Pignons sur l’arrière-cour
Oil on stretched gallery canvas – 20″x 24″ – Landscape/Horizontal – Catalogue #1552
One summer, several years ago, I cycled and drove up and down back alleys and lanes in both Montreal and Toronto looking for painting opportunities. Almost every space had a garage, shed or high fence making a view of buildings in back yards almost impossible.
While visiting my brother in Toronto more recently, I investigated The Annex adjacent to the University of Toronto searching for a potential client’s original home as subject matter for a painting. This exposed me to a part of Toronto known as Chinatown.
There were no long alleys, but rather parking areas leading to the backs of homes with unique roof lines, open back yards, many varied outbuildings and lots of clutter. The area had a fair amount of late snow still resting on anything that would support it.
I had found a gold mine of painting opportunities. I spent the day photographing numerous back parking spaces.
Once home, I did many sketches of various urban configurations and found myself excited at the prospect on creating an entirely new series of oil paintings. As for painting style, I focussed on texture, colour contrast, looseness and random architecture in order to capture the effect the area had on me during my visit.
“Pignons sur l’arrière-cour” is among my favourites that evolved from my “house series”. It captures all that I was searching for in terms of back yard urban settings. It evokes a certain mystery, tranquillity and a slowing down of time.
On November 16 and 17, the Kanata Civic Art Gallery hosted the “Gift of Art”, the 22nd annual Christmas Show and Sale in the Mlacak Centre on Campeau Drive in Kanata. The show gave the Gallery artists the opportunity to display a large body of their work in their booths.
Beth and I attended the vernissage of the next art show at the Perth Gallery at 17 Wilson Street East in the Code’s Mill building on Sunday, November 10. Six of my paintings were featured along with paintings of 30 other artists.
Code’s Mill, a lovely stone heritage building, is a unique setting for the Gallery. One of the paintings in the show, “Beside the Gorge”, is set at an old mill in Les Eboulements, Charlevoix, where many artists have painted over the years.
Beside the Gorge
Galerie Le 1040
1040 Rue Marie-Anne Est, Montréal, Québec H2J 2B4 • (514) 525-3736
“Située au coeur du Plateau à Montréal, au croisement des rues Christophe-Colomb et Marie-Anne”
After graduating from Queen’s University in 1958 as an electrical engineer, I began my working career in Montreal with Northern Electric. My first residence was on Mctavish Street at a McGill University fraternity, which was available during the summer months for rent. I immediately met a bunch of other new grads from across Canada, also using this as a first residence. Through this meeting of minds, we met some Montreal residents who introduced us to nurses at the Royal Victoria Hospital. At the same time, one fellow from our group had contacts with incoming trainees for Air Canada Stewardesses. Needless to say, most of us ended up in Montreal marrying a nurse or stewardess.
In the process of living in Montreal for the first 5 years, I lived in several locations: overlooking Windsor Station, near the Portal Heights Train Station, on University Avenue at Prince Arthur, and in NDG.
I discovered hot smoked meat sandwiches at Schwartz’s, glamour on the streets on my walk to and from work on Rue de la Gauchetière, unique housing designs and intimate back yard alleys. The latter reminded me of the alleys where I grew up in Windsor, Ontario. I started to try and capture some of these settings in oils, being influenced by a friend who was taking art classes at Les Beaux Arts on Sherbrooke Street. This lasted six months during my artistic retreat, after which I returned to wine, women and song.
Years later, son Bill attended McGill University as did daughter Siobhan. Bill lived on rue Saint-Hubert and Siobhan on Aylmer. During their times in Montreal, I had a number of occasions to visit the Plateau area as well as the McGill Student Ghetto. I found myself even more attracted to Montreal back yard housing and living: clothes lines, garbage cans, gardens and all the paraphernalia that comes with intimate and private living situations.
My professional work as a telecommunications product design engineer placed me squarely into an environment of design, creating solutions to various challenges in communications. I also was heavily involved in the process of design and building a new town from a municipal politician’s vantage point. I then started to look at artistic opportunities to extend my strong interest in design.
More recently, I returned to the back alleys of Montreal to rediscover and try to capture the feeling that these back yard settings evoked in me. By this time, many back yards had been fenced in for privacy and security, with car garages, and fewer clothes lines. Garbage pails still added the character I sought. These visits provided the stimulus to create paintings that were driven by my long standing feelings for Montreal.
Quebec has been the source of inspiration for most of my paintings, many en plein air. Outdoor painting started in the Gatineau, moved through the Outaouais, Laurentians, Charlevoix, Old Quebec City, Sutton and the Eastern Townships. Most of the journeys were with a group of painters called “Plein air ensemble”. What attracted me to these sites were the hills, rivers, rapids, waterfalls, urban and rural landscapes, agricultural and forested lands and snow. Spring and fall provided the most beautiful scenes with the contrast of snow against the changing colours of the forested landscapes. Temperatures were usually in the range of 0 to -5°C. As long as we dressed very warmly, cold was not an issue. The oil paint could still be pushed out of the tubes. Painting was done behind my minivan with additional protection from rain and snow with umbrellas and the rear lift gate. Rural gravel roads were preferred sites with less and slower traffic for safety. Painting outings usually lasted for about a week, staying at auberges in the countryside, with social evenings.
The return to Montreal was a great inspiration for another set of alley paintings, a confirmation of my deep attraction to back yard living and all things Montreal.
![Le linge, Montréal](https://www.johnmlacak.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/1697.jpg "Le linge, Montréal, oil, 24" x 30"")
Le linge, Montréal, oil, 24″ x 30″
Back yards in Montreal have always intrigued me even when I first encountered them in 1958 while living on University near Prince Arthur. Walking to and from work at Northern Electric (recently Nortel) on La Gauchetière provided unique visual experiences in terms of building designs, womens’ fashions, and the hustle and bustle of Montreal life.
In the Plateau area, I encountered back alleys, garbage storage, clothes lines, private gardens and spaces, local bagels and hot smoked meat sandwiches. I could feel and share the living experience of my neighbouring Montrealers. I felt part of the surroundings.
In later years, I would occasionally cycle the alleyways and photograph eye catching scenes that reminded me of the feelings and memories of past encounters. A number of these photos subsequently became the inspiration for a series of oil paintings.
My early work was more stylistic and interpretive, focusing on colour, roof lines, and garbage cans from the perspective of back alleys. Snow was usually present as it provided a powerful contrast of the golden glows in sunlight and the purple/blue lights in shadows.
The set of 10 paintings recently completed for, “Affaire de famille” the Galerie le 1040 show in Montreal from June 4 to 16, 2013 are more representational as they depict scenes in the neighbourhood of the Galerie. View the set of paintings here.
“Le linge, Montréal”, one of the 10, captures for me the everyday life one encounters in back yards…a lonely clothes line, packed garbage pails, fence line flowers, trees and multi- level living in red brick buildings. I love the ambience and the feelings this painting creates in me. Each time I look at “Le ligne, Montréal”, memories of my time in Montréal return.
“Le linge, Montréal”
Oil Painting, 24″ x 30″
Catalogue #1697