as much as in tonalities. He is an instinctive artist who interprets his subjects and exaggerates the aspects he loves. “What I paint is not real, it comes from my imagination,” says the artist, which is part of the reason why admiring his works procures such a great feeling.
Couleurs d’automne à mon atelier, oil on canvas, 40 x 40 in
Text by Isabelle Gauthier
Represented by :
Galerie Céleste, Saint-Sauveur
Lumière au pinceau, Shawinigan
Pousette Gallery, Vancouver
Sunshine fills painter Roger Ricard’s studio…
Delight in Discovery
“Our souvenirs fade with the passage of time, but what is memory if not an act of the imagination!” – Lindsay Clarke
A warm and cozy atmosphere. Soft lights deliciously dimmed. Victorian furniture a bit dated in appearance. We are in painter Sophie Lévesque’s secret garden, where flourish souvenirs, sentiments and intimate visions to be shared. A place where time is dissected into an array of visual parcels. Here a bull’s-eye window, there a wobbly chair or table.
Sophie Lévesque juggles with the notions of space and the passing of time, as others do with shapes. In brief, she knows how to reconstruct a universe around objects with a particular and fascinating viewpoint.
Une journée dorée, oil on masonite, 24 x 36 in
Text by Michel Bois
Sophie Lévesque is represented by Galerie Québec Art, 40, rue Notre-Dame, Québec 418-692-8200
A warm and cozy atmosphere…
Forms, Volume and Space
“In nature, everything always has a purpose. If you understand this purpose, you no longer need experience.” – Leonardo Da Vinci
Charles Nadeau has earthly hands and an eye imbued with poetry. Hands that directly connect with clay, wood and stone. He has always been aware of it. But the man has only given free rein to his creativity over the past twenty years, the hazards of life inevitably leading towards one’s ultimate destiny.
Having studied in the fields of Industrial Relations and Political Sciences at Laval University, the man has now retired from a lengthy career in the hotel industry. He is henceforth polishing shapes that allow him to reach the pinnacle of his personal fulfilment. A passion entwined with bohemian romanticism that forever inhabited him, until the appropriate moment.
Fish, bronze 1/8, 18 cm (L) x 5 cm (W) x 13 cm (H)
Text by Michel Bois
Galerie Abel Badeau : 1499, rue Provancher, Cap-Rouge, Qc 418-262-7230
Charles Nadeau has earthly hands and an eye…
Ceramic in artArt in Ceramic
Because it combined the four elements, water, earth, fire and air, ceramics early assumed a symbolic dimension. Beyond playing a utilitarian role, ceramics have, for centuries, demonstrated incredible technical and stylistic creativity. Patrick Le Blond’s works are no exception.
He begins his day by looking out. The sky and the wind will dictate his daily tasks. His workshop overlooks the sea. His eye is drawn into the distance. His hand surrenders to the matter.
Le nid
“Living on an island leads towards refocusing oneself.” Such is how Patrick Le Blond describes his practice since his arrival on the Magdalen Islands almost 20 years ago. A graduate of the Maison des métiers d’art de Québec, the ceramist has never ceased production. Throughout the years, his many travels, his stay in France and his many workshops, Patrick Le Blond has been able to demonstrate the versatility of his working with clay. Although he may today be better known for his large thickly glazed plates with unique motifs, he still retains interest and respect for the small utilitarian pottery he continues to produce on occasions.
