Yvonne Bolduc, Baie-St.-Paul, Charlevoix County, Quebec. Sculptor, Painter

Yvonne Bolduc. Sculptor. Painter. Baie-Saint-Paul, Charlevoix County, Quebec.

Yvonne Bolduc was born and grew up in Baie-St.-Paul in Quebec’s Charlevoix County. Largely self taught; she learned wood carving from her father, made many of her early canvases from Burlap and most of her early paints from ‘as found’ materials including earth pigments and vegetable dyes found in the fields and gardens of the Charlevoix County country-side..

She drew her inspiration from traditional Quebec scenes, the beautiful Charlevoix County and Quebec novels. ‘Maria Chapdelaine’ by Louis Hemon and ‘Un homme et son peche’ by Claude-Henr Grignon are among the best known influences. She worked her images in ‘Seed Paintings” (literally sculpting the image in seeds and coloring them). And in paintings on hand made canvas (using Burlap) using her own hand-made oils and watercolors. Mlle Bolduc also carved in wood (Eastern White Pine), creating incredibly beautiful deep relief sculptures, some up to six feet long by two feet wide. The last are some of Quebec’s finest wood carvings as you will see in the examples shown below the article.

Yvonne Bolduc is one of Quebec’s most important naive artists of the 20th century. She was multi-disciplined, multi-talented and possessed a remarkable vision in all of them. Her sister was the painter Blanche Bolduc.

A short biography of Yvonne Bolduc:

http://cwahi.concordia.ca/sources/artists/displayArtist.php?ID_artist=197

Ref:Charlevoix et ses peintres populaires

Dubé, Richard et François Tremblay, Peindre un pays: Charlevoix et ses peintres populaires, Laprairie: Éditions Broquet, 1989, 160 p. (Collection; Signature Plus), ISBN: 2-89000-105-9

Shown below is an example of one of her large ‘bas relief’ carvings. In Pine wood and painted in water and oil colors, it is signed and dated in the lower right (1954).

Yvonne Bolduc. Baie-Saint-Paul, Charlevoix, Quebec. Bas Relief. Sledding Logs. 1954.

A detail from another Bas Relief by Yvonne Bolduc. Notice the detailed carving of the trees and the Partridge flying into them:

Yvonne Bolduc. Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec. A detail of a ‘Bas Relief’. 1950’s.

Detail from ‘The Doctor’s Visit.’:

Yvonne Bolduc. Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec. ‘The Doctor’s Visit’.

And Sleighing in Winter:

Yvonne Bolduc. Sculptor. Baie-Saint-Paul, Charlevoix, Quebec. 1950’s.

Shown below is an early painting by her on one of her hand-made canvases. Made from sized Burlap. The image was a favorite of hers; a horse-drawn sled of logs in winter. The painting would date from around 1950.

We can imagine the difficulties she faced working with her own-made paints on the Burlap medium. (She appears to have developed a ‘dry brush’ technique in order to deal with it.)