Jean-Pierre Neveu

Biography

Jean-Pierre Neveu was born in Saint-Basile-le-Grand, in the region of Montérégie (Quebec, Canada), on April 12, 1948 to a modest family, in a time known as the “Great Darkness”. He begins painting at a very young age, before his first school years. At nine, he is already a passionate student in his drawing classes and stands out for his ability to reproduce elements with an exceptional fidelity. At the age of 14, Neveu’s father encourages him to sell his paintings, and he quickly gains in popularity as a result.

As a self-taught artist, Neveu never felt the need to validate what he would later practice as a profession. However, in 1968 he enrols at the École des Métiers d’Arts in Montreal. With Professor Ivanhoé Fortier Dupuis, he learns the techniques of stone carving. Always in an innate need to satiate his techniques and knowledge, to this day Jean-Pierre Neveu has never stopped studying various techniques in visual arts.

In 1983, he composes an unusual chromatic chart on the natural colors of our real, terrestrial environment according to the perception of the human eye, which led him to create paintings based on a concept out of the ordinary for this time. In 1985, while teaching painting and drawing in different organizations, he opens his own school where he teaches the techniques of painting and stone carving, a school he names Studio Creativ-Art. In 1989, this school becomes the Association of Stone Sculptors of Montérégie.

1986 turns out to be a pivotal year for Neveu as the artist embarks on a passionate quest to reinvent the landscapes of this world to create a new one. It is through this inner search that the Universe of Ava is born. In 2012, Neveu publishes a 912-page novel titled “Le Perceurs d’Univers” (The Piercer of Universes published by the Editions of Mi-Fiction) that describes the Universe of Ava in all its intricate details.

On April 21, 2012 Neveu was inducted as a signatory member of the Institute of Figurative Arts (IAF). That same year, Neveu celebrates fifty years of artistic life by creating a major event where he presents a retrospective of his works through his artistic journey. For the first time, he exhibits his new collection of oil paintings with three-dimensional effects. In 2013 during the annual Academia Gala, the International Academy of Fine Arts of Quebec (AIBAQ) awards Neveu with the prize of “Master in Fine Arts.” In 2014, after five years of research, Neveu discovers the missing link to make his work unique in the field: he creates a way for us to see his paintings in three dimensions by crafting a chromatic chart adapted for figurative painting. In May 2015, he is accepted as a member of the Society of Canadian Artists.

2015 to 2018 are years of recognition for the Master of Fine Arts. Several honors and important distinctions are conferred on him, in Europe as well as in Canada. One of them stands out amongst others: the Silver Medal of the Academic Society ARTS-SCIENCES-LETTERS of Paris. He participates to hundreds of important exhibitions, such as the Museum Marc-Aurèle Fortin in 1993, where a work of 12 X 6.5 feet is presented. His artwork travels in France, the United States and Canada, but most of it is found in private and corporate collections, including Loto Quebec, SNC Lavalin and the Montreal Institute of Fine Arts.

For some years now, he has given lectures on artistic subjects that highlight the power of the artist following his creative process. The goal is to further develop their dream world to realize their own artistic signature. In parallel to his conferences, Neveu is always in search of knowledge, which brings him to go deeper into his research and to experiment on new creative concepts, which he then shares with his peers, and help them push their creative limits.

Artist’s statement

As a young child, Jean-Pierre Neveu is possessed by the unexplainable impulsive need to continually draw scenes from his environment: barns, houses, cows, trees. He naturally grasps the importance of observation and gesture, to memorize the elements he sees so that he can later represent them as accurately as possible with his colored pencils. This reveals the analytical personality of this artist, a personality that will always be fed by exploration, study, research and creation.

He finds inspiration in Delacroix, Van Dyck, Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci, some for their style and technique, others for their thirst for knowledge and artistic achievements.

Neveu paints forest scenes in a natural way. Directly connected to nature, he favors hyperrealism which leads him to surrealism. He feels no need to sketch: on a black or white background, he spontaneously starts his first creative gesture. Four Golden Section points guide his initial composition. As described by art historian and critic Sam Aberg, Neveu manipulates small or large brushes in a surgical precision to define forms on the canvas, creating the scenes in a spatio-temporal style. The evolution of strokes and paint spots transforms into hundreds of points of interest, which then translates into a totally magical environment.

Using pure oil as a medium of choice, Neveu carefully choses the colors of each scene, deposits them to create a detachment between each element, filling the depth of field of the different planes of the painting: the result is a visual in three dimensions. Neveu meticulously studies and develops this technique to adapt it to figurative painting. He creates his own chromatic chart in three dimensions with the help of ChromadepthTM glasses. This outcome demonstrates an undeniable fact: the creation of a new artistic movement, the “Chromadepth” 3D, proclaimed by art theorist Hélène-Caroline Fournier-Torregrossa.

