Low Down Articles
Artist Profiles - Rhéal McIntyre
Article 43 of 73
From the book Artists of the Gatineau Hill by Catherine Joyce. This article first appeared in the "Artist Profiles" column in the March 22, 2006 issue of the The Low Down to Hull and Back News.
Reprinted with permission. Search complete list of Low Down Articles.
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Awakening to the Spirit of Art
Whenever Rhéal McIntyre walks in the woods, he is aware of a presence - the spirit of the forest, ancient and mysterious as the breathing land. He tries to capture this awareness in his paintings, in the layered light that filters down through the trees and blankets the forest floor.
A pointillist, he began to paint from the beginning with dabs of colour, naturally drawn to an impressionistic style before he ever discovered the art books that would introduce him to schools of painting. From the beginning, his work was energetic and alive.
Born in Charlo, New Brunswick, in 1952, Rhéal came to painting later in life. The seeds of his interest began in childhood when his older brother, Edgar, would return home from Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Montreal. Rhéal drew continually as a child and always knew that one day he would paint. However, as the twelfth of thirteen children, he left school early to begin working with his father in his wood-working shop.
Rhéal became an expert carpenter, skilled in all aspects of the construction trade, and in the refinishing of antiques. He travelled across Canada with his wife, Ginette, then settled on a 40-acre homestead in New Brunswick, with few amenities and no electricity. The romance of the experiment soon faded as the first of their three children arrived. Back to civilization, they eventually moved to Quebec in 1986.
The turning point in Rhéal's artistic reawakening came in 1992 when he met Sacha Barrette, a young painter. As they talked about Art, Rhéal began to paint, intuitively dabbing dots of colour on canvas. "Move in with us," he said to Sacha. "I'll feed you and you can teach me." For six months Rhéal painted alone, falling into that secret space of first reaching for a dream. Then Sacha returned and for three months they painted together, going every Wednesday to the library to take out art books.
"I discovered two things that I could read, and that there was a whole world of painting out there I never knew existed. I thought of Gaugin - he too started at 39."
And so began the alternating rhythm of carpentry by day and painting by night. Rhéal produced 40 paintings in his first year. They poured out of him and in his first show, he sold seven. He would go on to solo and group exhibitions throughout the region.
Nature inspires him. He has a love of the sea from his childhood on Baie Chaleur. To express a moment, a state of being, to bring peace through his paintings or his sculptures in wood and steel, he slows the world down. Imaginary seas, golden fields, moonlit nights through the trees, every season he captures the spirit of place.
In the last year, Rhéal has begun to write poetry, small lyrics that now accompany his art and echo the effect of his paintings - the awakening he has worked so hard to achieve.
Vers la découverte
l'esprit de la forêt t'emmènera
ou ton coeur verra l'être que tu es
et l'être dont tu as besoin.