Pine Avenues | Lorne Bouchard
Oil on Masonite
Size: 12" x 16"
Price: SOLD
Details: Oil on Masonite, dated 1956. Signed lower right.
Titled, dated and signed on verso.
Remnant of original Montreal Museum of Fine Arts exhbition label on verso
Framed, measures 18.5 X 22.5 inches
Provenance: Private Collection, Newfoundland.
Note: This painting depicts 1420 Pine Avenue West (Avenue des Pins), Montreal, which sits beside the home of the late Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.
Additional Information and Photos Available Upon Request
Lorne Bouchard travelled widely across Quebec
and Canada often painting works in one sitting
Biography
Lorne Holland Bouchard was born in Montreal in 1913, and began drawing as a boy.
Lorne Bouchard studied drawing under Wilfred M. Barnes, RCA, at the Barnes School of Art in Montreal, and undertook further studies at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.
Lorne Bouchard was encouraged by artist Clarence Gagnon to paint scenes of Quebec; Canadian artist Maurice Cullen was also an early influence.
As a youth, he worked in Northern Quebec and Northern Ontario on hydro projects and surveying, and he later said those landscapes and experiences impressed him and influenced his art.
Exhibited at age 18
At the age of 18, Lorne Bouchard exhibited in a jury show with the Royal Canadian Academy (RCA). He also exhibited a painting painted at age 16 in an exhibit at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
Lorne Bouchard went on his first sketching trip in 1933 in the Gaspe region of Quebec. This was the first of dozens of such sketching trips, where he quickly worked in oils en plein air.
The young artist worked with a palette knife and brushes and continually searched for faster drying mediums for outdoor painting. He worked quickly to catch the effects of sunlight and atmosphere and finished his painting in one sitting.
Worked as an Illustrator
To earn a living, Lorne Bouchard worked as a label designer and assistant art director at a manufacturing company in Drummondville, Quebec, and later worked as an illustrator at several Quebec-based firms. He began working as a freelance illustrator in 1952. He illustrated advertisements by some of Canada’s major firms, including Seagram’s and Dominion Life,
He was elected as an associate member of the Royal Canadian Academy in 1943 and became a full member in 1960.
Lorne Bouchard painted in a variety of mediums: watercolours, tempera, but mostly in oils. He worked as well, in clay, wood, stained glass, metals and mosaics.
He continued to paint outdoors across Canada, but especially in the Laurentians, the Gaspé, the wild and desolate landscapes of British Columbia and, later, the Arctic. He did his landscapes in a refreshing style which caught the mood of the day in a combination of realism and impressionism.
Painted in the Arctic
On one painting trip, Lorne Bouchard took a 3-week cruise up the Mackenzie River in the Northwest Territories, travelling 1,200 miles to the Beaufort Sea in the Western Arctic. The trip was documented in Weekend, a popular magazine of the day.
In 1969, Lorne Bouchard was offered a chance to travel to the Eastern Arctic by the aircraft company Nordair. He painted 24 small oil paintings, along with countless drawings, sketching from the co-pilot’s seat. Stops included Cape Dorset and Baffin Island.
A second trip to the Eastern Arctic the same year was filmed, leading to the documentary: Lorne Bouchard, an Artist’s Impression of the Arctic.
Lorne Bouchard had numerous solo shows at prominent Montreal art galleries, and his works were also exhibit in many group shows.
During the 1970s, Lorne Bouchard made numerous sketching and painting trips: to France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Mexico, the Arctic on several occasions, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and many parts of Quebec.
Lorne Bouchard’s art is held by numerous public, corporate and private collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
He died in 1978 at age 65.
Sources: A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, volumes 1-8 by Colin S. MacDonald, and volume 9 (online only), by Anne Newlands and Judith Parker. National Gallery of Canada, Artists in Canada database.
