Press

7 March 2008

One is an artist to the core; the other describes himself as a judge who paints. Doris Chassé and Yves Morier wanted to set themselves a personal challenge: a two-person exhibition. It is the result of that challenge they are showing at the Bibliothèque T.-A.-St.-Germain from 31 March to 21 April. I met them at the painter’s studio a few days before the opening.

by Paul-Henri Frenière (Zoom cultural journal, April 2008).

Why a two-person exhibition?

« Since 1999 we have crossed paths in group exhibitions and at symposiums, and last year we had the idea of exhibiting together. It was a kind of challenge », the judge recounts.

And yet your styles and subjects are very different?

« What brings us together is the taste for painting, the love of painting, the love of colour », Doris Chassé replies.

Colour, light, houses

Doris Chassé is no beginner. She already has several solo exhibitions behind her, here and elsewhere. Yves Morier, for his part, will be trying a two-person exhibition for the first time. He will show some twenty canvases, a dozen of them brand new.

« I had a few days off recently and made the most of them. I painted from morning to night. A wonderful experience! » says Yves Morier, back from a trip to Italy from which he brought a great many photographs — enough to feed his inspiration for several canvases.

« I love the colours of Italy, its light, its architecture too. »

Which is the point. The wealth of architectural heritage is a source of inspiration for him. Besides the market at the centre of Saint-Hyacinthe, the exhibition will present ancestral houses, shops and courthouses (well, well — an occupational habit?).

Speaking of justice, I ask him whether, for him, painting is a kind of… escape.

« Exactly, he answers, I don’t notice time passing when I paint. I am completely absorbed in what I’m doing. I forget my cases and everything else. Yes, it’s an escape.. But a fine escape! »

The universe and the impulses

Doris Chassé, meanwhile, will show some twenty pictures (large and small) from her latest series, Regards vers le ciel. Abstract works created out of the « impulses » thrown up by her mind’s eye.

Personally, I see certain canvases by Doris Chassé as a gaze turned towards the universe. The universe without and within at once: a telescope trained on deep space and a microscope peering into the depths of the human soul. Where out of chaos a certain harmony emerges: of colour, of form and of meaning.

« I am extremely proud, honoured even, to be her friend. She is a great artist. I compare her favourably to Riopelle and to other greats of painting », Yves Morier rules, without appeal, before a blushing Doris Chassé. « One day we’ll exhibit in New York », he adds, dispelling the awkwardness with laughter.

But you never know… Doris Chassé is in full command of her art, and Judge Morier will soon retire. He will then have all the time he needs to champion his muse and to escape as much as he likes.

RICHESSES ET IMPULSIONS

From 31 March to 21 April 2008

(opening on Sunday 6 April at 1 p.m.)

Bibliothèque T.-A.-St-Germain

8 March 2000

He jealously keeps a painting by his old aunt Rebecca at home. Judge Morier first admired other people’s paintings for many years before taking up the brush himself. In those days he made the rounds of the art galleries, going as far as New York to satisfy his taste for beauty and his admiration for the work of painters. Twenty years ago, he took the plunge. « Sérénité » is Judge Morier’s first solo exhibition — a Maskoutain born and bred.

By Denyse Bégin (Le Courrier de Saint-Hyacinthe, Wednesday 8 March 2000).

Mr Morier senior was a florist and a photographer. « I worked with my father in his shop. He showed me how to arrange flowers and match colours. » When the time came to enrol at university, I chose Québec City. The character of Old Québec drew me. That was when I began haunting the art galleries with a friend. One day I met Miyuki Tanobé, but the decisive encounter for me was with Louis Tremblay, a painter from Charlevoix who came to exhibit in Saint-Hyacinthe. « After talking with him and seeing his work, I wanted to try my hand at the brush. »

Mr Morier then took a few classes and threw himself into this great artistic adventure, from which he says he draws a great deal of serenity. « Judging involves the art of listening, and although painting is more the art of looking and letting oneself be steeped in beauty in motion, it is by listening to it that one can carry it, in one’s own way, onto a panel or a canvas », he explains.

It is with great humility that the judge speaks of his passion for painting. « I don’t claim to be a great painter… I’d say I daub, and it makes me happy. My paintings are a projection of the personal way I look at things. Often they answer to a particular memory.

Serenity… a word that comes up again and again in conversation with the judge. It is also the title of the solo exhibition he is showing until 31 March at the Bibliothèque T.-A.-Saint-Germain.

2 April 2008

For her, it is abstract bursts with the look of firmaments that light her up at present; for him, the vivid colours of tulips and the fine houses of days gone by. Together, the two of them prove that art makes for encounters that become fine friendships over time.

By Véronique Lemonde (Le Courrier de Saint-Hyacinthe, 2 April 2008)

This contrasting duo is made up of the Maskoutain painters Doris Chassé and Yves Morier, who are showing the exhibition Richesses et Impulsions these days at the Bibliothèque T.-A.-Saint-Germain.

The two friends have been running on painting for so long that they struggle to recall when they first met as artists. Around 1995, perhaps 1994. It was the symposiums, the Sentier des couleurs in Saint-Pie and so many other artistic events that let this friendship between Doris Chassé and Yves Morier take root. They remember one occasion, among others, when they painted together. At the end of the day they decided to swap the two finished canvases.

« We have often done things together informally, but lately we said to ourselves: what if we made it a duo? », says Yves Morier, who is also a judge of the Court of Québec.

Abstract skies

Yet out of these sharply contrasting worlds comes a fine coherence for anyone who gets the chance to talk with these two enthusiasts.

Doris Chassé, though she now devotes herself to abstraction, admits that she lives « always an inner struggle between the figurative and the abstract ». « In my early days I did mostly figurative work, then, in the nineties, abstraction found its way into my canvases. Even today, what I teach in my classes is largely academic. In my more recent paintings, however, I have chosen abstraction », says Doris Chassé.

Full of texture, her mixed-media works seem to have stepped straight out of astronomy books, with their sprays like nebulae, stars or constellations. But the reading of all that Doris Chassé leaves to the visitors themselves. « To me, Doris is like Riopelle », Yves Morier offers, showing us a newspaper article on the 60th anniversary of the famous Refus global. « What Yves says moves me, because Riopelle is one of the greats as far as I’m concerned. I’m especially fond of a line of his: when you begin a painting, you have to deny all the others », Ms Chassé adds.

A wealth of colour

Yves Morier, for his part, is showing a series of canvases (oil and acrylic) in which Québec’s architectural heritage — including several works of the Maskoutain town centre — sits alongside travel and vibrant colour.

Very supple and full of movement, Yves Morier’s strokes lend something whimsical to these often urban landscapes. Canvases from his latest trip to Italy this winter really bring out the brilliant colours that mark his work.

« In my work as a judge I enforce a great many rules, so in painting I am spontaneous, I let loose. Let’s say my vanishing points aren’t always impeccable », Yves Morier says. Doris Chassé knows that same release through art, that same outlet — she who must teach very precise techniques to her students. « I didn’t know that Yves saw painting in that light, set against his work as a judge, just as I do against my work teaching painting. »

Once again, the two painter friends had just discovered one more thing that unites them in their love of the arts.

The exhibition Richesses et Impulsions runs until 21 April. An opening will be held this Sunday, 6 April, from 1 to 4 p.m., with both artists present.