In the workshop of… | Pierre Leblanc: the tree in the heart

He is one of the last great Quebec sculptors of the generation of Armand Vaillancourt, André Fournelle and René Derouin. Pierre Leblanc cuts metal with elegance and passion, evoking man, nature and poetry. We met this endearing, true and talented artist in his studio in Val-David.

The artist-poet

Pierre Leblanc was born in 1949 in the Montreal working-class neighborhood of Côte-Saint-Paul. In a house on rue Roberval where he lived with his family until it was demolished in 1959 to create the Turcot interchange. In 1992, he also produced Souvenir from 1955 or 2026 Robervala sculpture in memory of his neighborhood that was installed in a park in Lachine.

It was Brother Rosaire, of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, in Verdun, who put him on the artistic path at the age of 8. He had been fascinated by the mural of divers by Armand Filion, located in front of the Gadbois swimming pool. But it was between 1968 and 1972, at the Pierrefonds Experimental Foundry, with his friends André Fournelle and Armand Vaillancourt, that he learned to master sculpture.

Many of his works celebrate the tree. He owes it to his father who became a lumberjack in his youth. And to his friend and mentor Gaston Miron, whose poems inspired this artist who does “his head askew”, as Miron would say! In 1995, he had exhibited with Miron and René Derouin at the Val-David Exhibition Center, “an adventure for three” entitled The reclaimed territories.

Working mainly in aluminum – of which he appreciates the luminosity and the clean and easy finishing work – Pierre Leblanc uses very high pressure water jet cutting to sculpt. His works can be found in fifteen museum collections.

public art

Public art became his main activity. He has obtained more than 60 public art projects in 20 years. Very much in demand, he had three works to install at the start of this year, including one at the Maison des vieilles de Baie-Comeau. 14 ft black spruce trees cut from aluminum. Spruce trees, these “unloved snags” as the anthropologist Serge Bouchard said, symbols of the resilience of the North Shore people.

“I created these spruce trees because it reminds these elders of the nature they knew,” he says, before adding that this work resonates strongly for him since his father had landed in the Baie-Comeau area as a lumberjack, after leaving his Magdalen Islands.

Pierre Leblanc also works with the private sector. Last year, he inaugurated at Oldcastle Infrastructure, in Candiac, the work of industrial art The idea of ​​couch grass and other hanging gardensinspired by the poem noggin head, from Miron. A sculpture 8 m in circumference and 26 m high in stainless steel and brushed aluminium.

Pierre Leblanc sells scale models of his works on his Facebook page, because despite his numerous public art projects, he is not rolling in gold. “The price of the prints often depends on the bills I have to pay! This is how I live. As Vaillancourt has already told me, when you have cash, prepare the rest! So I place it to create again. »

The workshop

Pierre Leblanc’s “workshop” is outside! He works most of the time outside his home. Its garden is a parking lot for works of art, old or in the process of being created. Inside, his home is littered with samples and scale models of his sculptures.

Pierre Leblanc devotes himself totally to his art. “It keeps my head busy all the time,” he said. There are nights, I dream that I install works! When his sculpture has been thought out and then drawn, he is ready for the final realization. For this, he had his metal works cut by his friend Gilbert Guèvremont, in Boucherville.

Projects

Don’t talk to Pierre Leblanc about retirement. “Die me on the job,” he said. With Vaillancourt, Fournelle and Derouin, we play the game for real! We don’t give up! “But since a small incident last fall, the sculptor has had some small muscle problems that prevent him from forcing with his arms. But he still wants to create, to express himself with metal, to sculpt the human values ​​he holds dear. ” I love to live ! I have fun! »

And he will continue to tell his stories on his Facebook page. Real novels written in his flowery and creative language. “I got that from my father who was a storyteller,” he says. And telling, like that, provokes works! When we talk to him about creating with artificial intelligence, he loses his temper. “It annoys me,” he said. Intelligence, there, it’s the little gray cells, that’s all! Creation is the delirium of a human being. It’s a dream come true. »