FOUNDRESS - Paintings Gallery

You will now visit a gallery of paintings by Marie Bilodeau, m.i.c. With her nimble brush, she created this symbolic art collection which illustrates the life, work and spirituality of Délia Tétreault (Mother Marie du Saint-Esprit), Foundress of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate-Conception.

Works of a Sparkling Originality

The forty paintingsexhibited here, visual allegories of the life of Delia Tétreault, were created over a five-year period between 1984 and 1989 by Marie Bilodeau. In them we discover the artist’s talent for transcribing on canvas with as much radiant precision, both the swan’s soft feathers and the ship’s mighty hull with inspiration as her guide Marie Bilodeau moves on from earthly subjects, letting her paintings blossom into complex crystal-like abstraction that burst forth with long beams of powerful and heavenly light.

The parallels drawn by Marie Bilodeau between her paintings and excerpts from Délia Tétreault’s extensive correspondence reveal a deep and insightful conception of faith, as something that reaches out to us, both from within ourselves and nature around us. Through these magical, brightly coloured metaphors whose sparkling originality still moves us today, the artist invites us at the heart of conversation between Délia Tétreault’s spirituality and her own.

Alexandre Payer

Exhibition curator

You can visit this Gallery at 100 Place Juges Desnoyers, Laval

For a guided tour call Jeanne Gauvin, m.i.c. at (450) 663-6460

About the Artist…

Born in Montreal in 1921, Marie Bilodeau grew up in the Immaculée-Conception parish. In 1942, after four years at the Montreal School of Fine Arts she joined the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate-Conception. She later graduated as an art teacher in 1948, starting her ten-year position as director of the Motherhouse’s art studio. In 1961, Sister Marie Bilodeau was called to Hong Kong where she taught art to over 600 students at Good Hope School. When she moved back to Canada in 1970, she started collaborating on many artistic projects for the community: films, publications, exhibitions, renovation projects as well as various commissioned religious works.

Marie Bilodeau, a fervent missionary and artist is still today an inspiration to her community.