In 1947, I am born within the embrace of a French-Canadian community by the banks of the Red River, in Saint-Boniface, Manitoba.
From an early age, I love to draw and paint. When weekly art classes are discontinued in my third-grade curriculum I am crestfallen. I draw in my scribblers and am a bookworm. My report card reprimands me for daydreaming, a habit I never relinquish
Thankfully, in my early teens I attend Saturday morning watercolour classes taught by Pauline Boutal, a gifted artist who studied in Paris. I learn the basics of composition, colour and light.
In my mid-teens I attend an exhibit of Van Gogh’s paintings. Before his ‘Souvenir de Mauve’ I am riveted, in a trance The radiance of his joy and tenderness in this painting is beyond anything I’ve ever known.
My heart speaks its mind; from that day on I am a painter.
That same year I see an exhibition of charcoal drawings by the German Expressionist, Käthe Kollwitz. Her empathy for the suffering of others and fearless truth to power confronts social injustice. Her passionate line delineates the emotional reality of people in crisis. She instills a desire to understand real world events and convey humanitarian insights like hers.
The 60’s is a decade where a global social and ecological conscience expands in the minds of my generation.
My sketch at age 15 (1962).
Dwarf by Velasquez
I study the Masters and copy their artworks.
Haiku – mixed media – 22 in x 30 in
Works by First Nations, Métis and Inuit artists are ubiquitous in Manitoba. I connect with their pure and natural simplicity – their direct connection to Nature. Their humane honesty resonates, intensifies my desire for clarity. I have respect beyond words for how they touch my spirit.
The principal, my uncle Brother Albert Laurin – Marianist, encourages my artistic aspirations by hanging one of my paintings behind his desk (an arctic landscape). Someone from the Chicago Art Institute sees it and says it is urgent that I be immediately taken out of school and be sent to study at the Institute to do justice to my obvious talent.
That evening, my parents take me aside to explain that, at fifteen, I am too young to go alone to Chicago to study art. I know they cannot afford to act on this opportunity.
I accept and move on but am grateful that my uncle believed in my potential. He even went so far as to call me Richard the Lion-Hearted. That nickname may seem like a small gesture but at the time most people ridiculed my decision to become an artist.
Today I am grateful for my mother’s unconditional encouragement to follow my dream. Thanks to her moral support I find the courage to follow my bliss.
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Return to Earth – Oil and acrylic on canvas (2 ft x 4 ft)
Growing up under a vast prairie sky shapes my world view. I respond to its freedom with a freewheeling creativity. I live a very freewheeling childhood – one which allows me to take time: time to contemplate cathedrals of cumulous clouds, a panoramic horizon at my fingertips; to stretch out beneath out beneath spirals of light spun by the aurora borealis, to be hypnotized by trees tossed wildly by prairie winds, admire snow dunes sculpted Brancusi-like, and to sketch otherworldly silhouettes at dusk.
At nineteen, in 1966, I move to Ottawa am a civil servant for a year. Longing for more I drop out to live in Montreal, a city discovered during Expo. I enjoy some success as a harmonicist accompanist for Beverly Glenn Copeland – radio, tv, clubs, coffee houses between New York, Montreal and Toronto.
Serious health problems erode my stamina. A career in show business becomes impossible. Music becomes a hobby. I feel the pull of my original desire: to paint.
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Suffering from exhaustion in 1969, I hope to improve my health by moving from Toronto to Vancouver where I renew my commitment to a visual arts career. As of 1971 I exhibit annually. In 1976 the Canada Council awards a grant to paint. This is followed by the publication of my book of line drawings, FACES.
I write and produce plays against nuclear proliferation, pollution, racism, antisemitism and war. The recurring theme is ecology: harmony with nature, not domination of.
The pioneer mentality of the West Coast art scene is refreshing. Taking aesthetic risks is normal. Also, I get to absorb the evocative beauty of Haida and Japanese prints.
By the late 70s I am drawn back to Montreal’s cosmopolitan European atmosphere. I need to reconnect with my French-Canadian roots. The East Coast becomes a launching pad to Europe’s Renaissance and contemporary art, as well as a convenient link to New York’s art scene.
In the mid-80s, I survive a brief but severe depression. Like anyone else, there are occasional wreckages. I learn to pick myself up off the floor, dust myself off and start all over again.
Not looking back, I experiment with mixed media paper works. What I learn from them, a multiplicity of innovative approaches, meld and transform intuitively onto canvas.
Opportunities in cinema and television happen my way. My art is used in the film, The Moderns. I am Michael York’s stand-in in the film Au nom de tous les miens. After years of extra work, I am flagged as a Special Extra on a variety of films and tv series i.e., Burt Lancaster – PT Barnum and Geraldine Chaplin, etc.
Three miracles in my life: meeting my wonderful wife, Annie; secondly, the birth of our daughter, Sarah; and the return of my health.
Towards the end of 1989 a cure is finally found for my genetic blood disorder. Thanks to newly discovered medication, at the age of 43, I feel healthy for the first time in many years. There are no words to describe how it feels, this return to Life.
Leap of Faith – Acrylic on canvas 52 in x 72 in
In January 1990 I paint a large canvas, entitled Leap of Faith, depicting my joy: newly embracing Life after facing the probability of dying. In 1993 this painting is awarded First Prize at the Grand-Prix International de Montréal exhibition.
Chard the Lionhearted in Venice
My artistic vision matures with trips to France, England, Italy, Israel, Holland, California, Cuba, Florida, New York and Washington.
My website “chardart.com” becomes an opening for my art, broadcasting my work to a new global audience.
To relax, from time to time I play the harmonica. It’s a social respite from the intense isolation of painting.
Every day I focus on drawing and painting – a labour of love.
My art blossoms. The horizon approaches. I am freer when drawing and painting.
Art is a path to understand Life.
My art brings joy, serenity and beauty into people’s hearts. Knowing this is my tranquility, my peace of mind.
Chard
From wonder into wonder into wonder Mystery prevails beyond words.
A work of art is a state of being, a higher truth through beauty. Its purpose is to create a moral universe.
Hozho – Acrylic on canvas (48 in x 48 in) Private collection
About Chard
“There’s something he’s seen that we haven’t, that we unconsciously long for, that he unleashes in us, and that he shows us how to see. His is a remarkable nobleness of vision that informs our mind’s eye with longing for more.”
Tom Harmer
Author of “Going Native” & “What I’ve Always Known”
