After the success of last year’s outdoor exhibit, we’re excited to open Forms of the Valley, our second outdoor sculpture exhibit, featuring works by Denise Coker, Genevieve Cloutier, Janice Collette, Will Desjardins (in collaboration with students from Wakefield Elementary), CJ Fleury, Claude Latour, Diane Lemire, Angèle Lux, Heather MacDonald, Beth McCubbin, Jamie Munro, Hannah Ranger, and Béla Simó.
Wander the grounds, follow the waterfall trail past the Log House, and discover sculptures nestled throughout the landscape.
Free and open to the public.
The exhibit will be on display until mid October.
Special thanks to our donors and partners
MRC des Collines-de-l’Outaouais through l’Entente de développement culturel
We are one
Total size of work: 8’ x 8’
Materials: 403 linear yardsof repurposed fabric. 370 linear yards of Trilene line.
This work, a contemporary woven textile construction, provides a colourful expressionist interpretation of the Gatineau Valley Hills landscape and Nature’s healing ways. Garments and fabric household furnishings were deconstructed ( decay) and the textiles woven into a new entity, (renewal, re- birth and beauty. ) The work also represents the different peoples who call the Gatineau Valley home. The symbolism is intended because Together we are all One!
Bio:
A native of England, Denise studied art in München, Germany, and has been a practicing artist for over 60 years. Since moving to Rupert in 2001, she has continued to produce textile constructions textiles and paintings in oils and acrylics. Her works have been exhibited Internationally and currently hang in private collections in Europe, Australia, Canada and the U.S.A.
Traces
Installed in a circle outside the heritage schoolhouse, her work features non-representational and layered mark-making on reconditioned old school chairs. The pieces function as a reimagined pedagogical landscape, making unexpressed traces and energetic exchanges between humans and the valley’s memory partially visible.
Bio:
Gen Cloutier (she/they) is a neuroqueer artist, independent re-searcher, part-time professor and member of Place des Artistes de Farrellton here on Algonquin Anishinaabe territory.
Fragile
Vine branches balanced in this natural setting serve as a reminder of our delicate and fragile ephemeral world.
Bio:
Inspired by old objects, their imperfections and their uniqueness, Janice takes a look at the passage of time. The latest series reflects a particular time in her life through the exploration of textures, colours, forms and shapes. The need to have people connect and communicate through art and while viewing art has become a priority to her thus explaining the inclusion of installations and interactive pieces in her shows. Other series presented on this site include the bottle series which refers to the feminine body image and its’ preoccupations. Lastly, the bird series and other works, reflects her interest of the interaction of colour, movement and light.
The Willow Time Machine
A wonderful project in collaboration with Fairbairn House Heritage Center and the grade 4’s and 5’s from Wakefield Elementary. It was a rewarding experience brainstorming ideas on how our Time Machine works and the building strategies for both the branch skeleton and the Willow cladding. The three integrated stones represent the past present and futur, and sculpture nears 12 feet high in height. Now let’s travel!
Listen to soil: device #3
Material: Pine
All my drawn and carved ears are inspired by Ursula Franklin’s Earthworm Theory of Social Change. By total chance, a fallen pine trunk (30 inches across) came to me from the Oslers. Initially intended as a gallery piece, I set the sculpture to live in Nature after a trip to the West Coast, three decades ago.
Bio:
cj is known for welcoming non-artists into large-scale projects; most recently, LaFab’s Flower Petal Mandala and SYMBIOSIS, the multimedia installation for Eco Echo: shown across 6 MRC locales, then invited for a 5-month run at Canada’s Museum of Nature. Of cj’s 20 public commissions, two downtown-Ottawa monuments address violence against women and anti-poverty activism.
The Offering
The Offering was originally created in 1998 in honour of the University of Ottawa celebrating its official 150th anniversary .. Founded as the College of Bytown in 1848, the institution reached its sesquicentennial milestone with year-long festivities, including historical exhibits, a commemorative stamp issued by Canada Post, and official recognition from the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada. The Oblates used UofO as a springboard into the heart of Algonquin Territory absorbing our sacred objects, teachings and offerings in the world of language, culture, and mysteries foreign to whom they represented.
Bio:
Claude Latour was born and raised in Ottawa, Ontario with mixed Euro/Algonquin/Kanyen’kéha descent. Through his mother’s bloodline, he is a band member of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg of the Algonquin Nation, Bear Clan.
The influence of Latour‘s rich Algonquin culture is evident in his artwork, which includes sculpture, paintings, videos, and mixed media. He has a Diploma of Fine Arts Degree from the CEGEP De L’Outaouais’s Heritage College, Hull, PQ (1996) and a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Ottawa, ON (2001).
