Held over Austen

10 x 8", acrylic on cradle aluminium panel

painting #308, 2026

black floater frame with antique bronze front

Roma moulding, made in Italy

A great film has to start with a solid screenplay. Without it, it quickly starts to unravel. Then, the magic begins when the direction, casting, cinematography, editing, score, art direction, costumes, hair, and make-up all work in unison to support the story.

One of those films is the 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, based on Jane Austen's novel published in 1813. Over 20 million copies of this classic work of English literature have been sold since it was first published. The film was directed by Joe Wright with the screenplay written by Deborah Moggach. The piano playing in the background during the opening scene immediately starts to paint a portrait of what's to come. The stellar cast, sweeping score, and visuals are arrestingly beautiful, instantly pulling you into the Georgian Era. The Director of Photography uses breathtaking camera movements to build this world—such as following a housekeeper through a room where all the Bennet girls are assembled, framing shots through windows or capturing two men lifting a white tablecloth that forms a parachute-like shape to dress a table. These minute details are seamlessly edited into the film, creating an art form unto itself. I've watched this film several times over the years and it never gets old.

I've been longing to do a painting featuring Austen's Pride and Prejudice for the longest time. However, I had to find the right book. HomeSense always has a curated selection of classic literature, where Jane Austen is a regular staple, but until last year, this specific title was a rarity. The year 2025 marked Jane Austen's 250th birthday; because of that milestone, last fall I had no less than five different editions of the book to choose from at once. 

 

       

Top photo - Jean-Luc at 25 Gay Street, Bath, where Jane Austen lived for a year following her father's death. Bottom photo - 40 Gay Street, Bath - Jane Austen Centre - May 3, 2010.

My choice landed on an edition published by the Cranford Collection, printed in England, featuring a peacock on the cover with embossed feathers detailed in gold foil. I immediately made a connection to a Robert Held vase I had acquired about a decade ago, which featured a pulled peacock feather design done in iridescent glass. It was only once I started the painting and did a bit of research that I found the backstory about its cover and realized I had hit the jackpot with this book.

Jane Austen never mentions peacocks anywhere in the original 1813 book. In fact, the famous connection between Pride & Prejudice and peacocks didn't start until 1894, when illustrator Hugh Thomson designed the highly collectible and iconic "Peacock Edition" book cover. The 2005 screenplay nods to that famous piece of Austen history by giving a line to Elizabeth Bennet (Keira Knightley) during the Meryton ball scene: "Which of the painted peacocks is Mr. Bingley?"

The original 1894 peacock edition by Thomson also included a staggering 160 pen-and-ink illustrations that were fully integrated into the story. At a time when books only contained a few images, this allowed readers to see every major encounter, adding a whimsical, humorous layer to Austen's satire and comedy of manners. This edition kicked off a style known in the publishing trade as "Cranfordization" (named after a Gaskell novel Thomson also illustrated). It set the blueprint for the modern wave of "pretty books" and decorative cloth-bound editions we see in bookstores today.

I listened to the audiobook on YouTube while I was painting. It is brilliantly read by Karen Savage, who wonderfully changes her voice while reading the lines of Mrs. Bennet and Mr. Collins. Click HERE to listen. The popularity of Austen's work is far-reaching; this 10+ hour audio track has 7.7 million views and counting. The 2005 film remains faithful to the storyline but cuts long passages focusing on the courtship between Elizabeth's sister Lydia and George Wickham, which was fine with me. Jane Austen's writings have so much staying power that a new adaptation of Sense and Sensibility opens in theaters today, October 16, 2026, while a new 6-part miniseries of Pride and Prejudice is slated to release on Netflix on December 3 of this year. Period dramas remain alive and well for the Austenites.

