This image is soft pastel. I gathered enough courage to approach this tall young and proud powwow dancer to pose for me. I think it helped that I am a first nation artist because he took a quick glance. Not all powwow dancers are approachable. It is for sale: $3,000.00, which includes the framing. Please enquire through my email and I will be glad to answer any questions. ABOUT ART - by Janice Guinan: From realism to surrealism  The Governor General's award in Visual Art is the foremost distinction for excellence in visual art. Mi'kmaq artist Leonard Paul displays his Governor General's Award in Visual Art he received in 1993 from then Governor General Ray Hnatyshyn. Behind him is one of his pencil drawings paying homage to our waterways. In 1993, local artist Leonard Paul received the medal from then-Governor General Ray Hnatyshyn for his renderings of environmental landscapes, rivers and streams. I asked if he would mind posing with the medal as I had never seen one before and was impressed with the humility and immense talent of this internationally acclaimed artist. When speaking of the medal, he reflected with some sadness as his father, Noel, had passed away and never got to see this esteemed award. Paul then showed me a painting of his dad, which is also featured on the invitation to his show soon opening at the MacLellan & Moffatt Financial Gallery at the Marigold Cultural Centre. "This is a quick rendition in oils of my father searching for a heavy rock to be an anchor. The mayflies were so thick that we could not speak or eat lunch, so we rowed to the middle of the lake to have our lunch in peace," explained Paul. "My father introduced me to the pleasures of waterways: lakes, rivers and brooks. He taught me to respect nature and what he carried into the lake and wore reflected unpretentiousness and humbleness. His name was Noel because he was born just before Christmas and he passed away over the Christmas holidays of 1991.This painting was of our last time fishing." Paul's Mi'kmaq heritage and love for people, land and nature is evident in his work. Although after almost 40 years of painting representational art, such as landscapes, he is feeling restless and in need of transition. "I am moving away from realism to depicting native legends done in surrealism from my imagination. My new oil paintings of whimsical stories are a form of traditional storytelling, but without texts to explain them. It is left to the viewer to interpret the story when seeing them," said Paul. The artist's painting style is high realism using a glazing technique, influenced by the 17th-century Dutch Baroque Period especially that of Johannes Vermeer. Paul formally studied glazing techniques at the Rijksmuseum, Mauritshuis Museum in Holland, the Louvre in Paris, and later finished his studies in Berlin, Germany, and Washington. In addition to his luminous oils, he has mastered watercolour, pastel, graphite and pen and ink. Applying various techniques and skillfully using his talents, he breathes life into the written and oral records of Mi'kmaq legends, so people can visually experience them in a new way. He is also writing and illustrating two books. His upcoming solo show will be one of the last to showcase both his realism and surrealism works together. He is also celebrating yet another award, from a national wildlife art competition: The Bruce Williams Memorial Silver Fox Award, sponsored by Ontario's Farm Mutual Reinsurance Plan Inc. An invitational event, top wildlife artists from across Canada were selected to submit a study of a silver fox in its natural habitat. Judging came down to three artists and it was three months before he found out who'd won. This award-winning painting, however, will not be in the show because the official unveiling by the institute is not until March 2016. Paul is the featured artist at the MacLellan & Moffatt Financial Gallery for the month of December. Come out on opening night, Thursday, Dec. 3 at 6:30 p.m., to meet this phenomenal modern day master. TAGLINE: Janice Guinan is a local artist who passionately believes in the importance of visual art. Her About Art column appears each week in the Truro Daily News. Guinan also writes a weekly column for the Colchester Weekly News. Both can be viewed online at www.trurodaily.com. Contact her at janice@janiceguinan.com. This video was made in 1991 and features Leonard discussing how his art has been affected by everything around him, not only by ancestors and traditions. To watch this film Kwa'nute
Video published 11th May 2015 in which Leonard Paul speaks about his fascination with drawing from a young age and how he is capturing the Mi'kmaq legends in his current work.
The Herald Chronicle Arts Reporter, Elissa Barnard, has written an excellent piece about my exhibition today at the Marigold Cultural Centre, Truro. To read the full article click on "Read More" at the end of this post.
Mi'kmaw artist Leonard Paul is back home with an ambitious new painting project and a desire to spark the arts in Mi'kmaw communities. He was in Calgary for nearly 10 years working as a director of recreation and cultural arts. "I had an epiphany. I said "Why am I doing this out here when I can be back home?" Recently turned 60, he is putting biking and running on the back burner to focus on his painting and he is teaching art at Pictou Landing. He is alarmed by the lack "of progress of the youth going into the arts and I know they're out there and I know there is talent." "We need to have our own First Nations arts council. We should have a performing arts centre where the youth can practise whatever discipline they are in." This summer's arts symposium in Millbrook for Atlantic Indigenous artists and arts practitioners was a good start, he says "When we do get together, a lot of artists don't think they're artists. They say, "Oh, we're craftspeople". I say, "Are you expressing yourself, your emotion, through your craft?" and they say, "Yes," and I say, "You're an artist." Read More.... Excerpt from letter of congratulations from Canadian Archaeological Association
"On behalf of the Canadian Archaeological Association (CAA), I write to express congratulations on receiving a 2014 Public Communications Award for the book “Pīsim Finds her Miskanow.” Our Public Awards Committee noted that this visually stunning book involved a large collaborative effort, including First Nation community members, early childhood educators, archaeologists, anthropologists, linguists, and historians. They appreciated that it seeks to meld two visions and approaches to Cree culture-history through a work of creative fiction designed to bring the many facets of traditional Cree culture alive for Native and non-Native readers alike, both young and old. The committee found this book to represent an extremely unique and creatively engaging manner of presenting archaeological information to the public. Your accomplishment will be recognized at the CAA annual meeting in London and posted on the CAA web site. "  Leonard Paul, nominated for the Lillian Shepherd Award
In The Chronicle Herald, Saturday, April 5, 2014 issue, the 2014 Atlantic Book Awards shortlist was released in Halifax at the event held at King's College. Mi'kmaq artist, Leonard Paul, of Pictou Landing First Nation, was nominated on the shortlist for the LILLIAN SHEPHERD AWARD for Excellence in Illustration. (Illustrator: Leonard Paul, Pisim Finds Her Miskanow, by William Dumas (Portage and Main Press, Winnipeg, Manitoba). Only 3 illustrators are chosen for the shortlist in Canada. In all, 27 books, ranging from fiction to books on Atlantic Canadian history, illustrated children's picture books to novels written for teens and young adults, have been nominated for 10 different prizes. The 2014 Atlantic Book Awards and Festival runs May 14th to 21st with free literary events. Winners will be announced at an awards show May 21 at the Delta Prince Edward?P.E.I. Convention Centre in Charlottetown. Mr. Paul will present a talk on his illustration work on the evening of May 14th, from 6:30 - 8:30, at the Mi'kmaq Heritage Centre. Book illustrator, Leonard Paul, was recently nominated on the Shortlist of the LILLIAN SHEPHED AWARD, is for "Excellence in Illustrator". His work is for PISM FINDS HER MISKANOW, by Portage & Main Press.
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