Biography
Canadian painter, Clarence Bourgoin was born in 1946 in Saint-Leonard, New Brunswick. He lived in the province of Quebec for 30 years where he earned, in part, his living as a guitar player in addition to creating his paintings, to eventually come back to his native New Brunswick with his family.
When he was a little boy, Clarence loved drawing, and would doodle pretty much everywhere he could: in his catechism workbook or on his mother’s table clothes. One day, he saw advertised the workshop of a painter that impressed him: Claude Picard, Painter. Sitting on the porch of his childhood home, balancing his seven-year-old skinny legs, he was considering what he saw when declared that this was what he was going to be in life: a painter. “I knew it, I felt it in the most profound recesses of my small being,” he says, recalling this moment of revelation. “They say there’s only one such moment in life. Well, this was it for me.” Claude Picard was to become one of the painters whose work he admired the most in his life, much more than anything he came to discover in Europe.
At 16, Clarence Bourgoin sells his first painting for $50.00 to a family living in Saint-Leonard, a painting that would be evaluated at $4,500.00 today.
After one of his numerous anecdotes, he is nicknamed “Landscape Hunter.” He is a figurative landscape painter part of the artistic movement of expressionists. His venerable career counts as many participations to symposiums of figurative art in Quebec as there are at an international scale, not to mention prizes and honors, as well as group and solo exhibitions in many international and national art galleries.
To develop art and culture in his native village of Saint-Leonard, in 2004Clarence establishes a new symposium that he calls the Rendez-vous des Artistes. This symposium has become the biggest gathering of painters and sculptors of Eastern Canada, and Clarence is still active within its ranks as an artist, president and founder. Furthermore, he has been president of honor to more than 30 symposiums around the province of Quebec.
Clarence Bourgoin is listed at the Fine Art Museum since 1987. In 2005, an article is written on his work as an artist in the International Artist Magazine, titled Master Painters of the World Canada Showcase 2005. He received a prize for his body of work from the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Paris, while exhibiting at the Carousel of the Louvre in 2007. These are only a few of the many artistic accomplishments of his long career.
Although he mostly works in Eastern Canada, his body of work can be found throughout Canada, the United States and in Europe. Many articles and illustrations of his work are published nationally and internationally.
Artist’s statement
Clarence Bourgoin
The Landscape Hunter, that’s how he is known. Member of the Figurative Art Institute, Mr. Bourgoin has traced quite the roadmap. A painter for 60 years and listed at the Fine Art Museum of Canada, he has exhibited both nationally and internationally.
Artist’s statement
As he was going to the Museum of Edmonston, New-Brunswick, for a solo exhibition, Clarence Bourgoin notices that the hunting season is well alive, as it is mentioned everywhere in the city. At the Museum, he is asked if he has a title for his exhibition. Taken aback, Mr. Bourgoin says that he doesn’t hunt per se. Rather, he hunts landscapes. Thus the exhibit was titled « The Landscape Hunter, » and that’s how he’s been referred to ever since the local media published his very successful exhibition.
Clarence Bourgoin is always looking for his next painting, while travelling the roads of his native New Brunswick, and Quebec. He observes everything around him, to a point where he could become dangerous while driving, as he might suddenly stop at the sight of a landscape that inspires him enough to sketch it. « When I see a magnificent scene, » he says, « I hit the brakes and I stop to paint. »
His paintings illustrate landscapes from different regions of Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Iles-de-la-Madeleine. For a long time, he painted scenes from the region of Charlevoix, where he says he put aside the rules of landscape painting, because the light of this region contradicts every concept of landscape painting such as atmospheric perspective: when a cloud passes by and blocks the sun on the foreground, that mountain on the horizon, which is supposed to be almost non existent, suddenly becomes alive. It’s there, all black, more imposing than what it should be.
Clarence Bourgoin painted portraits for a long time, and then he switched to still life painting, but it was landscape painting that always attracted him. He would often paint outdoors, in nature, and it became only natural to paint what he was seeing, this magnificent nature. He never regretted that choice, and he always finds his muse in nature, even after 60 years of career. « I don’t forget the principles of painting still lives: in nature, what was the neck of a bottle becomes the bell tower of the church, and thus, the composition of a landscape is very much the same as that of a still life. »
The paintings of Mr. Bougoin have a unique style, which can be classified as expressionist, and he doesn’t try to copy a landscape, but to give it a soul with a brush stroke that is unique to him. His artwork has character, a bit in the image of the artist who relishes life, colors, and his outspokenness. He is viewed as an artist, and not simply a painter.
« There can be thousands of people who will reproduce or copy what they see, and they make very nice paintings. For me, to get to a site, install my painting material and feel the surrounding atmosphere, the cold as well as the heat that permeate me, and sketch if my time is limited, I love it. Back in my studio with my drawings, or paintings, I reinvent these magnificent landscapes modifying them as my creativity dictates; the idea is to make them better, more beautiful, than they were before. »
For Clarence, it’s important to always aim further, to keep alive as an artist. Every painting that he makes, he paints it so that it’s more beautiful than the one before.
« My passion, it’s painting. You can’t disguise yourself as an artist: you are, or you are not. When I paint, I lose myself completely, and I forget all the day-to-day worries and problems. Once my color is applied, I never go back to it. I work my lights and my shadows so that they will be in perfect balance with one another and the ambiance, and in harmony with the colors. »
C.V.
