While I was doing the research for this exhibit, one of my great delights was discovering the work of Georges Bédard in the collection of the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Mr. Bédard is a self taught Quebec artist who specializes in painted landscapes that are totally unique--highly personalized in subject matter and style, bursting with exuberance and just a lot of fun to look at. Mr Bédard makes no attempt to be realistic in a conventional sense. His subjects are often real enough--Mount Everest, the Yukon, fir trees, apple orchards--but what you see is largely Mr. Bédard's imagination.

You can always tell a Bédard landscape. The first thing you notice is that everything is in layers--the sky above, the earth below, the fields stepped like rice paddies, orchards tiered like a sports stadium, the clouds terraced in the sky, and you see all the strata that make up the mountains. Sometimes you feel like you're seeing the essence of the subject--the surface and what lies beneath it, all at the same time. It's like it was painted from the inside out.

The second thing you notice about a Bédard landscape is symmetry: the right side is a mirror image of the left, with an interesting feature in the centre that focuses your attention.

Mr. Bédard didn't begin his art career until he was older: in fact, he was a retired engineer taking care of his ailing wife at home. He took up painting to help pass the time. His relatives and friends found his paintings "beautiful and beautiful and beautiful," he says, and he was encouraged to continue.

Mr. Bédard's favourite medium is acrylic paint on plywood, but he doesn't hesitate to apply glue, sand, rocks, and earth to the surface if the subject calls for it. The words "passionate" and "exuberant" come to mind whenever I see one of his paintings--in fact, even when I look at the back of one. What I see there almost always, is that Mr. Bédard has written the title in large, bold script, and then two or three lines of breathless commentary. It's pure Bédard.

When Mr. Bédard talks about his work, what he says is interesting. He says, "These are all kinds of little fairy tales. It's no more than that. Half of it is lies. What I prefer is inside of me. I'll show you things you've never seen before. This is where my strength and facility lie. But this is also what differentiates me from artists. This is where I am unique in Canada."

Georges Bédard (1912 - ) Montagne à 2 piques du grand nord canadien près de 3 cent pied atid (Mountain with Two Peaks in the Great Canadian North at Almost 300 Feet in Height) Date ? acrylic on cardboard 67.50 X 90.00 Canadian Museum of Civilization Photo of Georges Bédard