Biography:
Born in 1947 in Riviere-des Prairies, a rural suburb of Montreal, Province of Quebec, Canada.

My playground as a child were the various patches of forest in the vicinity of my parents house. I loved exploring the woods in all seasons whether with friends or alone. The creek held a special attraction as I discovered its many denizens. I have always felt a deep connection with the natural world. The space of the fields and forested areas seemed full of mystery. I always delighted in being in those spaces that seemed to be more like dream spaces than real places. I spent much time dreaming around the fields and in the forest.

I also enjoyed the arts in as much or as little as I was exposed to them in early life. My father painted and sculpted and would take me to the museum once in a while. I imagine that I take after him also in the sense that I have explored various medias during my life as an artist. I majored in art in college and pursued a Bachelors in Fine Arts at “Ecole des Beaux-Arts” which became part of the University of Quebec in Montreal in 1972. I majored in Printmaking, with a minor in Painting.

I left Montreal in 1973 for San Francisco where I did my graduate work in printmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute. Again, the countryside of California beckoned and I spent much time exploring the wilder places of the San Francisco Bay Area. The Art Institute was a very dynamic place and I was exposed too much new art and ideas during the six years I spent there. The many museums and galleries of the area really enlarged my appreciation and understanding of art from a wider, more international point of view.

While at the art institute, I became the printmaking department studio manager and I alsotaught classes in lithography, etching and serigraphy. In the summer of 1979, I worked as teaching assistant to Shoichi Ida, a reknowned Japanese printmaker who was the visiting artist for the summer program. That relationship developed into a friendship which eventually led Mr. Ida to sponsor me for a Japanese Government scholarship for a 2 years to study traditional printmaking techniques at the Fine Arts Department of Tokyo University.

I also studied the martial art of Aikido in Tokyo, a practice I had taken up in the last couple of years of my stay in San Francisco.

The Japanese aesthetics, steeped in nature and permeated by the Buddhist view of the world left a lasting influence on my own perceptions and view of the world. It also had a big impact on my work as an artist.

From Tokyo, I returned, in 1982, to the San Francisco bay area where I continued to be active as an artist both in printmaking and painting.

I moved to North Carolina in 2000 and continue to work mostly with acrylic and watercolor. There have been major changes in my work since moving here. Shape and form have become more organic as opposed to structural, less geometric and linear. I feel my work is more deeply connected to the natural world as various shapes and patterns find their way into the new work I have produced since moving to this area.

Recently, my 5 years old granddaughter, while looking at a wild and dramatic evening sky said “Look, the sky is like Pop pop’s paintings.” I was very gratified that this little one made this connection since the sky is not the subject of my work while it is definitely a source
of inspiration.