I do have a soft spot for Jane Austen for another reason. Since my mother's name is Emma, I did a painting entitled, "Tea with Emma" back in 2010 to honor the author and my mom. (Acrylic on hardboard, 12 x 12'', 2010, #186) -Private collection

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 Robert Held (b. 1943) is a pioneering American-born Canadian glass artist celebrated for his masterfully crafted blown glass and iridescent finishes inspired by classic masters. Born in Santa Ana, California, Held studied ceramics at the University of Southern California before moving to Canada. Upon graduating, Robert was offered a position as Head of Ceramics at a college being built in Ontario. He accepted the position, becoming the youngest department head at the Sheridan College School of Design. In 1968, he established the country's first college-level hot glass program, also at Sheridan College. Over a legendary career spanning more than 50 years—operating prominent studios in Calgary, later in Vancouver, and finally in Parksville, British Columbia—his art glass has found a home in prestigious collections worldwide, including the Royal Ontario Museum and the Smithsonian Institution

Robert Held in his studio, Parkville, BC - 2015

Shaw TV, Nanaimo, BC

 This is the third time that I have painted one of his stunning vases, with previous pieces completed in 2010 and 2011.

Held over Klimt

12 x 9", acrylic on gessoed hardboard, 2011, #199

Private collection

Held over Monet

12 x 9", acrylic on gessoed hardboard, 2010, #183

Private collection

In 2013, he decided to retire and close his studio located in Vancouver. Upon learning this, that same summer while on PEI, we visited the Dunes Studio & Gallery Café in Brackley Beach, where I acquired two more pieces, including the vase featured in this painting. I later learned that being idle was impossible for him, so he went on to set up a new studio in Parksville, BC. During the pandemic, I acquired a fifth vase adorned with lily pads from his online shop. I treasure them all. In 2024, it was announced that due to health issues, he officially retired from glass blowing at the age of 81. However, he continues to produce art in with vibrant alcohol ink paintings.

The vase in this painting features the "pulled feather" art glass technique, which was popularized and heavily developed by Louis Comfort Tiffany and his team at Tiffany Studios during the late 19th century as part of their signature Favrile glass line. While Tiffany and early 20th-century American glasshouses invented the style, Held adopted and mastered these classical Art Nouveau techniques to create his own highly successful modern interpretations. Since the term "Favrile glass" is a proprietary trademark coined by Louis Comfort Tiffany for his own company, other makers use "iridescent art glass" to describe this stunning style.

By superimposing the pulled-feather glass design over the iconic peacock cover, the painting brings these two masterworks into a single frame—a visual harmony fittingly captured in the piece's title: "Held over Austen."

This painting will be part of my two-person show with Jon Wilkinson entitled:
"Still Lives, Silent Places"
held at the Fog Forest Gallery from October 16 - November 6, 2026.

Opening reception: October 23, 2026, from 4:30 to 6:00 PM.
Gallery hours: Thursdays and Fridays from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, or by appointment.

To acquire this painting, please contact the gallery:
Fog Forest Gallery
14 Bridge Street
Sackville, NB, Canada
(506) 536-9000
Website: https://www.fogforestgallery.ca/

This painting will be part of my two-person show with Jon Wilkinson entitled- 

''Still Lives  Silent Places'' 

held at the Fog Forest Gallery 

from October 16 - November 6, 2026.
Opening reception - Oct. 23, 2026 - from 4:30 to 6pm

Gallery hours - Thursdays and Fridays from 10 am to 5 pm or by appointment. 

To acquire this painting, please contact the gallery. 
Fog Forest Gallery
14 Bridge Street
Sackville, NB, Canada
(506) 536-9000
website- https://www.fogforestgallery.ca/

Canadian Maple Syrup Flask

14 x 11", acrylic on cradle aluminium panel

painting #307, 2026, black floater frame

In May of 2023, Suzanne and I spent a weekend in Thunder Bay, Ontario. We flew there specifically so I could take part in the Fire Fighters 10-Mile Road Race, which was founded in 1910. Along with the Around the Bay 30 km Road Race in Hamilton, ON (1894) and the Tely 10-Mile Road Race in St. John's, NL (1922), it stands as one of the three oldest annual road races in Canada. I’ve now had the pleasure of running all three.

While in Thunder Bay, we visited the Terry Fox Monument. The memorial statue marks the place where Fox was forced to stop his Marathon of Hope on August 31, 1980. It is located approximately four kilometers west of the exact spot where he ended his run, which is marked by a road sign. 