Abonnez-vous au contenu de notre site internet pour lire ce texte. Subscribe to our Website content to read moreText by Marie-France Bégis
Atelier d’art Patrick Le Blond : 44, chemin Lapierre, Bassin Iles-de-la-Madeleine (Qc)
Galerie d’art La méduse : 638, route 199 Havre-aux-Maisons Iles-de-la-Madeleine (Qc)
Guilde canadienne de métiers d’art du Canada : 1356, rue Sherbrooke Ouest, Montréal (QC)
Boutique du Musée des beaux-arts du Québec : Parc des Champs-de-Bataille, Québec (Qc)
Because it combined the four elements…
Gallery Portrait
A wholehearted artist
“Blessed is the one who, having learned to live of all of his passions, concentrates his energies in performing the tasks life imposes without worrying about the outcome.” – Beethoven
Nestled among all the beauties the tip of l’Île d’Orléans offers, the gallery-boutique Pétronille is an unavoidable venue for novel discoveries in the field of contemporary art. It is a veritable Ali Baba’s cave where one can find unique pieces created by Québécois artists, such as artifacts, sculptures, paintings, jewellery, works on paper, as well as pieces of clothing by some of the most popular Québécois fashion designers.
Galerie Boutique Pétronille
When she opened her boutique, the island was mostly offering folkloric goods, crafts, some antiques and a vast array of fruits of the season. We are then in 1981. Visitors tour the island, that is, 42 miles of tranquility, to paraphrase the late Félix Leclerc, the most famous resident of the haven whose renown is well-established here and across the seas.
Inside the gallery
Text by Michel Bois
Galerie Boutique Pétronille : 8141, chemin Royal, Ste-Pétronille, Île d’Orléans, Qc. G0A 4C0 418-828-2869
Nestled among all the beauties the tip…
Great Encounters
“To be a painter means modifying one’s senses. Inverse them so as to see with our fingers and touch with our eyes.” – Thomas H. Cook
Being unaffected by a meeting with master painter Albini Leblanc is near impossible, touched as we unfailingly are by his authenticity towards his artistic pursuit. Encounter with a “monument” who never compromises to please the art market and who willingly opens-up to Magazin’Art about his 40 years unwavering passion.
Rue Saint-Jean Baptiste, Sherbrooke, 12 x 24 in
I first interviewed the man at a time when he was living in a majestic ancestral home ideally located facing the St. Lawrence River in St-Jean de l’Île d’Orléans. His eyes and his paintings then reflected the happiness generated by the scrolling landscapes bordering the river, as much as by the reflective ice patches on the narrow Avenue Royale roadway in winter. For this new tête-à-tête, I am meeting with artist Albini Leblanc in his loft-studio located in the heart of Québec City’s artistic sector. An urban location characterized by ancient and stark factories that have been recycled into artists’ workshops, in short the exact opposite to the island’s rural scenery so close to his heart. A lover of the heritage architecture of small Québecois homes waltzing along side-roads as much as of urban street scenes where sunny rays supersede rain and snow, the nomadic artist always follows his star from which he draws inspiration.
Ste Famille D’Orléans, 16 x 20 in
Text by Michel Bois
Images courtesy of Galerie Symbole Art.
Albini Leblanc is represented by:
Galerie Symbole Art, 2770 de Salaberry, Montréal, QC. H3M 1L3 514 336-2332
Galerie Douce-Passion, 42 A, Notre-Dame Street, Québec, QC. G1K 4G1 418 648 – 9292 – info@galeriedoucepassion.com
Galerie Iris, 30 Saint-Jean-Baptiste Street, Baie-Saint-Paul, QC. G3Z 1L9 418 435-5768
“To be a painter means modifying one’s senses…
Artist Profile
“The value of an artist is measured not only through the quality of his work, but equally through the degree of love and perseverance he puts into it.” – Cécile Fortier Keays.
A painter’s career that spans some forty years! With parents that attended Québec’s School of Fine-Arts at the same time as Jean-Paul Lemieux, Dallaire and Paul Lacroix. Jacques Hamel has basked in an artistic universe and has been drawing since the age of 5, always curious about his environment. His hand is firm and steadily develops. Decors and happy atmospheres parade in his head like so many Polaroid pictures instantly revealing themselves to the photographer.
