Historical Vignettes
He is renowned for having painted the joys and the sorrows of the Acadian people, and wins a contest illustrating the Acadian Deportation in 1987. Six historical paintings are created, ordered by Parks Canada for the Grand-Pré remembrance church in Nova Scotia. Georgette DESJARDINS and Claude Picard, « La vie au Madawaska 1785-1985 : fresque historique de Claude Picard », Revue de la Société historique du Madawaska, vol. XVII, no. 1, janvier-mars 1989, p. 4 (translated from the original) and Grand-Pré National Historic Site http://www.grand-pre.com/
Claude Picard: Creator of Emotions
A few of the twenty-four (24) scenes underline the importance of the forest industry in Madawaska, such as: the log drive, the sawmills, and even the sugar bushes (maple trees). Claude Picard says he has memories going back to his early childhood and adolescence, when he used to watch log drivers working right in front of his parent's cottage, located in Second Falls.
I saw the drivers; I observed them when they worked in the Fraser camps, one of which was located right across my parent's cottage. The log river drive lasted about a month and a half. I was fourteen years old at the time and I was drawn by this world in action, but also by the movement of the water disturbed by the logs.8
Therefore, the works of the artist are very much linked to the reality of the people, which is why the popular scenes he depicts and the historical characters he reproduces are so appreciated by the public. "I've always loved to reproduce the human face, develop the portrait. To accomplish that, I needed to learn to play with perspectives and study anatomy in order to successfully set these characters in motion while letting their emotions show.9