Robert Lacharite. Painter. Sherbrooke, (?) Quebec. Active mid-20th century.

Robert Lacharite lived in or around Sherbrooke, Quebec. Active in the third quarter of the 20th century; he made very charming and naive landscapes of the country-side around Sharbrooke.

Seen: A signed painting of a farm in the mountains around Sherbrooke, Quebec.

Paul Bernier. Sculptor. In wood and papier-mache. Quebec City, Quebec. Active late 20th century -.

Paul Bernier carves in wood and shapes in papier mache. He makes figures of people in all their trades and activities. From woodsmen and hunters to hockey players and musicians. All his work is painted in bright colors.

An example of his work. The Hunter:

Paul Bernier. Sculptor. Quebec. The Woodsman. C. 1995.

Georges-Edouard Tremblay. Painter. Rug Hooker. Fabric Artist. Pointe-au-Pic, Baie Saint-Paul, Charlevoix, Quebec. Active 1930’s to 1980.

Georges-Edouard Tremblay was a self-taught primitive artist. He was a painter originally, from Baie Saint-Paul and in the mid-1930’s began hooking rugs from his own designs and paintings. He was encouraged to move to Pointe-au-Pic by Alcide Bergeron who was buying almost all of M. Tremblay’s ornamental mats to sell in his gallery; ‘The Little Shop’. (M. Tremblay had perfected the technique of sculpting his mats and they were in strong demand.) He soon opened a school/studio of rug hookers, teaching and supplying them with patterns made from his designs. They were hooked on burlap using dyed wool yarn.

Georges-Edouard Tremblay always signed his mats: “G E T” in the lower right or lower left. He usually put the initials “G T’ on those of his designs that were hooked by others. Some artists hooked the “G T” into the mats and a few hooked their own initials or name into them; Adela Harvey was one artist who signed her name (sometimes just ‘Ida’). There were many others.

Tremblay painted steadily; landscapes of Charlevoix County and village scenes, generally larger ones (18×24 up to 30×40 and even larger. His work was primitive, naive, full of color and often very charming. Many of his paintings were hooked by local workers and sold in galleries and along the country roads-side. I have had one painting by M. Tremblay that was marked on the back with his permission to Adela Harvey to make a hooked reproduction of the painting.

An artist hooking one of M. Tremblay’s designs:

An artist hooking one of G E T’s designs.

A sculpted mat by Georges-Edouard Tremblay:

Georges-Edouard Tremblay. Hooked mat with mark in lower right.

The artist making a pattern in his studio (1930’s):

Georges-Edouard Tremblay. In his studio. 1930’s.

(Photo by Jean-Marie Gauvreau from Les Artisans du Quebec.)

Ref: Artisans du Quebec. Jean-Marie Gauvreau, Les Editions du Bien Public, Montreal, Quebec,1940.

 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;

A bit of background for anyone interested in sources.

Jean Palardy. Author. Painter. Ethnologist. Montreal, Quebec. Active 20th century.

Jean Palardy was an Academy trained artist (he was a student under Charpentier at l’Ecole des beaux-Arts de Montreal) and is listed here, not for his art, but for his influence in the field of naive, and primitive art and artists in Quebec. This influence began in the late 1920’s. As an ethnologist, his studies, collections  and writings about the early traditions, and the early artists and artisans who reflected them, influenced contemporary artists as well as collectors across Quebec and North America. And still does. (Nettie Sharpe and many others come to mind.)

Perhaps best known for his work:”The Early Furniture of French Canada”, published in 1963,  Jean Palardy was an ethnologist as well as an artist and painter. As an ethnologist (working with Marius Barbeau) he studied and wrote about the early traditions in Quebec society including the folk arts and trades; building and cataloging collections of artifacts, stories and songs. He spent some years between the two World Wars living with his wife and partner Jori Smith in Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec (See Reference below) where he collected the work of early naive folk artists and met and worked with the naive artists of the 1930’s as well as  artisans of Charlevoix County. Along with other Academy trained artists he encouraged them with help finding gallery space in larger centers and, in the case of Aurore Benoit and other hooked rug makers, providing subject matter and designs for their ornamental hooked mats.

Jean Palardy was the co-founder of le Societe d’art contemporain and was the first vice-president. His career was many faceted; he was a film maker (producer and cameraman for the NFB) and a Museum consultant for several museums in Canada as well as a designer.

A hooked  example of one of Jean Palardy’s rug designs:

Hooked Silk and Cotton mat from a Jean Palardy design.

The label on the reverse:

Palardy design. Detail of the label on the reverse.

Ref: Smith, Jori. Charlevoix County: 1930. Ottawa: Penumbra Press, 1998. A personal account by Jori Smith of her and Jean Palardy living and boarding with local families out in the country side ‘Rangs’ , or side roads of Charlevoix. Lively and fascinating reading, the book includes illustrations of their own work.

Ref: Website with a biography of Palardy: http://www.ordre-national.gouv.qc.ca/membres/membre.asp?id=49 

Ref: Along Quebec Highways. Tourist guide. Department of Highways and Mines. Quebec. 1930. Pictures and maps of Quebec at that time. Smith and Palardy certainly had a copy as did tourists wandering the back roads of Charlevoix and the Gaspe Peninsula.

Yvon Gamache. Sculptor. Woodcarver. Pintendre, Chaudiere-Appalaches, Quebec. Active late 20th century-.

A former restorer of antique furniture, and certainly a fine color-man; Yvon Gamache began carving people in situations and at work as well as birds and animals. He colors his work beautifully using primary ‘as found’ colors. Shown is a signed pair of book ends decorated with carvings of Pileated Woodpeckers.

Woodpecker Bookends by Yvon Gamache:

Yvon Gamache. Sculptor. Pintendre, Quebec. Woodpeckers.

His mark:

Yvon Gamache. Detail showing his mark.

The Rooster. Another example of the work of Yvon Gamache:

Yvon Gamache. Carving of a Rooster.

Ref: Adrien Levasseur. Website. And:  Sculpteurs en Art Populaire au Quebec, Editions GID, Quebec. 2012.