We also visited Fort William Historical Park, which, starting in 1815, served as the inland headquarters of the North West Company—the largest fur-trading enterprise of its time, with posts stretching across North America. While peeking inside their gift shop, I spotted a row of pure maple syrup in flask bottles, produced by a local enterprise from Northern Ontario maples. I was instantly smitten by the graphics of the red label and fascinated that the syrup came in a bottle shape most often associated with hard liquor. I knew right away that I wanted to paint it. However, because we were traveling light with only carry-on luggage, airline restrictions prevented us from bringing fluids over 100ml on the plane. Instead, we had our fill of maple syrup the next morning at our hotel, which featured a waffle maker at the complimentary breakfast.

This past winter, while not the best for accumulation, still allowed me to cross-country ski some 500 km before the snow melted. I did the photo study for this painting on a footbridge along the Porc-Épic trail at Centennial Park in Moncton. I waited for an overnight snowfall so the trees would have a fresh dusting of snow. Many of those trees are slanted and being uprooted, victims of severe bank erosion along Jonathan Creek.

When I started the painting in late March, I decided to send an email to the maple syrup producer to ask for permission to reproduce their label. Perhaps they thought the request was some kind of hoax, because I never heard back. By June, the entire painting was finished except for the label. Against my better judgment, I decided to try ChatGPT to act as a studio assistant for the very first time. I uploaded my original reference photograph and asked it to design a brand-new label based on specific instructions: "Pure Canadian Maple Syrup, 200ml, featuring a rustic sugar shack, a maple tree with a sap pail, and a large red maple leaf—all rendered in sepia tones with retro red lettering." To be completely honest, I was blown away by the two options it generated. I felt the AI design was actually superior to the original commercial label I had initially intended to paint. However, I did make a few changes to simplify it a bit.

I know that using AI in fine art can spark debate, and some might view it as a shortcut. However, I see it as a modern evolution of an age-old tradition. For centuries, master artists—from the Renaissance workshops to modern icons like Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Andy Warhol and Dale Chihuly—have employed studio assistants to help bring their visions to life. In this instance, my assistant just happened to be digital.

Furthermore, as a hyperrealist painter, I am no stranger to the misconception that my work is merely "copying." But if capturing this level of depth were that easy, everyone would be doing it. The AI gave me a flat blueprint for a label, but a computer cannot paint. It cannot layer acrylics on an aluminum panel, it cannot replicate the human eye's understanding of winter light, and it cannot feel the texture of the New Brunswick snow. Translating that digital concept into paint required thousands of deliberate, skilled brushstrokes. The concept may have had a digital assistant, but the artistry is entirely human.

With the political turmoil and rhetoric making headlines south of the border—ranging from proposed tariffs to casual threats of Canada becoming the "51st state"—this imagery stands proud as a defiant symbol of Canadian identity. After all, Canada produces approximately 75% of the world's maple syrup.

This painting will be part of my two-person show with Jon Wilkinson entitled- 

''Still Lives  Silent Places'' 

held at the Fog Forest Gallery 

from October 16 - November 6, 2026.
Opening reception - Oct. 23, 2026 - from 4:30 to 6pm

Gallery hours - Thursdays and Fridays from 10 am to 5 pm or by appointment. 

To acquire this painting, please contact the gallery. 
Fog Forest Gallery
14 Bridge Street
Sackville, NB, Canada
(506) 536-9000
website- https://www.fogforestgallery.ca/

A Crush on Marilyn, an homage to Andy Warhol

 

24 x 12", acrylic on cradle aluminium panel

painting#306, 2026, black floater frame

My daughter-in-law Jessica has a fondness for vintage items and loves to visit curated retro and antique shops. During the fall of 2021, while browsing at Recollections in Salisbury, Jean-Luc sent me a photo from his phone of a vintage, amber-brown Orange Crush bottle with the message: "Would this interest you?" I immediately replied, "Yes!"

Variations of this 7-ounce Orange Crush bottle were produced by Dominion Glass (Domglas) in Canada from 1937 to 1955. The amber-brown glass was designed to protect the soda from light, preserving its delicate fruit flavour and fresh taste. The bottle has some weight to it; it is semi-opaque with a ribbed, beehive-shaped body. The sheer attention to detail and craftsmanship turns what was a mass-produced commercial object into a work of art. It sat patiently in my studio until this year.

During the summer of 2025, I spotted an Andy Warhol 2-in-1 double-sided puzzle of Marilyn Monroe made by Galison—at Dollarama, of all places. While Galison produces a whole line of puzzles, the company was originally founded in 1979 specifically to work with museums, making fine art imagery accessible on well-designed paper and gift products. Art museum shops heavily stock their boutiques with Galison products because the brand holds official licensing partnerships with major art institutions and historic estates—such as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim, and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. They also maintain an expansive licensing partnership with the Andy Warhol Foundation, which has created a vast array of products based on his artwork that I have collected throughout the years.

Over the New Year, while piecing the puzzle together, the narrative for this painting came to me as a play on words for the title. I think the trigger was the lone Marilyn against the orange background, since it matches the exact colour of the diamond shape on the Crush bottle. Flipped over, the other side of the puzzle features twenty-five Marilyns against a blue background, creating a perfect complementary colour match. But would it work as a painting? Was it a substantial enough concept to paint?

While working on the photo study, I experimented with several grounding surfaces. I took a photo using a cheap, light-blue chopping board from Dollarama, which comes in an array of colours in a multi-pack. The instant I saw that blue reflected in the lower ribs of the bottle, I knew I had a winner.

The image used for this puzzle is entitled Twenty-Five Marilyns (1962, acrylic, silkscreen, ink, and pencil, 82 x 66") and is housed at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas. 

Other variations of this work exist, including the one above

in the collection of the Tate Modern, London - photo taken May 1997.

For the aesthetics and symmetry of this composition, I tried to paint the Marilyns as close as possible of being identical. In Warhol's works, since the silkscreens for each colours did not always align or get completely wiped clean between impressions, no two of his Marilyns are exactly alike.

At its core, for A Crush on Marilyn, the true conceptual anchor of the piece lies in the title's double meaning. The physical vintage bottle also represents "Crush" as a commercial brand—a beautiful, heavy, Art Deco style vessel designed to be used, recycled or discarded. Marilyn Monroe was also a beautiful vessel, manufactured by the Hollywood machine and ultimately crushed by the weight of the public's obsessive, one-sided infatuation. Placing this historical bottle against her image bridges two distinct eras of design, turning ordinary commercial artifacts into a deeper commentary on nostalgia, tragedy, and the fleeting nature of fame.

This painting will be part of my two-person show with Jon Wilkinson entitled- 

''Still Lives  Silent Places'' 

held at the Fog Forest Gallery 

from October 16 - November 6, 2026.
Opening reception - Oct. 23, 2026 - from 4:30 to 6pm

Gallery hours - Thursdays and Fridays from 10 am to 5 pm or by appointment. 

To acquire this painting, please contact the gallery. 
Fog Forest Gallery
14 Bridge Street
Sackville, NB, Canada
(506) 536-9000
website- https://www.fogforestgallery.ca/

Root Beer Bottle Caps

 

12 x 12", acrylic on cradled aluminum panel

Painting #305, 2026, black wooden float frame

About 10 years ago, I acquired a lot of 25 unused root beer bottle caps on eBay. Several are vintage, and most feature the old-school cork liners that were phased out during the 1960s. While a few brands are familiar, most are completely new to me. They represent classic, all-American root beer brands, though several are or were available here in Canada as well.

According to my iPad, I completed the original photo study for this painting on December 3, 2016. It has been sitting on the backburner for a decade. Executing a painting like this is an intense exercise in precision and exactitude. It requires meticulous attention to lettering and colors, exploring sheen and shine, and creating the illusion of different types of metal without ever touching silver or metallic paint. For me, this is the purest form of photorealism and hyperrealism—an exploration of both technical challenge, pop culture, and nostalgia.

For the composition, I stacked the bottle caps directly on top of the cover of the Taschen Pop Art book. The book features Roy Lichtenstein's iconic artwork M-Maybe (A Girl's Picture). Because of their placement, his signature Ben Day dots (the tiny red dots) appear discreetly in four distinct areas between the caps. 

The Ben Day dots printing process was commonly used

in vintage color comic books and became a visual hallmark

of Lichtenstein's celebrated style.

