An artist's passionate tenacity

Serge Dubreuil is very tenacious. He is passionate about his work. He will take whatever path is necessary to accomplish what he wants to do, no matter what others may think. He carries internal scars from the many struggles and battles that independent artists must fight. Serge Dubreuil is such as artist.

His journey has been long and sometimes difficult, strewn with the shrapnel of battle. But he has survived them all and carries on undaunted, though today he says he has become something of a sceptic.

Despite all his struggles, Serge still believes in "beauty, goodness and love". If he is a sceptic, then he is an eternally optimistic sceptic"

His artist's journey began in his teens, studying at l'École des Beaux-Arts in Montreal and then, at the Canadian School for Commercial Design. He started work in Montreal as graphic artist, went to Hamilton, Ontario to work as a commercial engraver, came back to Montreal to teach art and then moved to San Francisco where he worked as a rubber engraver. Then it was back to Montreal as an illustrator at Eaton's, The bay and for various newspapers including the Dimanche Matin, where his comic strip characters, "Chou et Chouette" became a hit. When the demand for illustrators dropped, he concentrated on painting, selling his works to wholesalers who distributed them for huge profits for them and little profits for the artist. In disgust, he opened his own art galleries, in St-Sauveur, Ste-Adèle, Ste-Marguerite and Brébeuf, successively, before opening one in St-Jovite. Throughout those years he painted prolifically - oils, pastels, acrylics, watercolours - and he sculpted. There was nothing beyond his polyvalent talents.

But over time, the heavy demands of business, the battles against the politics of the art world and his own huge output of works took a heavy toll. Still, he says, his passion for creating beauty and the satisfaction of seeing a work completed and hung on a wall keeps him going on.

Serge now lives with his companion, Lucie Grenier, their four dogs and four cheerfully singing birds, in St-Jovite. His home is also his studio and gallery. His painting strikingly cover almost every inch of the walls of the house. "The cost of operating this gallery", he jokes, "is less of a strain! Besides, I'am always surrounded by my paintings. If they were taken away from me", Serge says, "I would become very ill".

He still, of course, sells his paintings. His clients come from near and far to his house to buy and to commission.

He has also exhibited elsewhere such as the Hotel Club Tremblant recently and currently at the Cheval de Jade, a restaurant in St-Jovite whose interior and exterior décor he designed.

His sculpted and painted signs and picturesque decorative items can be seen at many commercial establishments throughout St-Jovite and the region.

Serge and Lucie love the Tremblant region for the beauty of its landscape, which he takes pleasure in painting. His style is his own. The landscapes are dramatic - definite and powerful in their colours and lines. Serge says it all depends on the lighting and his mood at the time of painting. But it's also a matter of technique, which he calls "la manière noire", the black method. The canvas is painted a uniform dark colour (often black or other strong colours) as a base for the painting, giving it a very dramatic effect.

Despite all his struggles, Serge still believes in "beauty, goodness and love". If he is a sceptic, then he is an eternally optimistic sceptic"

André Courey for Tremblant Express

Recently, Serge Dubreuil changes adresse
687 principale sud (route 117)
L'Annonciation
(819) 275-7621
dubreuil_grenier@hotmail.com

Book now by calling
(819) 425-JADE
(819) 425-5233
lechevaldejade@qc.aira.com