Artist Info
Pierre Bataillard
Self-taught, Switzerland-born artist Pierre Bataillard moved to Canada in 1967 and to Alberta in 1969, with a career as varied as his art: architectural draftsman (1964 – 1974), land use planner (1974 – 1976), architectural inspector (1976 – 1978), and project architect (1978 – 1981). Since 1981, Bataillard has been self-employed as an artist; he currently lives in a straw-bale home in Bonnyville, Alberta, and works at a nearby studio in his preferred media of water colour, oils, pastels, and acrylics. He’s experimented widely with still- and moving photography, batiks, caricature, silk screening, and three dimensional works; he also writes poetry.
Some of Bataillard’s art seeks to discuss the experience of an Alberta winter; his solo exhibition The Winter That Was—largely made of pastel and pencil compositions—employed a limited range of colours and the native hue of the paper to demonstrate the starkness of the whitest and darkest season on the prairies. Describing the origins of the exhibition, Bataillard writes, “In wintertime, there is less visual information…. The overwhelming presence of snow prevents some from seeing subtle beauty in the wintery landscape, a beauty that is not obvious.”
One of Bataillard’s most complex projects involved a community of non-artists, a church, and fabric. Leading a group of parishioners and others to create a series of banners for St. John’s United Church in Bonnyville, Bataillard experienced various rewards, including observing how some volunteers became innovators in their own right, as motivated not by aesthetic but liturgical passion. He also enjoyed the medium itself. “There is an element of intimacy working with fabric that I do not find in handling paint,” he says, affirming that such work is an “experience worth repeating.”
Bataillard has participated in numerous group exhibitions, including at the White Water Gallery of North Bay, Ontario, the Modern Painters Gallery of Edmonton, and in Vessels at the Art Gallery of St. Albert. He’s also staged more than a dozen solo exhibitions at locations such as the Science North Centre of Sudbury, Ontario, the Piano Galerie of Wohlen, Switzerland, the Centennial Centre of Bonnyville, Alberta, and The Winter That Was at the Art Gallery of Saint Albert. He was a jury member of the Pacifête ’87 mural competition in Vancouver, and is a member of the Alberta Society of Artists. His work dwells in a range of private and corporate collections.
