Val David,
Michèle Campeau, Christine Marchand and Louise Bloom-Spunt
to Oct.15th
La Maison du Village
2495, de l¹Eglise
Tel.: 819-322-2900 xt 238
http://www.culture.val-david.qc.ca/
Michèle Campeau¹s L¹arbre dans le paysage, a collection of
evocative collography, etching, and mixed media on handmade paper,
demonstrates her prowess as a master printer. Her imaginary
landscapes have titles such as Mémoire d¹un arbre, L¹arbre un
être immobile, Les rêverie d¹un arbre and feature the tree as
a metaphor. The trees she paints are immobile, feeling, living beings,
and could be a firm support for land and humanity.
Christine Marchand¹s poetic collection entitled Entre ouvrir et
contenir, combines print-making with painting and installation. The
human heart and flowers represent a private, life-protecting space,
something enclosed within. For her installations, Marchand
incorporates branches, roots, twigs, papier mâché hearts, painting,
actual printing plates prints collaged together.
Louise Bloom-Spunt, who graduated from Sir George Williams University in
1967, presents Monuments. She took a year away from teaching to
concentrate on old masters painting techniques, and this required a
complete transformation of her work process. The result is a collection
of oil paintings. These portraits, some of which are life size, are
done in traditional camaïeux, combining raw umber, ultramarine
and white. The colour scheme is foggy yet clear, giving the paintings
an aura of old faded photographs. This makes the images look even more
nostalgic than the photos she worked from. The paintings, some of
family and friends, are quite personal, yet one can share in the
universal warmth that emanates from scenes such as Louise as a young
girl with her uncle Irwin and Louise, (2004). Louise Bloom-Spunt
has succeeded in enhancing facial expressions and body language taken
from old photos. This is particularly evident in her painting Ronnie
Dancing (after a photo taken at Rose¹s Café in Morin Heights in the
early 1980s). The painting is so vivid that I kept on going back to
look at it. As Louise Bloom-Spunt says: ³These monuments are in the
museum of my life ... tender moments that recall the fleeting nature of
life. The images as monuments serve to remind us that if we do not
remain conscious and open we miss these moments. All we really have is
³now²... These images intend to remember in the way that we erect
monuments in the Jewish faith to those that have passed ³ so as not to
forget.²
- Ilania Abileah
Photo caption: Louise Bloom-Spunt, Ronnie Dancing, 2004, oil on
canvas, 44.5 x 89 cm. Photo: Courtesy of Louise Bloom-Spunt
Photo caption : Christine Marchand, Entre la Terre et le ciel,
2004, installation, acrylic on engraved wood, paper, roots, and earth.
Photo: Ilania Abileah.
