Souls in Wonder by Chard Chénier Painting

My professional name is Chard Chénier (a short version of Richard Chénier) and so my artwork is signed accordingly. A work of art is a state of being: a higher order explained through beauty. “There’s something he’s seen that we haven’t, that we unconsciously long for, that he unleashes in us, and that he shows us how to see. His is a remarkable nobleness of vision that informs our mind’s eye with longing for more.” Tom Harmer Author of “Going Native”, “What I’ve Always Known” and “A Walk Around the Horizon: Discovering New Mexico's Mountains of the Four Directions” Introduction Who is the person writing these words? Someone who, as a child, loved to draw and paint then continued on for 60+ years because creating makes him serene and happy. The dream-like timelessness, the wonder of painting, makes him see the world more clearly. Within him exists a world of imagination that flows out into the real world and then back within to metamorphose into another discovery. The only criteria he applies is that there be a balance of mind and heart, that the beauty collaborates with the universe expressing what it means to be human, the dignity of being real in the world. Like everyone there remains a part of me that is equal parts mystery and self-knowledge; every image is a door opening into my consciousness at a specific period in my life. Once completed each canvas takes on a life of its own, can come back to teach me some truth that I was not aware of at the time. An image creates the illusion of stasis; its essence is flowing and intertwined with our perceptions. I Into the world 1947 First child of French-Canadian Roman Catholic parents, my childhood is spent in a small prairie town cradled beside the muddy Red River. Saint-Boniface, my hometown, is the largest French-Canadian community outside the province of Quebec. On the other side of the Red River sprawls the city of Winnipeg, capital of Manitoba. My serene childhood will serve me well; spiritual and psychological stability are useful if your destiny is to be a painter. Under vast blue skies my imagination soars. Free to daydream, to draw and read... all in all, an uncomplicated childhood. II 1947 – 1966 Optimism comes naturally to prairie people. The vast open spaces inspire an impulse to embrace what the world has to offer. In my earliest sketches this positive outlook is obvious.