Every morning, when Jean Claude Roy opens his eyes, his mind is already ahead of his feet, in search of the landscape that will fill a blank canvas.
Once he leaves his house and finds the image he wants to capture, he stays in that spot for hours, using his palette knife, brush and oil paints.
While walking around the upstairs of the Emma Butler Gallery in St. John’s, surrounded by his new exhibition, the French painter spoke about his obsession.
“(I’ve done) over 10,000 paintings (in) my lifetime, 10,780 now,” Roy said.
“I paint in the snowstorm and everything.”
In the 1970s, while working on a boat as an apprentice electrician, he found himself regularly in St. John’s. It was here the mostly self-taught artist became interested in painting landscapes. He moved to Newfoundland and Labrador in 1971, developing his style over a number of years, before returning to France in 1982.
But since 1994, Roy has split his time between the house he grew up in — his grandfather’s stone farmhouse next to his orchard in La Clisse in southwestern France — and his home in Portugal Cove–St. Philip’s. He would usually spend six months in each. However, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Roy had to remain in France for a time before coming back to Newfoundland.
Early restrictions in France meant residents were only allowed out for necessities, forcing Roy to put a pause on his decades-long habit of wandering toward inspiration.
Instead of going out, Roy went up, strapping his easel to his rooftop, looking out over the nearby houses. He also began painting flowers from the area, as well as a cherry branch from his orchard, a branch from a tree he planted with his grandfather.
"I was seven years old,” he recalled.
Despite the isolated digression into still life, there are still plenty of landscapes on display, including landscapes from Avondale, Holyrood, Salmon Cove, Lumsden and Flat Rock.
“You have to explain it as almost being electric. He’ll change the colours in the sky to suit his whim. He’ll repattern cloud formations to reflect what he’s looking at on the ground or on the ocean, if he’s looking out to sea. He’s looking for the beauty all around us.” — George Horan
George Horan, primarily a landscape artist as well, has been a friend of Roy’s since the 1970s.
“Jean Claude and I kind of grew up in the arts together,” Horan said. “We were both just starting to get serious about it all and worked together for quite a while.”
Over the years, he’s watched Roy’s landscape paintings evolve.
“Back in the day, he was more of an impressionist,” Horan said. “He’s become far more of an expressionist and his colour sense is quite acute, as well. Those two things are a deadly combination, quite frankly.”
Roy deliberately challenges the viewer, Horan said.
“You have to explain it as almost being electric,” he said. “He’ll change the colours in the sky, for example, to suit his whim. He’ll repattern cloud formations to reflect what he’s looking at on the ground or on the ocean, if he’s looking out to sea.
“He’s looking for the beauty all around us.”
His paintings can strike you with the force of a punch, Horan says.
Alison Butler, who has been running the Emma Butler Gallery since her mother retired about eight years ago, says it will be a different opening for Roy.
“Usually the place is packed for one of Jean Claude’s openings, (with) people cheek to jowl, laughing, looking at art, admiring the beautiful paintings, drinking wine,” she said as Roy laughs in the background. “But it will be a smaller affair with small groups of people coming by every half hour with masks and hand sanitizer.”
However, Butler says the opening today — Aug. 27 — will be as celebratory as possible.
“This is two years of this man’s life and work,” she said.
And with the inclusion of Roy’s still-life paintings, it’s an exceptional showcase for the gallery to be able to host, Butler said.
“We’re looking forward to celebrating however we can.”
Anyone wanting to book a viewing can contact the Emma Butler Gallery at 709-739-7111.
Twitter: @AndrewLWaterman
