About Luc Martineau

On August 30, 2021, I retired from the bench. I was appointed to the Federal Court on January 25, 2002. This summer, I signed my last judgment, with my heart a little heavier. It was a strange feeling… But the artist in me – I have been painting for more than 35 years – wants to take off! What a joy to begin this new journey!
Do we define ourselves by our actions, our education, our family, our profession, our beliefs, our passions, or all of these at once? I surely lack an academic background in visual arts. I am, first and foremost, a jurist who had a career as a lawyer, mediator and arbitrator before becoming a federal judge. Today, by identifying as an artist, I am taking a leap of faith. What a “beau risque”!
ARTISTIC APPROACH

I was born in the Eastern Townships in the mid-fifties. I come from a family where the legal profession is a natural path. If the law was in my DNA, the arts were also part of my family’s genetic baggage.

My paternal grandmother (née Lucienne Lemieux) began to paint in her late years. She would become the “Grandma Moses of the Pontiac Country” (The Ottawa Journal, Saturday, August 7, 1965, p. 20), gaining notoriety as a landscape, portrait, genre and religious painter (David Karel, Dictionnaire des artistes de langue française en Amérique du Nord, Musée du Québec, presses de l’Université Laval, 1992.)

Enchanted Woods

Forests are places where trees, plants, animals are in communion with the spiritual worlds. Have you ever slept in a forest under the stars? It is magical

Black, Red and Blue

Black, red and blue, that’s often how I feel when I am listening to jazz and blues, and this what I wanted to express in this set of paintings

Wings

As a child, I was convinced I could fly. Nevertheless, I continued to fly at night, in the world of dreams where everything is possible

Vast Country

Oh, how I love this vast country!
I can see both its summer and autumn forests, as well as the spring floods and the winter cold freezing our beautiful rivers

People of the Country

Despite our differences, there is only one country for the human race: the heart.
As mortal travellers of the earth, let’s abolish all frontiers and build up a better world for our children!

It was 67

I wanted to pay tribute, in my own way, to the automatists of the “Refus global”. There is also a sense of renewal – of the change of guard that would follow the Quiet Revolution and the Expo 67

North-South

We all need landmarks to get situated. What if we replaced the cardinal points and natural elements with colours?

The Human Question

Who are we and where are we going?This is the true – the only – question facing the human race. It is a great piece of art to live and to die

Air

Give me some oxygen! There are days when everything is black and white.Let’s climb the staircase of life hand in hand

The Dark Night

If the child sees spectres, in the thickest dark of the night, there is fortunately the light of the soul, that reliable compass

Genesis

There was a time when the earth was a lush garden inhabited by billions of plants and thousands of magnificent forests…

As a child, I used to write short poems, I drew a lot, and I even created comic strips .In the eighties, after having dabbled in watercolour and pastel, I started oil painting. In 2002, following my appointment to the Federal Court, the family moved to Ottawa. Judging is a weighty responsibility. Painting became therapeutic and liberating!
Around 2005, I converted to acrylic, which has since become my preferred medium. My gesture has grown in magnitude and confidence. Simultaneously, my production has not ceased to diversify. My paintings are luminous and shimmering, expressionist, dreamlike, abstract… I came to think that there is more to life than the law.
Now it is time to look forward. Who will be the artist of tomorrow? I don’t know. Even if I have not entirely left drawing, today I see myself more as a colourist who experiments with shapes. Movement, like wind, is also very important. If it is in abstract expressionism that I recognize myself, I feel equally comfortable with a form of figurative dreaming that also inspires me. It depends on the day and mood of the moment. Let’s go for an adventure!