Oscar Heon. Sculptor. Wood carver. Cap-de-la-Madelaine, Quebec. Active mid-20th century.
Oscar Heon carved occasionally through-out his life and turned to it full time after he retired. His sculptures were often complex and focused on people and their activities. He was as interested in modern Quebec social events as he was with traditional scenes. He worked with many materials and media, often recycling household things and their parts in his works and if his carved kitchen scene had a pot on the stove it was made by him out of metal. He always coloured his works in high gloss primary colours. He carved toys, Religious figures and often of his pieces were mechanized. Shown below in a link to The Canadian History Museum site is a work called “Morning Exercise” that was inspired by a Telivision program. (This work also appears to be mechanized.)
His work is rarely found outside of museums and a few private collections as his body of work was bought and dispersed, mainly to museums, by Nettie Sharp in the 1970’s.
Ref: Galipeau, Pascale and Peressini, Mauro and Millette, Richard and Carpentier, Paul. Les Paradis du monde : L’art populaire du Québec. Hull, Qc: Musée canadien des civilisations/Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1995.
