Tanis Browning-Shelp
The opening of the Salon des Bananes, Ottawa’s newest gallery at 2207 Carling Avenue, set the stage in November for meeting Métis artist brothers Ross and Dave Rheaume. The ‘interview’ was more like being introduced to a pair of stand-up comedians launching into a “bit”! Dave was there to exhibit his work, while Ross was there to provide support and, perhaps, a bit of brotherly harassment. They warned not to be alarmed by their “hockey banter.”
Wellington at Elgin, 1963, acrylic painting by Dave Rheaume
Wellington in Snow, oil painting by Ross Rheaume
“Dave does steal my ideas,” Ross says. “But he also makes them better.” Ross is seven years Dave’s senior. He performed and toured as part of the 80s ‘dream pop’ band Roman Grey, and now paints in oils. Dave, who worked as a film director for more than three decades, paints in acrylics.
Editor of The Mainstreeter, Lorne Abugov and his wife Lindy hosted an art show for Ross at their Old Ottawa East home. Ross, Dave, and their singer-songwriter niece Amanda Rheaume performed/displayed their works at a joint vernissage at The Green Door restaurant more than a decade ago. And, as President of the Glebe Art Tour, Ross hopes that the brothers will be able to guest exhibit at our OOE neighbourhood art tour, A Walk of Art, next year.
Both brothers immerse themselves in Canadian culture and history, particularly in the history of Ottawa, because they grew up here. Ross was born near Lake of the Woods, Ontario and moved to Ottawa when their father was elected in North Battleford to became Minister of Parliament (MP) in 1963. Dave was born in Sandy Hill. They have four more siblings, and the family has lived in many different parts of Ottawa over the years.
“Our dad was the first Métis MP since Louis Riel,” Ross says. “He taught us to care about our history and we both represent that in our art. Dad was big on the idea that your personal history is who you are. He would say that ‘you are your story.’”
Dave and Ross turn to the archives to find their subject matter. “But we’re not documentarians,” Dave says. “We don’t mechanically copy archival images. I think of the images as being more like frames of a film. I look at them and think: ‘what’s the back story?’ I like to pursue a narrative to evoke emotion.”
Métis Artist Ross Rheaume, left, shows his support for brother Dave Rheaume at Salon des Bananes on November 16th where Dave was exhibiting his acrylic paintings.
Dave mentions one of his own paintings of a man delivering blocks of ice in the middle of winter. “I added footprints all around the carriage that weren’t in the original photo. I wanted to show that something led up to that moment and something will happen after it. I also remember taking a daytime scene and setting it at night. I could suddenly smell the ice and the snowflakes. The archival image had merely been a jumping off point.”
When Ross first began painting, he wasn’t sure about making use of historical subject matter. “I thought, for a moment, what am I on about?” But then he had an experience while standing in a bookstore line-up. “A woman behind me said to her partner: ‘are you really buying another book about the American civil war?’ The man responded: ‘Well, Canada has nohistory!’ I remember thinking: ‘Are you kidding me? What about the Boer War? Then countless other scenes from Canadian history came to me. I thought of our dad.”
Although the brothers share source material, their paintings showcase their different styles. Dave grew up drawing filmic comic books that were like movie storyboards. When painting, he uses his extensive film career experience. “I always put in the lighting sources the way that a lighting director would,” Dave says.
Ross tells the story of working on a historical hockey painting and contacting Dave for help. “I was looking at Dave’s own hockey painting and asked: ‘How’d you do the ice?’ Dave’s ice was perfect!”
Ross had a long career as a musician, but he developed an interest in making visual art when he was a child. “I came straight out of the chute being able to draw,” he says. “When Dad noticed, he gave me a book on Leonardo da Vinci, and I found it mind blowing. When I was a bit older, one of Dad’s friends gave me my first oil painting kit. I loved the smell of it. I think I returned to oils for nostalgic reasons.”
Both brothers enjoy the freedom painting brings them. Dave’s work as a commercial artist and movie and television film maker made him desire creative control. “Now I don’t have fifteen people looking over my shoulder dictating what colour I should use!”
Playing the devil’s advocate, Ross responded with a story about a man who attended one of his own exhibitions telling him that he had used the incorrect colour for a streetcar in his painting. “The guy went away, did some research, and returned the next day to show me that the streetcars had been painted with a Sherwin Williams colour number 57 or something. I told him that’s not what I do! I had the freedom to create my own Ottawa streetcar in my own style.”
To learn more about the Salon des Bananes go to: https://salondesbananes.com . To see more of Ross Rheaume’s work go to: @rheaumeross on Instagram. To see more of Dave Rheaume’s work go to: https://dave-rheaume.pixels.com/ or @daverheaumeartist on Instagram .
Author Tanis Browning-Shelp (http://www.browning-shelp.com) pens her Maryn O’Brien Young Adult Fiction series, published by Dog-Eared Books, from her home in Old Ottawa East. Contact tanis@browning-shelp.com if you have information about artists or art events that you believe would enrich our community members’ lives.
