After a sabbatical year devoted to work and research in London, Florence and Montreal, Daniel LeBlond has deepened his understanding of the portrait and a new production sees the light of day: twenty-seven low-relief paintings,16 inches by 20 inches, and about fifteen large scale works painted on cardboard paper or untreated linen canvas.  This new series of works will feature in a touring exhibition entitled “Visages” (Faces) starting next year in Montreal, Havre (France) and Malta.  

 

            Faces beloved, rejected, ignored, desired,

            Faces encountered within the depth of one’s soul,

            Faces contemplated, exiled, forgotten,

            Faces that softly reemerge to inhabit me…

 

            I watched them; accepting or denying them,

            But they are me as I am them…

 

            Yes indeed, I have allowed myself to look, desire and love.

            But one day, arose the awareness

            Of this unique gaze

            Reaching the core of multiplicity

            That guided me there

            Where eternity opens up its door to the light of my inner depths

            He surprised me by how great is his compassion, his tenderness;

            How the mirror of his soul allows me to see differently, to wait in hope for myself,

            To desire my real presence, to recreate myself, to love myself, to love…

 

-Daniel LeBlond