There is a deliberate, conceptual layer to this arrangement: by stacking vintage, mass-produced bottle caps onto a book celebrating Pop Art, I wanted to create a direct dialogue between mid-century commercial design and high art. The caps aren't just sitting on a background; they are interacting with the very artistic movement that elevated everyday consumer objects into gallery spaces.

This painting is signed on the bottom right edge of the Frostie bottle cap.

This painting will be part of my two-person show with Jon Wilkinson entitled- 

''Still Lives  Silent Places'' 

held at the Fog Forest Gallery 

from October 16 - November 6, 2026.
Opening reception - Oct. 23, 2026 - from 4:30 to 6pm

Gallery hours - Thursdays and Fridays from 10 am to 5 pm or by appointment. 

To acquire this painting, please contact the gallery. 
Fog Forest Gallery
14 Bridge Street
Sackville, NB, Canada
(506) 536-9000
website- https://www.fogforestgallery.ca/

Hergé Explore NB

 12 x 12", acrylic on cradle aluminum panel
painting #302, 2025, black floater frame

Growing up, I read all of the graphic novels of the Adventures of Tintin. I've always had a kind of adventurous spirit and a desire to travel. I suspect that globe trotting with Tintin through those pages awoke something inside me during those formative years.  

The genesis for this painting was planted back in 2016. My wife, Suzanne, and I visited the Belgian Comic Strip Center in Brussels. Amidst the displays of artefacts, one specific object grabbed my attention: a replica of the Crabe Extra tin from Hergé’s classic Tintin adventure, The Crab with the Golden Claws (Le crabe aux pinces d'or).

Crabe Extra from The Adventures of Tintin, The Crab with the Golden Claws

Belgium Comic Strip Center, Brussels - 2016

Fast forward to two Christmases ago. My son, Jean-Luc, surprised me with a figurine of Hergé himself. The artistic wheels soon began to turn. I started wondering: What if Hergé was to cross the Atlantic again? What if I plunged Tintin's creator directly into a brand-new adventure right here in New Brunswick? To ground this Franco-Belgian comic icon in my home province so he could conceive his next book. 

When I was a teenager in the late 1970s, I spent my summers working at the United Maritime Fishermen (U-M-F) fish processing plant in Cap-Lumière, NB. Instead of painting Hergé’s fictional crab tin, I went searching online for some memorabilia from my youth. I found an image of the exact vintage U-M-F "Fresh Lobster Meat" can that was used to pack and freeze lobster during the time I was there. After downloading the pic, I cropped the Lobster image with Photoshop, found the same fonts for the lettering and proceeded to create my own label. Bought a $1 can of water chestnut which corresponded to the exact size I needed and voila!

 

Top- original UMF Fresh Lobster Meat Can, circa pre 1980

Bottom- facsimile can that I created 

Using that label as my anchor, I meticulously hand-painted the background using a liner brush, tracing the lobster anatomy in a precise, greyscale pattern. The background is an homage to two masters. While the clean, unvarying lines mimic legendary ligne claire (clear line) comic style, the decision to invert the image as a negative—painting them light against a dark field in a rhythmic, repeating grid—is a direct nod to Andy Warhol's pop-art silkscreen prints. It is a full-circle moment: Warhol famously met and painted a portrait of Hergé in the late 1970s, citing the comic artist as a massive influence.

The "Hergé à Québec" exhibition, which ran 

from June 21 to October 22, 2017

Musée de la Civilisation, Québec City

Beside the U-M-F tin stands Hergé himself, sketchpad in hand, seemingly plotting his next mystery while standing atop the 2019 New Brunswick Tourist Guide Booklet featuring the iconic Miscou Lighthouse. This booklet represents a piece of local history in its own right—it was the very last physical guide the province ever printed before going entirely digital.

During the depth of the pandemic, when our province was part of the Atlantic bubble, we took the opportunity to explore our province and vacationed twice in the Acadian Peninsula. Among the attractions is the Véloroute - a 300 km cycling path. I had the opportunity to cycle across the picturesque Miscou Island. 

This is the narrative that I came up with to create this painting. But, after the painting was completed, a bizarre, intriguing twist occurred that this work could easily be reinterpreted with much darker undertones. 