Vibrant blues, warm yellowish greens or cold greens getting closer to aqua, deep reds fading into orange: all these colors unite in tickling their complementary colors. By this pictorial treatment, the colors enveloping the composition create in this way, a mystical atmosphere that only the artist can master. From the simple forest scene to the fantastical landscape stemming from a parallel world born from the artist, Jean-Pierre Neveu learns to write a fiction book in order to define the deep nature of his world. “My painting was not enough to fully express everything I saw and knew about this world. Shall I write to give it even more realism as to believe in it even more?”

To believe more, so that the imaginary never ceases to create.

The artist’s work comes to life inseparably from its parallel world. Each painting, large or small, mainly illustrates plants classified by species, family, order, class and branch from the universe of Ava. Nothing is left to chance in the artist’s mind. The scrolling of the scenes thus painted reproduces a completely reinvented visual.

In front of each completed artwork, his pride is manifested in a vision that is always improved by his technique, to contribute to the fabulous world of art here and now, and later on, like a legacy of his memory. The work of the artist leads the viewer to wonder where the key is to be found, to penetrate this universe, unknown to us until now.

WELCOME TO THE UNIVERSE OF AVA!
By Jean-Pierre Neveu

C.V.

Education

1962 to 1965

DES, École secondaire Gérard-Filion, Longueuil, QC, CA

Professional training

1976	Welding, Pierre Dupuis, Longueuil, QC, CA
1968, 1969	Stone carving, teacher: Ivanhoé Fortier, École des Métiers d’Art de Montréal, QC, CA

Development

2000 to 2003	Japanese taiko lessons, “Arachi Daiko” group Montreal, QC, CA
1991	Gemstone carving class, Lapidary art, teacher: André Gagnon, Québec, QC, CA
1985 to 1986	Airbrushing classes, teacher: Gilles Dagenais, Beloeil, QC, CA
1980 to 1985	Classes on the art and culture of bonsai, Montreal Botanical Garden, QC, CA
1980 to 1984	Drawing classes, teacher: Gilles Dagenais, Beloeil, QC, CA
1982	Cartoonist class, teacher: M. Debray, QC, CA
1975	Watercolor class, teacher: Pierre Tougas, QC, CA
1974	Wood carving class, Bas-reliefs, teacher: R. Gigeault, Montreal, QC, CA
1973 to 1974	Copper enamel classes, teacher: Maude Éloka, Montreal, QC, CA
1968	Painting class, teacher: Jean Constantineau, QC, CA
1955 to 1958	Drawing classes, Boarding School of the Sacred Hearts, QC, CA

Solo Exhibitions

2019	Chabèche, Galerie du Vieux St-Jean, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, QC, CA
2016	Denisiava, Galerie du Vieux Saint-Jean, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, QC, CA
2012	50e Anniversary of Artistic Life, Cultural Centre of Belœil, Belœil, QC, CA
2012	Launch of 3D painting of the Universe of AVA, Cultural Centre of Belœil, Belœil, QC, CA
2012	Launch of fiction novel Le Perceur d’Univers, Cultural Centre of Belœil, Belœil, QC, CA
1995	Exhibition, Elgar Community Center, Verdun, QC, CA n, Centre communautaire Elgar, Verdun, QC, CA
1995	Exhibition, Beloeil Cultural Center, Beloeil, QC, CA
1993	Exhibition, Marc-Aurèle Fortin Museum, Montréal, QC, CA
1991	Exhibition, Arts Pavilion, Sainte-Adèle, QC, CA
1990	Exhibition, Léonard de Vinci Gallery, Sainte-Julie, QC, CA
1988, 1997	Exhibition, Old Presbytery Exhibition Center, Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, QC, CA
1976 to 1988	Exhibition, Gérard-Fillion High School, Longueuil, QC, CA
1971 to 1975	Exhibition, Terre des Hommes, Canadian Village, Montreal, QC, CA
1969	Exhibition, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, CA

International exhibitions (juried)

2016	Salon Artistes du Monde, winner of the new technique prize, Cannes, FR
2015	Canadian Delegation, Société Nationale des Beaux-arts, Carrousel du Louvres, Paris, FR

International exhibitions (not juried)

2017	Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Carrousel du Louvres, Paris, FR
2017	Salon Artistes du Monde, Cannes, FR
2016	Grand Prix international de Peinture et de Sculpture, Espace Miramar, La Croisette, Cannes, FR
2016	St-Bernardin Gallery, Cannes, FR
2016	Espace Art Gallery, Bruxelles, Belgique
2015	Canadian Delegation, Société Nationale des Beaux-arts, Carrousel du Louvres, Paris, FR
1995	Art Gallery ADP, Paris, FR
1989	AZ ARTS Gallery, New York, É.-U.
1987	Quebec Painters, Galerie ADP, Paris, FR

