The Mer Océane symposium was held in the Îles-de-la-Madeleine in 1998 and brought together many important artists, including the sculptor Charles Daudelin and the painter René Lemay, both now deceased.

Besides Pellan and a handful of “automatistes”, few artists in Québec have provided this much pleasure through their work. The Italians have their futurists and the Catalans had Miro. Luckily we have Lemay.

When everything seems short-lived and quickly forgotten, sometimes persists an inner desire for continuance. Once human beings become dust, very few traces of their passage are left behind, aside from their direct descendants. Some traces of their lifetime achievements may remain, provided they are durable enough to avoid deterioration that would also lead to their disappearance.

The collection of artworks by René Lemay, contemporary artist, immerses us in various cultural events that have marked the visual arts scene in the Îles-de-la-Madeleine, while also demonstrating the influence that insularity and the sea have had on his work. The opening reception will take place on Sunday, June 17 at 2 p.m. at the Musée de la mer. This exhibition is a project by Yann Beauregard Lemay and René Lemay Jr. in tribute to their father.

For more than 25 years, René Lemay devoted himself to painting. He produced numerous works—paintings, drawings, lithographs, sculptures—of great beauty. Many of them were sold, given away, or dispersed. The painter’s death in 2015 was a triggering moment for his son, Yann Beauregard-Lemay.

Confronted on one hand with the disappearance of his father, and on the other with the presence of his work that outlives him, he decided to undertake a vast project to preserve his father’s memory.

Listen to the interview

It is a dialogue with the nature of the Îles-de-la-Madeleine, and also somewhat with the history and daily life of the Madelinots, that the works created during the third edition of the Mer Océanie symposium constitute, on the sea as in the sky.

Many artistic people are inspired either by their environment, community or the visceral emotions that centre around those two dynamics. However, a few individuals are inspired by all of the above. Canadian artist Rene Lemay's paintings revel in this chaotic mixture of feelings and intellectual discourse. 

René Lemay was born in Montréal in 1934. A self-taught painter, he came to painting not by chance, but following a winding path. He first became interested in pottery, where he was particularly successful through a company he founded that distributed his products across Canada.

Rene Lemay loves Viet Nam, and he’s not afraid to show it.

Happy Days in Viet Nam, which opened at the Viet Fine Arts Gallery last Friday, is the Canadian’s first solo exhibit in Viet Nam which promises to put audiences in touch with his feelings and emotions about Asia through 24 vibrant compositions.

It is with pride that we presented the documentary Mer Océane at the Cinémathèque as part of the Rendez-vous Québec Cinéma. We were moved to hear, in this documentary, Charles Daudelin’s warm words about René Lemay’s work.

The adopted Madelinot, who divided his life between the archipelago and Asia, leaves behind an astonishing body of work where colour, liveliness, humour and transparency coexist.

Because René Lemay was a poem himself. His painting was a poetic charge against the sadness of the world. It was nothing but forms, music, rhythm and colours. The stamping of horses’ hooves, long bicycle caravans, the joyful slowness of boats, the smiles of women. Yes, women. René did not love women, he venerated them, he celebrated them.

For an artist living in Quebec, opening up to art markets outside the province has almost become a necessity, as it is increasingly difficult to make a decent living by selling one’s work only in Quebec.

Here is what René Lemay’s painting inspired for this publication: the represented face transforms while retaining its identity in what appears to be a passage or in-between state between blue (French) and red (English).

"On September 18, 2015, the wind blew so hard it carried me out to sea. To those who recognize my sail, I will always be there…"

"Nomade bleue sails the ocean. From June to October, she can be found off the Magdalen Islands, where at first she observes the sailboats, and then advancing a little nearer to the coast, watches the 20th anniversary celebrations of the Café de la Grave.
 
She listens, enchanted, to the talented singers and musicians, and then, taking a closer look, is impressed by the work of the islands’ visual artists. In October, she heads out to sea once more, bound for lands of mysterious hues and scents…" – Ann Riley 

Naufragée des mers shows a whale being rescued by villagers. They spray water on the large mammal in the hopes of returning it safely to the sea. This monumental work and the choice of subject demonstrate the artist’s sensitive handling of this issue.

Artwork "Golden Fish" by artist Rene Lemay was selected by Le Galeriste for a new fashion collection. 

René Lemay began his artistic career with silkscreen printing. In the 1980s, he established a fine art publishing house, Maylude, which allowed him to print several hundred copies of his watercolours. These works are more figurative than the acrylics presented in this exhibition.

René Lemay exhibited several times during his lifetime at Café de la Grave, including for its twentieth anniversary. It is therefore entirely natural for the family to continue this tradition, and we hope you will enjoy this exhibition.

René Lemay says, with humour, that he followed a path opposite to the one artists often experience. Far from facing the disapproval of those around him, he rather benefited from the encouragement of his parents, especially his mother, who urged him to become a painter. Self-taught, he spent his childhood passionately drawing his family and friends.

Artwork "Consultations" by french canadian artist René Lemay was choosen to illustrate "Dictionary of Quebec Literature (1991-1995)". This dictionnary is a reference distributed in all public libraries of Quebec. 

It was with great surprise that in 2023 the documentary Mer Océane was released, 25 years after the events.

Seize the passing moment, imprison it on a material surface with pigment, create the sensation of capturing light with brushes, hands or trowels, diverting reality so that it flows through a different doorway, modifying it and leaving your mark on it...

René Lemay’s work is not limited to painting, although he is associated with that medium more than any other. It should not be forgotten that his artistic expression is a whole.

Painting is a unique form of expression; it is not always an easy feat for art amateurs to grasp the true importance of the medium and the weight of its direction and essence. It is in this intricacy that the duality and the complicity between spirit and matter make up a forum of manifestations where both complementary and opposing forces are at play. 

To the painter René Lemay | 2012 | Francine Allard
L’âme inconsciente du pétoncle, To the painter René Lemay, pp. 42 and 43, Art Le Sabord editions, 2012

In 1990, I wrote IN FRONT OF A LEMAY PAINTING, a poem to celebrate the artist’s talent. The text still appears in his curriculum vitae. I sang for him at Café de la Grave at a time when one could be accompanied on piano there. His eyelashes were wet, I remember. I also wrote him a poem in my collection THE UNCONSCIOUS SOUL OF THE SCALLOP, a text titled IN THE ISLANDS, THE WEATHER IS NOT ALWAYS FAIR IF YOU TRY TO MEASURE THE HORIZON. Here it is.

René Lemay’s paintings celebrate life. Whether it be a group of musicians, a bird in flight or a figure floating in space, the subject Lemay paints have all the cadence and joy of a ceremony. A ritual-like dance scene - a vision of musicians embarked on a journey at night in a boat - or a simple depiction of a rooster in a yard - all these scenes evoke the sens that they are part of some larger unrecorded event.

With the passing years, the artist’s style became increasingly refined and stylized. Les cinq mats is an excellent example of this constant pursuit of the expressive line in its simplest and purest form.

It is Lemay
The elusive and tender creator
The character charms
The artist seduces

The gesture of the artist’s spatula strokes generates the movement of the rough sea. The sailboat, carried by the wave in the midst of a storm, is about to capsize. In the last ten years of his career, René Lemay mainly turned to painting large-format works.

René Lemay (1934–2015) painted the Magdalen"s for more than 20 years, never tiring of the wild beauty of the place and the insularity it imposes. The Islands were at the heart of the artist’s pictorial practice; he divided his life between Asia and this Quebec archipelago.​