In November 2025, Radio-Canada's investigative program Enquête revealed that between 10% to 30% of the lobster catch in Atlantic Canada is diverted to the illegal black market worth up to $681 million annually. The exposé utilized undercover operations to document how catches bypass mandatory weighing and regulations before being laundered through commercial supply chains and distributed internationally by organized crime.  

During one of the opening scenes of this investigative report is an aerial view of the Miscou Lighthouse (at 2min:26 sec). Click HERE to watch the episode. 

When I introduce a marble in a painting, it often reveals that I am playing a mind game with the viewer. OK, now let's do a reinterpretation of this imagery using this new information-  Hergé plays the role of a Radio-Canada reporter doing the investigation on the illegal lobster catch, using a black background to represent lobsters being sold on the black market with each lobster worth 100 million dollars... 

This painting will part of my two-person show with Jon Wilkinson entitled- 

''Still Lives  Silent Places'' 

held at the Fog Forest Gallery 

from October 16 - November 6, 2026.
Opening reception - Oct. 23, 2026 - from 4:30 to 6pm

Gallery hours - Thursdays and Fridays from 10 am to 5 pm or by appointment. 

To acquire this painting, please contact the gallery. 
Fog Forest Gallery
14 Bridge Street
Sackville, NB, Canada
(506) 536-9000
website- https://www.fogforestgallery.ca/

La Dune de Bouctouche, un hommage à Antonine Maillet

       12 x 12", acrylic on cradle aluminium panel

painting #301, 2025-26 / black wooden floater frame

ENGLISH TO FOLLOW

Il s'agit d'une œuvre jumelle de la précédente, rendant hommage à l'auteure Antonine Maillet. L'emplacement de cette peinture est la dune de Bouctouche, plus précisément l'Éco-centre Irving et sa promenade à Saint-Édouard, au Nouveau-Brunswick.

Les deux livres figurant dans cette composition sont ses deux premiers romans. "Pointe-aux-Coques", publié en 1958, lui a valu le prix Champlain, suivi de "On a mangé la dune" en 1962. Ce second ouvrage marque une rupture stylistique majeure : Antonine Maillet commence à s'éloigner du français classique pour laisser la jeune protagoniste du roman s'exprimer avec ses propres mots. Cette démarche a ouvert la voie à l'usage du parler acadien qui allait plus tard assurer à l'auteure une renommée internationale. Ces deux romans sont semi-autobiographiques ; le village fictif de Pointe-aux-Coques s'inspire de Richibouctou-Village et du Cap-de-Richibouctou (Cap-Lumière).

Peu après avoir obtenu un baccalauréat es arts , elle a rejoint la congrégation des Sœurs de Notre-Dame-du-Sacré-Cœur en 1950, à l'âge de 21 ans. Elle a fait partie de cette communauté religieuse de 1950 à 1967. Au début de sa carrière, tout comme ses parents, elle a exercé le métier d'enseignante. Son premier poste d'enseignante se situait à Cap-Lumière, vers 1950. Selon mon défunt père, l'école se trouvait à environ 400 mètres de la maison où j'ai grandi. Ma marraine, alors nommée Rachelle Cormier, a enseigné à ses côtés durant cette période. Cormier était également le nom de jeune fille de la mère d'Antonine Maillet, laquelle est la narratrice de son premier ouvrage.

Ces livres existent bel et bien individuellement, mais sont réunis en un seul volume pour cet édition. Bien que son éditeur canadien soit Leméac (Montréal), cet ouvrage a été publié en 1977 par Marabout, en Belgique. Je l'ai commandé en ligne auprès d'un libraire français spécialisé dans les livres usagés. Toujours à l'aide de Photoshop et de quelques astuces de numérisation, j'ai créé deux nouveaux dos de livre et ensuite recouvert un second bouquin de même format pour réaliser "On a mangé la dune".

Bien entendu, les fleurs lui sont destinées. Quant à la boîte de soupe Campbell's, je tenais à y ajouter une touche d'humour et une référence à la cuisine acadienne. La boîte de soupe Campbell's est évidemment un clin d'œil à Andy Warhol. Situé à Camden, dans le New Jersey, le siège social de Campbell's se trouve juste de l'autre côté du fleuve Delaware, à seulement 4 km (2,5 miles) de Philadelphie. Si le périple d'Évangéline, l'héroïne de Longfellow, s'achevait à Philadelphie, Pélagie — personnage du roman "Pélagie-la-Charrette" d'Antonine Maillet — y arrive en 1776, au chapitre 12. C'est là qu'elle rencontre Beausoleil Broussard, avec qui je partage un ancêtre commun : Michel Sansoucy Richard, venu de France entre 1651 et 1654.