Education
| 1990, 1993 | Mission Renaissance, Montréal – Line Drawing, Light and Shadows – Painting |
| Self-taught |
Honours, Prizes and Mentions (selected)
| 2019 | Academician Officer and Amabassador of the Arts of New Brunswick, Mondial Art Academia of Paris |
| 2018 | Inauguration of Clarence Bourgoin Parc, with bronze monument of Clarence Bourgoin |
| 2016 | Master in Fine Art – AIBAQ |
| 2016 | Advocate For The Arts, Sheila Hugh MacKay Foundation |
| 2014 | Member Emeritus – IAF |
| 2009 | Diploma of LIPIR’RÉVÉ di LINCINT Brotherhood |
| 2009 | Certificate granted by the College of Mayors and Aldermen of Lincent-Racour-Pellaine, Province of Liège, Belgique |
| 2009 | Certificate of Recognition from the Mayor of Hévis, Hongrie |
| 2007 | Inducted Member of the St-Christophe Guild, Lincent, Belgique |
| 2002 | First Mention, Rencontre des Arts |
Galleries and Representation (selected)
| 2018 | Galerie du Vieux St-Jean |
| 2015 | Galerie d’art Meraki, Paquetville, NB |
| 2013 | Galerie Hang’Arts, Jonquière, QC |
| 2010 to 2011 | West End Gallery, Edmunton, AB and Victoria, BC |
| 2010 | Galerie d’art Christian Trudel, Joliette, QC |
| 2009 to 2013 | Galerie Hervey Lessard, Tadoussac, QC |
| 2009 to 2010 | Galerie Pépin d’art, Laval, QC |
| 2007 to 2008 | Galerie Mosaïque, Dieppe, NB |
| 2007 | Galerie d’art les imagies, Sutton, QC |
| 2005 to 2006 | Galerie d’art Suzanne Robert, Mont-Tremblant, QC |
| 2004 to 2009 | Galerie du nouveau monde, Montreal, QC |
| 2002 to 2004 | Light House Gallery, Moncton, NB |
| 2002 to 2003 | Kensington Fine Art, Calgary, AB |
| 2001 to 2006 | Seacoast Gallery, St-Andrews, NB |
Solo Exhibitions (selected)
| 2015 | Le Capitol Theatre of Moncton |
| 2009 and 2013 | Historical Museum of Madawaska, Edmunston, New-Brunswick |
| 2007 | Hotel Delta Beauséjour, Moncton, New Brunswick |
| 1999 | Regional Museum of Vaudreuil-Soulanges |
| 1991 | Museum of Restigouche, National Centre of Exhibition, Campbellton |
International Exhibitions (selected)
| 2006 to 2010 | International Symposium of Racour, Belgique – André Coppens |
| 2009 | Héviz Budapest, Art Harris, Hongrie |
| 2007 | Carrousel du Louvre, Parie, France |
| 1996 | Conservatory Aristide Bruant, Andrézieux-Bouthéon, France |
Group Exhibitions (selected)
| 2003 to 2019 | Rendez-vous des artistes, Saint-Léonard, Nouveau-Brunswick |
| 2010 to 2019 | Symposium of the Arts of Drummondville |
| 1998 to 2015 | Symposium of Villages en Couleurs, L’Anse-Saint-Jean |
| 2005 to 2015 | Symposium Home of the Great Painters of Chesterville |
| 2003 to 2013 | Symposium of the Arts of Danville |
| 2003 to 2006 | Art Work Marketing Agency of New-Brunswick (permanent exhibit) |
| 2000, 2004, 2008, 2013 | Symposium of Baie-Comeau |
| 2011 | Hotel Hilton Bonaventure, Montreal |
| 2006 to 2010 | Symposium of Sept-Îles |
| 2007 | Baie-St-Paul: 10 provinces, 10 artists, 10 days (traveling exhibition) |
| 1994 to 2013 | Rencontre des arts, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu |
| 2006 | Symposium of Îles-de-la-Madeleine |
| 2003, 2006 | Symposium of Quebec Carnival |
| 2004 to 2006 | La fête aux jardins, Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec |
| 2000 to 2002 | Symposium of the Master, Beauport |
| 2000 | National Salon of Quebec Art Galleries |
| 2000 | Symposium of Saint-Antoine-sur-Richelieu |
| 1996 to 1998 | Baie en Art, Valleyfield, Quebec |
| 1994 | Baldwin Cartier Foundation, Pointe-Claire |
Collections (selected)
- Auberge Harris, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, QC
- La Capitale, General Insurance, Quebec, QC
- The Honourable Bernard Landry, ex-First Minister of Quebec
- The Honourable David Cliché, Minister of Tourism, Quebec
- Denis Lapointe, Mayor of Valleyfield, QC
- Savoie Group, St-Quentin, NB
- Molson O’Keefe Brewery, Montreal, QC
- Energy of New Brunswick
- The Honourable Frank McKenna, First Minister of New Brunswick
- Lotto Quebec, Quebec
Interviews and Publications
| 2014 | L’Acadie des Terres et Forêts, Acadian World Congress |
| 2005 | Master Painter of the World (Canada Showcase) – International Artist Magazine |
| 1995 to 2000 | Guide de Roussan – Painters of Québec |
| 1998 to 2006 | Magazin’Art, Biennial Directory of Canadian Artists |
| 1999 | Magazine Art Business News |
| 1990 | International Sales Book – Mayers |
| 1990 | Auction prices of American Artists |
Associations
- Figurative Art Institute
- Acadian Association of Professional Artists of New Brunswick
- Member of the International Academy of Fine Art of Quebec
- Mondial Art Academia of Paris
