ALCIDE ST. GERMAIN (1911 - 1978)

Alcide St. Germain worked principally in wood covered with a thick coat of plaster and then painted with decorative motifs of circles, ellipses, swirls of colour or spots. He would over-paint them as they became worn by the weather. His first carvings were a series of moose which were inspired by a television lamp in the shape of a moose. He eventually filled his yard and garden with fanciful sculptures of deer, giraffes, tigers, peacocks, penguins, fish and people. Alcide would create scenes on his porch using life size people with jointed limbs and brightly coloured clothes and costume jewellery. By stretching a cord from the inside of his house to the hands of the carvings he could make his sculptures wave to people driving by. He would also put them in the passenger seat of his car. Ref: Kobayashi/Bird, A Compendium of Canadian Folk Artists (1985); Blake McKendry, An Illustrated Companion To Canadian Folk Art (1999), Bernard Riordon (Beaverbrook Gallery), Canadian Centre for Folk Culture Studies, From the Heart - Folk Art in Canada (1983).

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