Antonine Maillet s'est éteinte le 17 février 2025, alors que je travaillais sur cette peinture. Par un curieux hasard, ce matin-là, en descendant l'escalier, j'ai entendu mon épouse Suzanne — qui regardait la chaîne Radio-Canada ICI Télé — annoncer la nouvelle de son décès. En tournant les yeux vers l'écran, j'ai vu une image figée de l'écrivaine marchant sur la même promenade en bois que celle figurant dans mon tableau. Bien qu'elle ait passé la majeure partie de sa vie d'adulte à Montréal, elle possédait un magnifique chalet en forme de phare, située à quelques kilomètres seulement de cette promenade.

Elle était la tante de Cécile Maillet, l'une de nos amies les plus proches, également infirmière. Je me souviens avoir brièvement rencontré Antonine Maillet au début des années 1980, chez ses parents. Je dois beaucoup à Cécile. À l'automne 1986, c'est elle qui m'a convaincue de suivre, à ses côtés, un cours de dessin de perspective de dix semaines enseigné par Sylvain Arseneau. La dernière séance était consacrée à une initiation à la peinture acrylique. Quelques mois plus tard, je réalisais ma première toile en toute autonomie. Elle a également joué un rôle majeur dans mon éveil spirituel. Malheureusement, alors qu'elle s'apprêtait à prendre sa retraite comme d'infirmière, elle a été percutée par l'arrière par un camping-car lors d'une sortie à vélo et a subi un traumatisme crânien majeur. Elle est décédée l'an dernier, à l'âge de 69 ans, après avoir passé plusieurs années en établissement de soins de longue durée.

Antonine Maillet et sa nièce Cécile partagaient le même type d’idéalisme : elles étaient des femmes indépendantes, anticonformistes — des esprits libres.

Cécile Maillet

L'un des aspects de la peinture que je trouve particulièrement difficile est la représentation d'éléments flous. Lorsque j'ai réalisé l'étude photographique sur place pour ce tableau avec mon Google Pixel 7, seuls les livres et les fleurs étaient parfaitement en focus; j'avais omis de photographier la structure elle-même, notamment les rampes et les planches de la passerelle. J'ai eu beaucoup de mal avec la zone située immédiatement à gauche, derrière les livres. La semaine dernière, j'ai décidé de retirer le vernis de cette partie à l'aide d'essence de térébenthine distillée pour retenter ma chance afin de créer une image plus harmonieuse. C'est là que mes compétences en dessin de perspective m'ont bien servi : j'ai en effet réinventé cette section en y intégrant une rampe totalement différente.

Ces deux tableaux rendant hommage à Antonine Maillet ont été conçus à l'origine comme soumission au programme d'acquisition pour la Banque d'œuvres d'art du Nouveau-Brunswick (2026). Malheureusement, ils n'ont pas été retenus par le jury. Cette exposition leurs donne une fenêtre de voir le grand jour. 

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A postage stamp of Antonine Maillet was issued by Canada Post on November 27, 2024. One has been affixed on the back of each frame. 

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Un timbre à l’effigie d’Antonine Maillet a été émis par Postes Canada le 27 novembre 2024. L’un d’eux a été apposé au dos des deux cadres.

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This is a sister painting of the previous, paying homage to author Antonine Maillet. The setting for this work is at the Bouctouche Dune, more precisely, the Irving Eco-Centre and Boardwalk in St-Edouard, NB. 

The two books for this composition were her first two novels. "Pointe-aux-Coques" published in 1958 earned her the Prix Champlain followed by "On a mangé la dune" in 1962.  The second work marks a crucial stylistic break. Antonine Maillet begins to detach herself from classical French, allowing the young protagonist of the novel to express herself in her own words. This paved the way for the use of the Acadian dialect that would later bring the author international renown. These two novels are semi-autobiographical. The fictional village of Pointe-aux-Coques is based on Richibouctou-Village and Cap-de-Richibouctou (Cap-Lumière). 