Group exhibitions (juried)

2015	Grand Salon Art et Passion, Sainte-Julie, QC, CA
1986	Cercle des Artistes Peintres et Sculpteurs du Québec, Montréal, QC, CA

Group exhibitions (not juried)

2018	Exposition Signature, IAF, Drummondville, QC, CA
2017	Exhibition at Livart, Montréal, QC, CA
2017	Centre civique Bernard Gagnon, private collection Saint-Basile, Saint-Basile-le-Grand, QC, CA
2015	Voyage en Art, Centre Bernard Gagnon, Saint-Basile-le-Grand, QC, CA
2015	Symposium of Danville, QC, CA
2015	Deux temps deux mouvements, Montebello, QC, CA
2015	Symposium of Kamouraska, Kamouraska, QC, CA
2015	Rendez-vous des arts métissés, Montréal, QC, CA
2015	Voyage en Art, Place Nikitouagan, Jonquière, QC, CA
2015	Auberge Harris, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, QC, CA
2015	Grand Salon Art et Passion, Sainte-Julie, QC, CA
2014	IAF, Marius-Barbeau Museum, Beauce, QC, CA
2014	Rendez-vous des arts métissés, Saint-Marc-sur-Richelieu, QC, CA
2014	Symposium Art et Passion, Sainte-Julie, QC, CA
2013 to 2016, 2018	Symposium Le Rendez-vous des Artistes, Saint-Léonard, NB, CA
2013, 2014	Symposium of Danville, Danville, QC, CA
2013	Symposium Rêve d’automne, Baie-Saint-Paul, QC, CA
2009	Fête des arts, Centre Bernard Gagnon, Saint-Basile-le-Grand, QC, CA
2007	Une Époque en Art, Centre Bernard Gagnon, Saint-Basile-le-Grand, QC, CA
2001	Une Époque en Art, Centre d’affaires IGA, Saint-Basile-le-Grand, QC, CA
1995, 2013, 2014	Rencontre des Arts, Collège militaire, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, QC, CA
1995	Rencontre V, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, QC, CA
1995	Justice Palace of Montreal, Montréal, QC, CA
1995	ASPM, Centre Éthier, Saint-Basile-le-Grand, QC, CA
1991	Galerie Longueuil, Longueuil, QC, CA
1991	Place Alexis Nihon, Circle of Painters and Sculptors of Quebec, Montreal, QC, CA
1991	Espace à voir, Hôpital Charles-Lemoyne, Greenfield Park, QC, CA
1991	Vision 91, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC, CA
1990, 1991	Léonard de Vinci gallery, Sainte-Julie, QC, CA
1990	Association des Arts et de la Culture de la Rive-Sud, Saint-Basile-le-Grand, QC, CA
1990	Centre des arts contemporains du Québec, Montréal, QC, CA
1989	Sentir Revivre, Salle l’amicale, Saint-Basile-le-Grand, QC, CA
1988	Arts et Tendances au Québec, Bibliothèque Saint-Bruno, QC, CA
1988	Aréna Jean Rougeau, Saint-Basile-le-Grand, QC, CA
1988	La Petite Galerie, UNICEF, École secondaire Gérard-Fillion, QC, CA
1987	Galerie L’Item, Mont-Saint-Hilaire, QC, CA
1987	Hôtel Sheraton, Laval, QC, CA
1986, 1987	Cercle des Artistes Peintres et Sculpteurs du Québec, Montréal, QC, CA
1986	Association of Business Women and Men of Canada, Montreal, QC, CA
1985	Conseil de la peinture du Québec, Montréal, QC, CA
1973	Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC, CA

Exhibition (selected)

2012	Symposium des Arts of Danville, guest artist, Danville,
2005	Une Époque en Art, guest artist, Centre Bernard-Gagnon, Saint-Basile-le-Grand, QC, CA
2002	Une Époque en Art, guest artist, École Jacques-Rocheleau, Saint-Basile-le-Grand, QC, CA

Honorary invitations

2016	Symposium of Danville, Honorary President, Danville, QC, CA
2013	Association of Sculptors of Montérégie, guest of honor, Center Jordi Bonnet, Mont-Saint-Hilaire, QC, CA
2011	Fête des arts, guest of honor, Centre Bernard-Gagnon, Saint-Basile-le-Grand, QC, CA
2010	Association of Sculptors of Montérégie, guest of honor, Center Culturel de Belœil, Belœil, QC, CA

Professional representation

2015 to present

Galerie du Vieux St-Jean, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, QC, CA

