Sandra Phinney, Writer

Nelson Surette

photo credit: Percey Cottreau

Nelson Surette. Once you've seen his paintings, you will never forget his name-or his work. Like old friends and trusted neighbours, they linger in your memory. You will yearn for their company, in spite of being touched by their suffering and toil. But you will feel neither pity nor sentiment. Rather, you will celebrate their victory-and his. The tenacity of spirit. The rebuttal of death.

It has been said that a masterpiece doesn't so much transcend its time as perpetuate it; it keeps its moment alive. That is precisely the essence of Surette's work. In any room where his paintings hang, courage and honesty belie the comfort of quiet. Silence speaks.

Surette's work is currently being showcased as part of a curated exhibit "Acadian History through Art" at Government House in Halifax. (November 2002 to May 2003.) The night of the opening, someone sauntered in the ballroom saying, "So who is this Nelson Surette?"

Surette is an enigma. He's a tall, waif-like 83 year-old man. People say he's shy and reclusive. Perhaps he is simply selective of the company he keeps. When he smiles, there's a connection between his lips and the light in his soulful eyes. Wisdom stretches between his brows. But he tires easily these days. For years he's carried the imprint of a distant relative-the last known survivor of the Acadian expulsion-in his blood. The stories of the Acadians run deep in his veins.

As a toddler, Surette had a tendency to smear walls and fences with jam, mud, anything that created form. His mother gathered up whatever she could-paper, cardboard, dyes, juice of wild berries-and got him to play with these on the floor. Ruefully he says, "She wasn't interested in the results but she had cleaner walls."

Surette's childhood was solitary. He remembers visits to an aunt's home and time spent in a dusty front room. "I used to sit there by myself and look at the objects in shadow. They had a ghostly appearance. There was an opening in the drapes and as the sun moved and hit those objects they came alive and I realized what light does to an object." His first canvas was the top of the dusty piano.

Late in his teens, Surette discovered he had serious problems with his eyes. "I didn't see colour. I saw light and shadow only. I remember saying to myself, 'Let there be light! Let there be light!'" When he got his first glasses, he wasn't sure how to handle bright colours. Later, when someone gave him old tubes of red and yellow oil, he cut them all down with black.

Self taught, he describes his paintings as "letters to myself". Like all great artists, his work is distinctive yet he never repeats himself. He paints with his fingers, only using a brush for final touches. Done with a minimum of colour, the characters and settings in his stories are muted and earthy. Understanding of the human condition oozes from the oils.

The honorable Myra A. Freeman, Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, is thrilled to have Surette's work at Government House. "It's so in keeping with this historic home. When you are in this building you have a sense that you are going back to a time that was there before you came. When I walk into that room, Nelson's work re-iterates the historical significance of our community in Nova Scotia. His work is larger than life," she said.

Her Honour notes, "Certainly, his depiction of the expulsion of the Acadians has left a significant mark. To have chronicled the history in a visual form is a great contribution." Commenting on his other creations, she adds, "When you see pictures of people quilting or dancing or fishing … he captures emotion and life style, and a sense of where they are in time. We now have a picture of that."

Surette's work had been depicted in two films, and he's had solo exhibits in several universities. His paintings grace public and private collections worldwide.

Who is Nelson Surette? Discover him through his work. The paintings speak for him.

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