In this new series, we would like to share with you some some traits and anecdotes about some of the dozens of artists we have met during the past four decades.

Our first subject: André Bertounesque. For fans and those who knew him by his paintings, he remains one of the great masters of light among our Quebec painters.

Born in France in 1937, he arrived in Quebec in 1951 and earned his living as a hairdresser while painting – a hobby that soon became his main occupation. For the rest, his fans know the story. He loved women profoundly and painted them in countless paintings during the 1970s and 1980s.  He then went on to create a kind of chronicle of his native South of France where the landscapes of Provence explode on coloured and luminous canvases.

All this is part of the official history and what one finds everywhere in print or on-line.

What is less known is Bertou’s other passion : It was an indefatigable collector.

Over the years he amassed an impressive collection of insects, seashells and other objects that he kept, catalogued and for which acquisition he developed almost an obsession.

The stories told by his friends and relatives are often amazing. Schemes of all sorts to obtain coveted objects – sometimes at the limit of legality, attempts of coercion with his friends in order to convince them to assist him in his adventures; his passion for collecting sometimes outshone his passion for painting and women.

I met André a few years before he left us in 2005. I am proud to say that we had developed a certain friendship which allowed me to get to know him and that allowed him to confide in me about some of his adventures as a collector.

In his later  years, he was hunting movies! Indeed, he had gotten into his head to amass a beautiful collection of movies on VHS. As he told me, he liked to drive around and head for small towns or small villages.

Once there, he would find small video clubs, convenience stores and small grocery stores and would search through their collection of movies on tape. When he found something interesting – especially French films – he offered to buy them and then moved on to the next village.

Understand me well: his mission was not to find films to watch but to collect. He told me himself that he rarely watched them.

When he left us, a few years back, he left an impressive amount of collections that his heir are likely still cataloging!