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SPOTLIGHT ARTICLE IN THE WILDLIFE ART MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2003, ISSUE |
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SPOTLIGHT LUCIE BILODEAU: Dedication and Determination BY KIMBERLY KISER Lucie Bilodeau is up against a deadline. Her assignment: produce 30 new paintings of African landscapes and wildlife in time for a November show. By April, she was about a third of the way there. "It's a lot of painting to be done in a short time, but I'm excited," she says. Bilodeau is determined to meet the goal in the same way she was determined to make art her career. Growing up in Montreal, Quebec, Bilodeau can't remember a time when she didn't draw. "My dad was quite good at drawing, and he encouraged me," she recalls. In 1982, at age 14, she became one of the first students to take private lessons at the Mission Renaissance School in Montreal. There, she studied the masters: Monet, Rembrandt, Manet, Cezanne and Fantin Latour. Her fine arts training can be seen in painting such as Night Voyage, a spiritual piece in which she used Rembrandt-like contrast. The artist says the first 10 years of her career were the most difficult. "I was living with my parents and knew eventually I had to get out on my own. In Canada, people didn't see artwork as a priority. If they wanted to buy, they didn't want to pay much, " she says. During that time, Bilodeau enrolled in a secretarial program and did office work until Francine Bolduc, the owner of Joy Gallery in Key West, Fla., who had been exhibiting Bilodeau's work, invited the artist to move to Florida in 1992. It was in Key West that the French-Canadian oil-on-canvas painter met her husband, a portrait artist. Three years ago, she moved with him to Chicopee, Mass. Although Bilodeau paints portraits, landscapes, still lifes and spiritual scenes, she admits that animals have always been her favorite subjects. "I love big cats," she says, adding that her loud Burmese, Romeo, is a frequent visitor to her home studio. Last September, the artist traveled to Tanzania's Tarangire National Park, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Lake Manyary National Park, Arusha National Park and her favorite, Serengeti National Park, to observe and photograph the wildlife. "I have to say that I can appreciate the animals more seeing them in beautiful light and in their natural habitat," she says. Bilodeau tells of how during the 10-day trip her Jeep came too close to a herd of elephants, causing the matriarch to flap her ears in a show of dispeasure. "It was a little heart pumping," she says. Another time, she watched a lioness just miss nabbing a gazelle - a scene she hopes to have ready in time for the November show at Joy Gallery. Bilodeau, who counts actor John Travolta among her fans, admits her style has changed as her popularity has grown. "For many years, I was obsessed by rendering paintings as close as possible to reality. I took a lot of time, and people weren't interested in paying for all the time I spent on the paintings," she says, explaining that her style has become more figurative. "I've found a happy medium." Kimberly Kiser is a free-lance writer living in Shoreview, Minn. Image: Careful, oil, 11" x 18", courtesy of the artist.
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