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It was a great pleasure to meet Mr Lionel Venne, a famous abstract artist from north Ontario. You can see much of his work in various art galleries in north Ontario and here are some from Temiskaming Art Gallery. He uses various media such as water colours, oil paints, acrylics, collage, various prints, textiles and artifacts. There was a very good collection of pencils and brushes in his room. I envied it.
I and Eileen made some Indian tea for all of us while others were just relaxing and talking. He stays in a church and they have provided him space for his art gallery and school. He conducts various art courses for children and even adults. You could see his paintings displayed in famous hotels and restaurants. He even does painting to raise funds for the church.
While enjoying some Indian tea I asked him about his journey to art. He is born in Verner, Ontario in 1936 to French mother and British father. He was raised by his grandmother. He used to draw pictures and paint since he was a small child. He never had any formal training in art and it was a natural gift to him. 
None of his family members was an artist but he recalled that one famous artist in France was his distant uncle from his mother's side. Initially he painted landscapes with water colours. He was never a live painter i.e. he never paints the landscapes or any other painting by seeing it live. 
He would wander around and see the landscapes and keep the scenes in mind. then he use mixture of the scenes. He never pre-determine what he is going to paint. Painting is just like an emotional expression for him. When he begins a painting he does not know what he is going to paint. 
Even the use of textures, textiles and artifacts in his paintings is very spontaneous. The wall hanging in the left hand side photograph he described as head of some animal with horns. The fact is he has not used a single animal part in it. He mentioned that when he had an art camp for teen agers, he asked all the participants a couple of days before the camp to collect various artifacts and bring those for the camp.
While walking along shores of pacific and Atlantic oceans he had found some stones that has natural formations on it. The white lines visible on the stones and the smooth stone with a small hole in it (looking like a stand for incense stick) are formed naturally. 
He was very delighted to show and talk about his paintings. Most of the paintings were done on canvas and or thick chart paper. He is very much specialized in painting northern lights and even described to us some of the occasions when he saw northern lights in the area.
Recently he has won a first place award for his mixed media painting, "Impressions of a Northern Ontario Landscape" at the LaCloche Art Show held at Whitefish Falls Community Center. He has exhibited his paintings and art in Australia and Germany. 
