Basque, a painter of nature and life in general, invites us to experience amazement, among other emotions, upon contemplating his works which evoke the vastest or most private spaces.
   A native of Trois-Pistoles, Basque paints the moody or raging rivers of the Lower Saint-Lawrence, an area he observes all year round. "Basque" became the pseudonym of Léonard Parent in 1957. The artist had long nurtured an interest in the Basque whalers and adventurers who docked at his hometown during the sixteenth century.
   Parent's classical education at the seminary in Rimouski and his training in theology at the Universita AngeIicum in Rome had prepared him for teaching. Parent did follow this vocation until 1979 when he left the Université du Québec à Rimouski to devote all his time to art. Parent-Basque's love of drawing had appeared in childhood and evolved in parallel with his teaching career. In fact he began exhibiting his work in shows across the province of Quebec in 1957. A self-taught artist, Basque acquired a solid background in art history and technique by scouring museums and libraries.
   Initially influenced by the romantics, then by the impressionists or lyric abstract painters, Basque repeated art history in his own creative development. For some 15 years, Basque painted great lyric works, almost monochromatic, rather austere. His ink washes and oils explored themes that were absent from previous works, e.g. beasts, faces and couples, Christ

and Don Quixote. These later figurative pieces retain the freedom of a lyric artist. More recently, Basque has defined himself as an "image-making" painter.
   His landscapes in oil reveal a certain quality of light, transparency, and fluidity in the artist's gesture that leave the viewer with a sensation of movement and underlying life. His paintings have a soul, an interiority rather than a decorative value. Basque leaves wide berth for freedom, intuition, spontaneity, and for that 'stain' that jolts the conscience to surpass tame technique.
   As a loner, serious and reserved, Basque has revealed himself to be a sensitive man, open to events, to the world, to the universe even. An enthusiastic communicator and host, he has held painting workshops, given art

history courses as well as lectures in several towns within the Bas-St-Laurent region.
   Described as a "refined peasant",¹ Basque remains very much attached to nature. He loves hiking and has followed on foot the rivers of most of eastern Quebec. As an adventurer in the mountains of the Gaspé, he searches out wild life, rare and semiprecious stones. As an amateur paleontologist he combs the beaches of Baie-des-Chaleurs. As a lover of literature, he is moved by both the prose and poetry. He reads the great Renaissance poets, e.g. Ronsard, Petrarch, as well as some of the ancients, such as Pindar. In fact some of his works bear titles that refer to verses by Verlaine, Rimbaud, Apollinaire and Baudelaire, to name a few. The artist describes a painting as a "song that requires a piano accompaniment." Basque embodies humanist values in the sense that "nothing that is human is foreign to him."
   Basque's work has been exhibited in several galleries across Canada. In 1974, the artist founded a gallery with his wife, Marielle Roussy, who runs the business and invites the public to see the work of some thirty Quebec artists. Basque has been a member of the Commission des Biens CuIturels du Québec since 1994 and has written many articles for newspapers and magazines. Like Basque's paintings, his texts are very much appreciated for the author's style and original thinking. Indeed the artist has more elaborate writing projects in mind for the near future.