Canadian artist Gaston Rebry was born in October of 1933 in Belgium. Like his father, Gaston was a competitive cyclist, and had been quite successful in the sport. However, his love of art and painting was just too strong and he soon abandoned cycling to study drawing at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Menin and was twice awarded First Prize.
In 1955, he moved to Quebec and studied at the École des Beaux-Arts de Montréal earning a living as a travelling salesman. It took Rebry ten years before he was able to devote himself entirely to painting.
Gaston Rebry painted houses, villages and even portraits when he first began but his true love was nature and he felt one with it clearly reflected in his art. For over twenty years he painted nothing but Canadian landscapes. He was fascinated by light and attempted to capture its nuance in the water, sky, leaves and trees. He never replicated what he saw but rather allowed it to inspire him. He reconstructed it, taking out this, adding that, making it more complete. He turned it into something new and unique.
When asked how long it takes to complete a painting, Rebry invariably replied, 40 years! To him each painting was the culmination of his experience as an artist and the expression of his life. Each canvas reflected nearly fifty years of close communion with nature – a lifetime work and all the hopes and dreams of the artist set in a benevolent landscape.
Gaston Rebry left this world on January 5th, 2007, but he left a legacy we can all continue to admire.
