Réal Calder

Born in 1949, Réal Calder grew up in Normétal, a small mining town in northern Québec. He expressed artistic abilities even in grade school and was encouraged by his teachers to explore his talent. At 18, he decided to leave Normétal to study painting at the Montreal Fine Arts School and later acquired his MFA at the University of Quebec at Montréal.

Through his landscapes, Réal Calder constructs environments that are ground in contradiction and opposition. The image the artist illustrates is always in a suspended state between realism and abstraction. It evoke the uncertainty between admiration and anxiety that comes from the awareness of one's own presence in nature. His captivating scenes are strangely welcoming, inviting the viewer to enter and withdraw into the mysterious world Calder has created. This encounter can be both exhilarating and frightening at once, as one discovers a certain tension between amusement and threat.

In his physical application and manipulation of materials, Calder explores the relationship between artistic creation and the creative forces of Mother Nature, which can at times be productive and other times, destructive.

Calder does not include people in his landscapes. He wants to encourage the viewer to fully place themselves in his scenes and to feel immersed in the nature that surrounds them. Even within the simplicity of the landscape depicted, there seems to always be an underlying narrative that begins to emerge as the viewer uncovers its hidden secrets. He paints nature, not as a camera would capture it, but as your mind would reflect its experience of the power and beauty that nature continuously emanates.

Submitted by Thompson Landry Gallery