Painting big—the dream of many a contemporary artist, but also that of numerous painters since the 18th century. A canvas of superhuman size, as well as the energy it exudes, allows the viewer to plunge right into the work and enjoy a total aesthetic experience. For the painter, executing a work of gigantic proportions constitutes both a physical and creative feat surpassing human gestural capabilities and exceeding normal fields of vision.  

The works by six different artists on view at our gallery have achieved this feat, whether with or without prior planning, intuitively or thanks to long years of experience. It is the case for Françoise Sullivan, who has created very large works in tribute to her painter and poet friends (shown here, a tribute to Gérald Godin); for Harold Klunder who, by dint of slow, highly controlled painting extending over months (if not years), creates huge, meditative canvases; for Edmund Alleyn, whose works required much compositional investigation before the desired balance was attained; for Louis-Philippe Côté (one of the gallery’s recent guest artists), who painstakingly develops digital mock-ups, some of which will take the form of paintings; for Jacques Hurtubise, whose clear visualization of an image will subsequently be meticulously and faithfully reproduced on a vast surface; and for Jean-Sébastien Denis, whose preparatory sketches for a series of eight very large diptyches have led to the creation of a remarkable composition incorporating collage and added painted elements.

Making the dream a reality, six works by three generations of Québec painters offering their many visions of what big can be.