This career in publicity does not succeed in satisfying Bruno who, from his childhood days, dreams of wild landscapes. Outings in the forest multiply and become accomplices of a continuous quest for the subtle visual elements that transform a natural scenery into a grandiose happening. This fascination will have outdoor activities follow one another untill the mid-sixties when Bruno becomes initiated with painting. From this moment on, he has an only dream: to devote himself entirely to Art.

In 1978, his dream comes true. Baie-Saint-Paul becomes the family's place of residence and Charlevoix the painter's inspirational core. A full year of his passionate and tenacious work enabled him to offer the public his first important solo exibition.

Charlevoix's colors and mountains quietly become insufficient for Bruno's inspiration. In 1980, he decides to explore elsewhere in his home country: Canada. A journey in the Rockies is then organized and becomes the first of many expeditions that will have him travel our land from West to East. Because of its continental dimensions, its multitude of forces and contrasts as well as the diversity of its people and scenery, Canada offers a richness of inspi ration. The Pacific Rim's wild beauty in British Columbia, the warmth of Labrador's icebergs, the immensity of the Prairies'skies, the North's savage force and Quebec's magnificent forests are all elements of love impregnated in the painter's work.

Continuously in quest of new inspiration, Bruno Cote still sketches and paints all over Canada. His territory, source of research and renewal, spreads from Vancouver to Newfoundland where art galleries represent him and offer periodic solo exibitions.

Martin Fournier
English translation: Marie-Josee Thibault

Bruno Cote is recognized across Canada, the United States and abroad as one of Canada's leading landscape artists. Like the Group of Seven before him, Cote brings Canada"s wilderness to life in a powerful way.

Cote uses the great variety of colours found in nature while his strong brush strokes express the rough textures of trees, rocks and mountains. A master of light and shadow, Cote captures the heart and soul of Canada in his paintings.

Cote is collected internationally and his exhibitions are eagerly anticipated in galleries from Newfoundland to Victoria.

Claire Scrivens Hollander York Gallery, Toronto.

When I first met Bruno Côté, I was immediately fascinated by his " joie de vivre ".

And, it is this " joie de vivre " combined with his sensibility and his sensuality he expresses on the canvas through his fauve colour, without restraint or bothered by any justification.

The obvious force which comes out from his paintings let us sense his passion for pictorial style and form.

He is all of a piece, happy, confident and sincere; it is useless trying to find any pretence neither in his work nor in his personality, there is none.

Côté is fascinated by the immenseness of his country in its full light and he renders completely its absolute greatness.

PAUL V. BEAULIEU, R.C.A.