Claude A. Simard

Born on July 9, 1943 in Quebec City, Claude Alphonse Simard is a painter known for his colorful paintings depicting scenes of flower gardens, landscapes, still lifes and characters.

After classical studies at the Petit Séminaire de Québec and the Académie de Québec, he obtained a diploma in visual communication from the Ontario College of Art in Toronto in 1966. “I studied with masters such as Franklin Arbuckle, Alan C. Collier and Gray Mills. They gave me the taste to do, the taste to look, to say, to get lost in a drawing with the sincerity of passion…” says Claude A. Simard in his book Inspiration.

Following an internship with the British Motors Corporation design group in Birmingham, England, Claude A. Simard began his career in 1966, when he was hired by Maison Simons in Quebec City as director of advertising and development. It was he who designed the company’s brand image (the green leaf), as we know it today.

He founded Communikart in 1973, a graphic design firm that he directed until 1984. He then won several awards, including two awards in Milan for logos designed for Mobilier International (1973) and the Scierie des Outardes (1977). A co-founder of the Société des graphistes du Québec, created in 1974 and since then become the Société des designers graphiques du Québec, he is the author of a code of ethics designed to regulate the professional practices of members.

Received in 1981 at the Royal Academy of Arts of Canada, Claude A. Simard taught at the School of Visual Arts at Laval University from 1982 to 2002. He was vice-dean of the Faculty of Planning, Architecture, Art and Design in 1988-1989. For fifteen years (1985-2001) he led the research group “Ariane Création”, being responsible for the planning and design of signage on the university campus. In parallel with his activities as a graphic designer, entrepreneur and teacher, Simard devoted himself to painting and created an important corpus of works.

His paintings have been presented in many solo exhibitions. At the beginning of his career, in 1975, the Musée du Québec invited him to exhibit at the Galerie de la Quinzaine. In 1991, he participated in an exhibition highlighting three Quebec painters, presented at the Orangerie of the Château de Bagatelle in Paris. His works have been presented in various galleries in Canada, including the Perreault Gallery in Quebec City, the Roberts Gallery in Toronto, the Alan Klinkhoff Gallery in Montreal, the West End Gallery in Edmonton and Victoria and the Masters Gallery in Calgary.

Among his achievements, there are five historical murals executed in 1982-83 for Parks Canada as part of the interpretation concept integrated in Fort-Chambly. He is also the designer of 8 postage stamps issued by the Canadian Postal Corporation, including seven Christmas stamps (1983 and 1987) and a commemorative stamp, Quebec in bloom, issued in 1997.

He published three books dedicated to his two passions, painting and gardening. Very attached to his family, he dedicates Inspiration to his four grandchildren “to remember all the pleasure we have together, to this old easel, faithful companion of our loves”.

In the preface, sociologist and friend Jacques DeGuise writes: “I have known Simard for a long time. We traveled a lot together. He has always surprised me by his way of looking at the world, by his obsession with aesthetics, which is not a passion for him, but a simple way of being. Even in the hollowest of holiday times, Claude constantly fills his sketchbooks…… Read the texts: Simard writes as he paints, telling not what he sees but what he feels. He draws his inspiration from his experiences of everyday life, just like the cave artists. Play the artist too and read between the lines, you will see that the canvases and texts convey the same message: “even more essential than beauty, Simard paints happiness. ”