Eugene Poulin. Sculptor. Woodcarver. Painter. St-Joseph-de-Beauce, Quebec. Active mid 20th century.
Eugene Poulin was a naive artist who sculpted people and animals in the world around him.
In his interview for “Les Patenteux” he said that he had sold some of his work but most of it was given away to people he liked. He carved cultural figures like Seraphin and other characters from Quebec folklore, religious figures as well as others that came ‘out of his head’. His work was sometimes coloured and sometimes varnished. He made a very few paintings but said that wood carving was his strength. His carving style was distinctive; the people that he carved had elongated heads, slightly triangular with very strong expressions (his carving of the ‘avocat Cliche’ looks very much like a neighbor of mine). Anyone with an unsigned work by Eugene Poulin will have no trouble recognizing the artist’s work from his carved faces. He rarely signed his work.
Ref: Les Patenteux du Qubec. Louise de Grosbois, Raymonde Lamothe and Lise Nantel, Les Editions Parti Pris, Montreal, 1978.
Ref: Jean Simard, Pour Passer Le Temps: Artistes Populaires Du Quebec, Gouvernement du Quebec, Ministere des Affaires Culturelles. 1985.
Ref:Blake McKendry, An Illustrated Companion to Canadian Folk Art (1999).