Right after earning her bachelor's degree. Maillet joined the congregation of the Sisters of Notre-Dame-du-Sacré-Cœur in 1950 at the age of 21. Her time in the religious community spanned from 1950-1967. Early in her career, like her parents, she started out as a teacher. Her first teaching job was in Cap-Lumière around 1950. According to my late father, that schoolhouse would have been located 400m from the house I grew up in. My godmother, then Rachelle Cormier thought with her during this period. Cormier was also Maillet's own mother's family name who is the narrator of her first offering.

These specific books do exist individually, but in one single volume for this edition. While her Canadian publisher is Leméac in Montréal, this book was published by Marabout in 1977 out of Belgium. I ordered it on-line from a French used book retailer. Again, with the help of Photoshop and some scanning tricks, I created two new spines and wrapped a second book of the same size to create "On a mangé la dune". 

Of course, the flowers are for her. As for the Campbell's soup can, I had to add some humour and Acadian cuisine in the mix. In English, these titles translate to "Clam Point" (Pointe-aux-Coques) and "We Ate the Dune" (On a mangé la dune), while "Clam Chowder" is the translation for Chaudrée aux coques. Of course, the Campbell's Soup can is a wink to Andy Warhol. Located in Camden, New Jersey, the Campbell's headquarters sits just across the Delaware River - only 4 km (2.5 miles) from Philadelphia.  While Longfellow's Evangeline's peril ended in Philadelphia, Pélagie in Maillet's "Pélagie-la-Charette", arrives in Philadelphia in 1776 at chapter 12. Here, she meets Beausoleil Broussard with whom I share the same ancestor- Michel Sansoucy Richard who immigrated from France circa 1651-1654.  

Antonine Maillet died on February 17, 2025 while I was working on this painting. Ironically, coming down the stairs that morning, my wife Suzanne was watching Radio-Canada ICI Télé and announced her passing. As I looked at the TV, the image on the screen on pause was her walking on the same boardwalk as in my painting. While she had lived most of her adult life in Montreal, she owned a beautiful cottage in the shape of a lighthouse only a few kilometers from the boardwalk.

 

 

She was the aunt of one of our closest friend and fellow nurse Cécile Maillet. I remember meeting Antonine Maillet briefly during the early 1980's at her parent's house. I owe a lot to Cécile. During the fall of 1986, it was her who coaxed me to join her in taking a perspective drawing course over a 10 week period with Sylvain Arseneau. The last session was an introduction to acrylic painting. A few months later, I would complete a first painting on my own. She also played a great role in my spiritual awakening. Sadly, pending her retirement from nursing, she was hit from behind by a motorhome while on a bike ride and suffered a major brain trauma. She also passed away last year at the age of 69, after spending several years in a nursing home. 

Antonine Maillet and her niece Cécile shared the same kind of idealism: they were independent, nonconformist women—free spirits.

One aspect of painting that I find particularly difficult is painting anything that is out of focus. When I did the photo study on site for this painting with my Google Pixel 7, only the books and flowers were in full focus. I omitted to take pictures of the structure itself, railings and deck board. I truly struggled with the immediate left section behind the books. This past week, I decided to remove the varnish on that section of the boardwalk with distilled turpentine and give it another go in order to create an image that was more harmonious. This is when my perspective drawing skills served me well. I did re-invent that section with an all-together different railing.

These two paintings paying homage to Antonine Maillet were initially conceived as a submission to the 2026 New Brunswick Art Bank acquisition program. Unfortunately, they were not retained by the jury, but this exhibition still gives them a window to see the light of day.

This painting will part of my two-person show with Jon Wilkinson entitled- 

''Still Lives, Silent Places'' 

held at the Fog Forest Gallery 

from October 16 - November 6, 2026.

Gallery hours - Thursdays and Fridays from 10 am to 5 pm or by appointment. 

To acquire this painting, please contact the gallery. 
Fog Forest Gallery
14 Bridge Street
Sackville, NB, Canada
(506) 536-9000
website- http:/fogforestgallery.ca