Rituel, 1985

Moore Gallery, Toronto Private Collection, New Brunswick

Guy Robert, Bellefleur: The Fervour of the Quest, Montreal, 1988, pages 63 and 134

Author Guy Robert declared that in 1985, at age seventy-five, Leon Bellefleur “still possessed the childlike ability to wonder at life, a freshness of perspective with a thirst not only for discovering, but also for inventing the world.” The author further writes that Bellefleur maintained his characteristic painterly style throughout thirty years: colours spread liberally with a spatula, with the refinement of rhythms and shades, then as a finishing touch to the improvisation, squirts or droplets are added, or small mysterious signs traced with the tip of the tool. Robert’s observations and remarks can certainly be applied to “Rituel”, a bold and expressive abstract composition that is quintessentially Bellefleur in its ‘faceted’ paint application. The oil on canvas demonstrates one new technique developed by Bellefleur to finish a painting: after letting it “breathe” for a few hours up to several days, the painter sprinkled droplets of paint in varying quantity and size, according to the inspiration of the moment and chance mishaps. “Rituel” is scattered with small drops of white and green pigment, adding further dimensionality to the abstract work. The large canvas serves as a prime example of Bellefleur’s mature work on a grand scale. “If this is what advancing age has in store, artists should look forward with anticipation and hurry to reach that plateau,” commented Lawrence Sabbath of the “Montreal Gazette” in covering an exhibition of Bellefleur’s gouaches and oils at the Walter Klinkhoff Gallery in 1985.