Visual Arts

From the very beginning of the Congregation's foundation and despite the obvious resistance of the religious authorities of the time, the Sisters of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin took the initiative of adding music, embroidery and drawing to their curriculum. The promotion of arts and music would remain one of the distinctive elements of the Congregation. Several artists made their mark in education as well as in the artistic world.

Early on, Gertrude's exceptional talent for drawing was recognized. Studies and teaching of the arts and civilizations filled her 45 years of active life. Today, she contributes to create masterpieces that are extremely appreciated and always in demand.

Jeannine Durocher, SASV
E-mail: jeannninedurocher@hotmail.com

At an early age, Jeannine Durocher was attuned  to nature's beauty, which is ever present in her work. After obtaining a degree in visual arts and architectural studies, she was hired by the Abitibi School of Council where she devoted herself entirely to the teaching of arts in high school as well as to adults. Named Director of Students, she constantly worked to promote the arts and has received the bronze Medal of School Merit decreed by the Ministry of Education.

Jeannine Durocher has participated in several group and solo exhibitions. Through her sensitivity to beauty and her dynamism, she contributes to the promotion of the arts.

Thérèse Gaulin, SASV
E-mail : thgaulin@yahoo.ca

Abitibi-born, Thérèse Gaulin has taught visual arts for several years. With varied exhibitions to her credit, she poses a new and admiring look at people and things in order to discover beauty, inner spirit and depth. Her favorite medium is watercolors, a medium full of colors and transparency that releases energy, freshness and mystery.

Marcile Grondin, SASV
Fax : (819) 693-6319

Born in Pierreville, Marcile went on to higher education in pedagogy and in visual arts, taught many years and finished her teaching career as a school principal in Saint-Maurice. Now retired she shares her time between voluntary work in her parish, community services, and the study of painting and watercolors. The colors and the delicacy of the flow of her brush express her amazement for nature.

Céline Lahaye, SASV
E-mail: celha33@yahoo.ca

The artist's approach is in continuity with over 30 years of pottery research. Of all the techniques, her favorite is burnishing (galettage) which allows a metamorphosis of clay into artistic pottery, murals or assemblies. The favorite topics where symbolism prevails, speak about the female principe (ishah) and the male principe (ish) present in any human being.

Nature and its deployment of lines and colors : the tree of life, birds, fish, etc., are also sources of inspiration. She constantly loves ''to play'' with different clays, mixed techniques, the contribution of hand-made paper, and glosses in the third cooking. Principal clays used are the semi-sandstone, porcelain, and the earthenware from Nicolet's area. Isn't it wonderful to make the clay sing which will keep the memory of the hands that worked it and the fire, which it immortalizes?

Thérèse Marcoux, SASV
E-mail: theresemarcoux@hotmail.com

Thèrese Marcoux was born in La Sarre. From a very young age, she enjoyed discovering the flora and fauna, from which she learned the lessons of life. Quite naturally, she draws flowers, birds and trees... she calls them back to life as witnesses of the simple and true joys of her childhood.

Luce Scalabrini, SASV
Phone : (819) 293-2854

The life and work of Luce-Brini Scalibrini are clearly dedicated to the exaltation of beauty. Fascinated for a long time by roosters, a symbol of pride, she is also interested in forms and colors.  

She brilliantly pratices  haute-lisse,  and pencil and feather techniques. She also works with  enamels and the ink drawings. Luce-Brini Scalabrini is obviously an artist who works with her heart and her noble emotions.  

Jeanne Vanasse, SASV

E-mail : jeannevanas@yahoo.fr

Jeanne Vanasse discovered the magic of drawing at a yound age.  She studied at Quebec's School of Fine Arts. In painting, she was directed by Jean-Paul Lemieux, a ''master'' whom she admires, and from whom she will keep, ''before any stylistic influence, the spiritual integrity of the characters.'' She was educated in the art of stained glass and realized  work in two Ontario chapels and three Quebec chapels, most notably the chapel of the Sisters of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin in Nicolet.

Her taste for iconography led her to Maurinié (France), at a workshop given by Nicolaï and Marie-Thérèse Greschny. A training course in lithography brought her to Lausanne (Switzerland), at the Porlitho workshop. She is the founder of the Arts Departement at the CEGEP of Trois-Rivières where she taught from 1968 to 1988. To her credits, she has ten individual exhibitions and aproximately twenty collective exhibitions, led in Quebec and abroad.

 Her current works  are predominantly women clothed in sheets of gold, foliage, in indefinable atmospheres and often depicted with musical instruments, of which she would like them to play for eternity.