Awards

2020	Silver Medal, SYMBOLISM SURREALISM Award, International Award for Art Professionals, MAA
2020	Vermeille Medal, Commission Supérieure Académique Art Sciences Lettres de Paris, Paris, FR
2019	Ambassador of the Year, Mondial Art Académia
2019	Mondial Art Académia, Canadian Ambassador
2019	Grand Master Council, Fine Arts, AIBAQ
2018	Gold Medal, CREATIVITE Award, International Award for Art Professionals, MAA
2018	Title of instigator of a new contemporary style in figurative painting, the 3D chromadept, by Hélène-Caroline Fournier-Torregrossa, art critic .
2018	Grand Master, Fine Arts, AIBAQ
2017	Academy Officer, Mondial Art Academia
2016	New Technique Award (chromadept 3D), Salon Artiste du Monde, Cannes, FR
2016	Silver Medal, Commission Supérieure Académique Art Sciences Lettres de Paris, Paris, FR
2016	Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, France, Associate Member
2015	Bronze Medal, SNBA, Carrousel du Louvre, Paris, FR
2015	Canadian Artists Society, Signature Member
2015	Yvon Boucher Award, Symposium Art et Passion
2015	Emeritus Member, IAF
2013	Master, Fine Arts, AIBAQ
2012	Figurative Art Institute, Signature Member
2011	Public Award, Fête des Arts, St-Basile-le-Grand, QC, CA
2002	Public Award, Une Époque en Art, St-Basile-le-Grand, QC, CA
1995	Association des Sculpteurs sur Pierre de la Montérégie
1987	2e Place, Visual Art National Competition of Quebec
1986	Honorable Mention , Cercle des Artistes Peintres du Quebec

Artistic achievements

2012	Fiction novel Le Perceur d’Univers, Éditions Mi-Fiction
2005	Mock-up (policy of integration of the arts into architecture), École de la Mosaïque, Saint-Basile-le-Grand, QC, CA
2004	Japanese taiko design and manufacture
1991	Three mural sculptures (policy of integration of arts into architecture), Centre hospitalier Jacques-Viger, Montreal, QC, CA
1985	Sculpture, Loto-Québec, QC, CA
1985	Sculpture, Steelco Inc., Montréal, QC, CA
1975	Monumental sculpture, Desjardins Lumberland Syndicates, Montreal, QC, CA

Professional achievements

2012	Foundation of Editions Mi-Fiction
2000	Marketing of artistic products, under the title of Créativ-Art Products
1985	Painting and Stone Carving – School Foundation, Créativ-Art, Saint-Basile-le-Grand
1971 to 2009	Teaching in painting and stone sculpture

Professional experience in art education

2017	Sanguine and dry techniques , Galerie du Vieux St-Jean, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu
2017	3D painting, Galerie du Vieux St-Jean, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu
2017	Charcoal, Galerie du Vieux St-Jean, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu
2017	Forest hyperrealism, Galerie du Vieux St-Jean, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu
2016	Forest hyperrealism, St-Côme
2014	Perspective, Saint-Basile-le-Grand
2010, 2011	Advanced painting (senior), Develop your signature, Saint-Basile-le-Grand
1996 to 2000	Drawing and Watercolor, Saint-Basile-le-Grand
1995	Advanced Painting, Saint-Basile-le-Grand
1988 to 1994	Painting, Drawing and Stone Carving, Créativ-Art, Saint-Basile-le-Grand
1988	Wood carving , Belœil
1988	Painting and Stone Carving – School Foundation, Créativ-Art, Saint-Basile-le-Grand
1987 to 1993	Painting, Belœil
1986 to 1995	Painting and Drawing, Saint-Basile-le-Grand
1974	Stain Glass, Centre d’art de Saint-Basile-le-Grand
1972 to 1975	Drawing, Centre d’art de Saint-Basile-le-Grand
1972 to1974	Drawing and Stain Glass, Pensionnat des Sacrés-Cœurs

Corporate Collections

2011	Municipality of Saint-Basile-le-Grand
1991	Jacques-Viger Hospital, Montréal
1988	International Network of Commercial Exchange, Montréal
1987	Municipality of Saint-Basile-le-Grand
1987	SNC-Lavalin
1974	Desjardins Lumberland Syndicate, Montréal

Professional Associations

• Canadian Artists Society, Signature Member
• Figurative Art Institute, Signature Member
• Académie Internationale des Beaux-Arts du Québec
• Association des Sculpteurs sur Pierre de la Montérégie

Publications

2018	Revue d’art l’Arzoomer
2017	Magazin’Art, édition été 2017
1994	Collection Pictographe, Éditions XYZ, J-P Neveu et XYZ
1993	Guide Vallée, Publication Charles Huot
1990	Le Maître Imprimeur, page couverture
1989	L’art, miroir de sa réalité, Sam Aberg
1988	Arts et tendances au Québec, Sam Aberg
1987	Guide Vallée, Publications Charles Huot