Canadian Folk Art and Outsider Art
Jean-Claude Boudreau. Sculptor. Woodcarver. Ille de Grande-Entree, Quebec. Active late 20th century.
A carpenter, wood worker and Clam diver; Jean-Claude Boudreau occasionally makes decoys and decorative water fowl carvings. Sometimes in Paint. He does not sign his work.
Ref: Adrien Levasseur. Website. And: Sculpteurs en Art Populaire au Quebec,
Editions GID, Quebec. 2012.
Mary Adams. Fibre artist. Basket weaver. St. Regis, Quebec. Also known as Mary Kawennatakie. Active much of the 20th century.
Mary Adams was a First Nations textile artist. She was born on the Akwesasne Mohawk reserve in Ontario. She learned traditional weaving in Ash and Sweet Grass from her mother. Known for her ‘Wedding Cake Basket’ design she produced increasingly ornate patterns and designs throughout her life. An image of one of her ‘Wedding Cake’ baskets is shown below.
An image of a ‘Wedding Cake’ basket by Mary Adams-Kawennatakie:
Wedding Basket by Mary Adams. St. Regis, Quebec. 1995.
REF:http://www.albany.edu/museum/wwwmuseum/crossing/artist1.htm
L. Bolduc. Sculptor. Quebec. Location unknown. Active mid 20th century.
L. Bolduc. His mark is seen on a pair of sculptures of 18th century soldiers. About 14 inches high; they are remarkably well done in papier mache and wood and well coloured in glossy paint. Both are signed: ‘L. Bolduc’ on the base. They were found in Quebec. There are no other marks and no other information is known about the artist.
L. Bolduc. Two 18th century Soldiers in Papier Mache and Wood:
L. Bolduc. Two Soldiers. Papier Mache. Quebec. 1970’s.
Two detailed images:
L. Bolduc. Two Soldiers. Papier Mache. Quebec. detail.
L. Bolduc. Two Soldiers. Detail 2.
L. Bolduc. The mark:
L. Bolduc. Detail of mark. Two Soldiers. Papier Mache. Quebec.
Frederic Desaulniers. Sculptor Wood carver. Louiseville, Quebec. (Mauricie). Active 19th century.
Beuno Desaulniers was the first generation of the Desaulniers family to make wood carvings. (See entries for other members of this family.)
Arthur Villeneuve. Painter. Sculptor. Chicoutimi, Quebec. Active mid-20th century.
Arhtur Villeneuve, a barber in Chicoutimi, Quebec, was a primitive artist. He worked on any ‘as found’ surface that he could find; including the house that he lived in. Driven by his inspiration, he covered every surface of his home-inside and out-with his impressions of the world and the society around him. His work and his impressions were not well received by his neighbors and fellow townspeople in the beginning; but his visions attracted attention from the world beyond Chicoutimi and he became well known indeed; eventually having a retrospective of his work in 1972 at the Montreal Museum of Fine Art. Arthur Villeneuve was not a naive artist; he was true primitive who worked with ‘as found’ materials, including oil based house paint and used whatever he had at hand or could afford to buy to make a life-long series of very sophisticated and often spectacular works of art.
Arthur Villeneuve also sculpted.
An example of the work of Arthur Villeneuve:
Arthur Villeneuve. A Landscape.
Ref: Francois Gagnon. Arthur Villeneuve’s Quebec Chronicles. Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. 1972.
A link to a National Film Board documentary about Arthur Villeneuve. ‘The Barber of Chicoutimi’:
https://www.nfb.ca/film/villeneuve_peintre-barbier
A link to an article about Villeneuve in the Encyclopedia of French Culture in North America:
