A Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Portrait Artists, CIPA, he was its President for the 2003-2005 term. Among the many subjects he has painted are the Right Honourable Jean Chrétien, Prime Minister of Canada, the Honourable Ernie Eves, Premier of Ontario, the Honourable Mitchell Sharp, Cardinal Paul-Emile Léger, the Honourable Jules Léger, Governor General of Canada, the Honourable Roméo Leblanc, Governor General of Canada and Leader of the Senate, Mrs. Mila Mulroney and her children, Yousuf Karsh, Canadian photographer, Paul Desmarais, President of Power Corporation and Chancellor of Memorial University, The Honourable Jennifer Smith, Prime Minister of Bermuda, the Honourable Stanley Lowe, OBE, MP, JP, Speaker of the House of Assembly of Bermuda as well as the young Prince William, son of Charles, Prince of Wales and the late Diana Spencer. This portrait is in the collection of St. James Palace. A 2010 commission from Her Majesty Elizabeth II had Bernard painting the portrait of the latest recipient of the Queen's own personal gift - The Order of Merit. This piece is in the collection at Windsor Castle.
Since 1995, investing patrons commission private exhibitions of Poulin's work - purchasing the collections sight unseen. These exhibitions have had as their subjects Tuscany and Venice 1995-96, Provence, 1997-98, Jerusalem 1999-00, Paris in 2005 and a Grand Tour Exhibition in 2007.
Poulin also sculpts in bronze using the lost wax process. A muralist, he has created several three- dimensional, mixed-media projects such as those in the lobby of the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, the Ottawa Children's Aid Society and the Solange Karsh Center for Medical Research.
Poulin is a noted lecturer. He has participated in the creation of more than a dozen books dedicated to the process of drawing. His articles and television appearances have been translated into Portuguese and Italian.
Author of his own nine books. His first four on drawing, combined with his most popular The Complete Colored Pencil Book published by North Light Books 1992 sold more than 75,000 copies. The French translation, (Le crayon de couleur) of The Complete Colored Pencil Book, was published in Paris in 1994. The re-issue of this same book appeared in softcover 2002. It was revised and re-published in the newly created Classic Series at North Light Books in 2011. Bernard also published, in 2010, an essay on creativity, entitled, Beyond Discouragement-Creativity.
In 1990 the Hadassah WIZO of Canada created the 'Bernard Aimé Poulin Scholarships'. These are available to students pursuing studies in the visual arts.
The biography of the artist appears in the Canadian Who's Who and A Dictionary of Canadian Artists.
For more information or contact numbers of Bernard Poulin's agents, Bermuda, Kelowna, Ottawa, Paris, please visit the studio web sites listed below.
Ottawa Studio and gallery visits are by appointment only. Please email requests to poulin@poulinstudios.com .
August '11
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