Born in Chicoutimi, Quebec, he loved to paint and draw in his youth. Later he worked as a lumberjack in the forests of the Upper Saguenay region until he started to paint full time. About 1958 he held his first solo exhibit at Arvida, Quebec, not far from Chicoutimi. His inspiration is derived from the St. John and Lower St. Lawrence regions and from the area of the Saguenay River. He received encouragement from René Bergeron an art dealer and artist from Chicoutimi as well as having received some influence from another artist René Richard of Baie St. Paul. Gagnon and Richard have sketched often together.
In his landscapes, he has been painting almost exclusively with palette-knife by which he carries his subjects to the edge of abstraction but still includes recognizable landscape elements. His work has been seen at the Royal Gallery, Montreal, at the Chateau Laurier, Ottawa and elsewhere.
Sources: "A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Volume I", compiled by Colin S. MacDonald, Canadian Paperbacks Publishing Ltd, Ottawa, 1977