Influenced by his parents’ way of life, but largely diverted by them from the perspective of an artistic career, he nevertheless enrolls, in his a late teens, at the Québec School of Fine-Arts which will later become the Laval University Art School. Somewhat disappointed and embittered at not being able to learn in the manner he sees fit the rudiments and basics of painting, he turns his attention towards the theories and knowledge of graphic design. Antoine Dumas and Claude A. Simard will be his distinguished professors.
Parc des Gouverneurs, 16 x 20 in
Text by Michel Bois
Jacques Hamel is represented by the prestigious Galerie Douce-Passion 42A, rue Notre-Dame, Québec.
The value of an artist is measured not only through the quality…
Delight in Discovery
Driven by an uncommonly intense force of life, Sylvie Drainville creates paintings on wood that attempt to provoke the heart while comforting it, by simultaneous means of made up referents deeply rooted in reality and imaginary parallel systems. Since they adopt empirical rather than classical perspectives, her paintings favor an overall composition consisting of varied superimposed strata reminiscent of the geology of soils.
Lingering eyes are thus able to incrementally penetrate a story that, though universal, becomes personal per one’s interpretation. There is also presence of more intimate areas where one can find shelter and feel safe despite the vastness of the whole. It is important however to approach the work slowly to observe it adequately, one image at a time, in order to slide into the trenches and allow the emotion to permeate the mind.
Text by Lisanne Le Tellier
Driven by an uncommonly intense force of life…
Forms, Volume and Space
“Throughout their career paths, artists are faced with various challenges and demands. These events allow them to set bases for new research, further develop a subject, experiment with new techniques and thus open themselves to new possibilities. Whatever the creative context may be, symposium, artistic residence or public art contest, artworks have a story and reasons to exist.” Nathalie Racicot, Commissionner, De l’idée au geste exhibition 2018.
In the world of art, a creator is often defined according to his artistic practice in the mind of spectators. However, some creators manifest such versatility of genres and maintain a creative rapport with such a variety of materials that the usual characterizing nomenclatures cannot apply. Sculptor, textile artist, multidisciplinary artist and hybrid practice specialist, Carole Baillargeon is simultaneously all of that and much more.
Carole Baillargeon Photo © Stéphane Bourgeois
Text by Marie-France Bégis
To know more about Carole Baillargeon’s body of work:
vimeo.com/215582959/dbefd23d56
www.lafabriqueculturelle.tv/capsules/6927
www.lafabriqueculturelle.tv/capsules/10002
Ongoing exhibitions:
De l’idée au geste at the Maison Hamel-Bruneau, Sainte-Foy-Sillery borough, Québec, from Septembre 18 to December 16, 2018
Ainsi…/ Thus… at the Centre Culturel Franco-Manitobain, CCFM, Winnipeg, from December 13, 2018 to February 7, 2019
“Throughout their career paths, artists are faced…
Popular Art
“To exist a work of art needs neither beauty nor ugliness. It needs to be alive.” – Elmer Diktonius
Genuine for some, disconcerting for others, it is impossible to remain unmoved towards this raw form of art that is becoming increasingly present in public and private collections. True, there is still a long road ahead for these artworks to be considered mainstream but, if it was up to me, it goes without saying that this is a form of artistic expression that should be accessible to all sensitivities.
Popular art, also known as “whittlers’ art” or “tinkerers’ art”, appear to have originated in Québec among our farming ancestors who, during their free time in winter, sculpted and painted pieces of wood into toys for their offspring or for the simple pleasure of creating objects that would elicit fond memories or represent significant events of rural life.
Joseph-Arthur Bouchard, 1920-2010, Baie St-Paul (Charlevoix), Cow, wood
Text by Michel Bois
Rendez-vous des sculpteurs en art populaire du Québec at the Musée de la civilisation in Québec City April 27 & 28, 2019.
Adrien Levasseur’s books can be obtained by phoning 514 386-7946 or emailing adrien@artpopulaire.com
Private collection: Adrien Levasseur – © Photo: Philippe Le Scelleur
“To exist a work of art needs neither beauty…