Claude’s works have been exhibited in Europe and across Canada with his works collected by V-tape Distribution, Indigenous Arts Center INAC, City of Ottawa Collection, Kitigan Zibi Band Office, Canada Council Art Bank,Global Affairs Canada, CUPE, and patrons alike.
His former work experience includes four years of service as a Corporal in the Canadian Armed Forces Army, a Traditional Drummer with the Red Road Singers, a Private Researcher-Bill C-31-Indian Status, Art Zone Fine Arts Technician, and as anInstructor in the Media and Design programme at Algonquin College
The weight of holding
In the current of a small creek rests a cradle, a fragile refuge for silhouettes of birds. Like the river that slowly shapes the land that holds us, this place of protection evokes the bonds that connect us to the living world. The birds, vulnerable to environmental change, become silent witnesses to what we stand to lose. Between the movement of the water and the promise of the cradle, the work invites reflection on the weight of holding, protecting, and caring for what has been entrusted to us.
Bio:
For more than 25 years, Diane Lemire has developed a multidisciplinary art practice inspired by the world around her. Through mixed-media sculpture, textile art, painting, and land art, she explores themes of memory, time, and place. Her work often incorporates recycled materials and natural elements, creating a sensitive dialogue between people and their environment.
Chromatique confluence
Dimensions: 175 x 55 x 55 cm.
“Chromatic Confluence” explores the intersection between human action and the ecosystem, between colors and the landscape. The intertwining vertical ribbons form an internal confluence that echoes water, light, and vegetation. The sculpture thus fits into the valley as a meeting point between matter, light, and life.
Bio:
Water-Fire-Earth-Wind-Spirit
I create multi-media sculptures inspired by shapes and patterns in nature, forces of transformation, and the play of light. I reveal how shapes of insects, flora, fossils and geological patterns echo forms in cells, synapses and the cosmos, thereby bringing into focus both the interconnectedness and ephemerality of nature.
Curiosity, experimentation and play are ever present in my creative practice, even when I’m considering challenging issues such as loss of biodiversity and the shifting characteristics of memory.
Brothers Exploring
Béton 2026
My art explores and responds to the complexities of our material, social and environmental
worlds. It is a means of self-expression and a critical tool for commentary, reflection and
social intervention.
Through using recycled materials, found objects, ceramics and concrete, I engage with the past and future potential in everyday life. My ceramic works combine imagery and text—original visuals paired with narratives and phrases. Concrete sculptures highlight
significant, often overlooked moments. Reclaimed and mixed media works frequently shape their own forms to reveal the strength and meaning found in everyday objects.
Bio:
Beth McCubbin lives and works in Low, Quebec. Fairly recently moved to the Gatineau Hills after visiting the area for many years.
Layers of time
Layers of Water
Layers of Earth
Layers of Life
Time equals movement
equals change
Bio:
Jamie Munro, lifelong artist and now retired carpenter, continues to synergize his vision of the natural world.
Working in mixed media, he has produced many installations regionally over the past decades. He has also exhibited and sold his paintings , drawings and original prints in Toronto, Ottawa , Chelsea and Wakefield.
Visitors
2026, wool, silk, bamboo fibre
I love to speculate upon the wonderful forms and qualities of life as we discover it under a microscope, the way the very cells that enable life appear completely alien to us. They appear other worldly yet there is a beauty and a familiarity to the shapes and patterns of microscopic cells and beings that suggest an exquisite, inherent architecture underlying all of life on earth and beyond – imperceptible without the use of ever developing technology.
These tree dwelling creatures are fanciful versions of such microscopic beings, enlarged and placed in an unlikely context, offering the opportunity to contemplate different levels of existence and interdependence.
Bio:
Hannah Ranger is a visual artist whose fibre art practice combines fibre sculpture, light, sound, and digital elements to explore relationships between people, place, and ecology. Drawing on traditional craft processes, mentorship-based feltmaking knowledge, and contemporary technologies, she creates responsive environments that invite reflection and sensory engagement. Ranger has exhibited nationally, received support from arts councils and cultural organizations, and brings over 14 years of experience developing arts programming, artist residencies, exhibitions, and community-based cultural initiatives throughout the Outaouais region.
The Tree
Aluminium – 255 x 95 x 90 cm.
.Aluminum – 255 x 95 x 90 cm.
“The Tree” transforms the silhouette of a tree into a cluster of metallic lines that seem to follow the momentum of flowing water. Through its ascending curves, the work evokes the way a river shapes a valley: carving, winding around, and guiding the landscape’s form while allowing it to rise. This fluid dynamic places the sculpture within a changing landscape where the metal becomes a trace, a memory, and an extension of the water’s passage.
Bio:
