Family Stories

This morning my sister messaged us about some art collectors that were looking paintings from Prince Edward Island artists and wondered if they had any of our great-uncle's paintings. She then found an article about a church that's being renovated into apartments, the article on the church mentioned that the altar murals had been painted by our great uncle, Rev. Adrien Arsenault. Adrien Arsenault is my maternal grandmother's younger brother. I knew that I had seen a picture of these murals and set out to find them.

St Mary's of the People

Adrien Arsenault was a prolific painter, poet, musician, and professor of fine arts at St Dunstan's University now the University of Prince Edward Island. Sadly, I don't have any of his paintings. My brother does have two books of his poetry that our mother had. 

Rev. Adrien Arsenault - St Dunstan's Faculty Portrait 1961-62

Adrien liked to try all kinds of techniques in his paintings. I remember one that my grandmother had, where he had pulled string through paint on a folded canvas. I found a couple of his paintings online.

Painted while a student at seminary college, circa 1945

Easter Morning Cantata (Government of PEI)

Adrien was quite renowned in PEI especially within the artistic community. I always felt though that he must of been a little isolated from his family. My grandmother always called him Father Adrien even though he was her little brother. As a child, I called him Father Adrien too but later on I just called him Adrien, he seemed more comfortable with that. I wish I could have known him more as an adult. 

I found this online about him written for an art review in 1964.

"Rev Adrien Arsenault - Chair of the French and Fine Arts Department at St Dunstan's University.  Rev. Arsenault was an interesting personality in Canada's art scene at the time. He had degrees in art and drama from Laval University, the Sorbonne, and the University of Washington. He was a professor at St Dunstan's from 1963 to 1969 and then went on to teach at the University of Prince Edward Island. He was the province's representative on the Canada Council for the Arts and was one of the moving forces in the building of the Confederation Centre for the Arts. He was also an artist in his own right, working in various media, including acrylics."

Below is the translation of an article written by Georges Arsenault for the La Voix Acadienne published in Nov 2019.

"This little boy became one of the greatest Acadian artists on the Island. He is Adrien Arsenault (1925 -1989), from Saint-Raphael, in the Evangeline Region. In 1952, he was ordained to the priesthood and immediately became a professor of French and English and director of the theatre company at St Dunstan's University. He taught French and art history at the University of Prince Edward Island. A poet, playwright and musician, Father Adrien was a prolific writer. He preferred to write in English to be read by his colleagues and friends in Charlottetown.

His colleague, Professor Rose-Marie Berardinelli, translated a few of his books, including one called "I am My Own Seasons" (1984).

In some of the poems in this collection, Father Adrien evokes memories of his childhood, including this one:

My mother liked flowers very much

but my grandfather always entertained 

that she shouldn't waste good earth space

as irresponsibility as she did.

Everything else would have been better

he used to say; even onions.

How thankful I was then

that my grandfather hadn't created the world.

There would have been no butterflies

no buttercups, no daises.

Just plain crops.

He might have also cancelled out the rainbow

and decided that birds - like children -

should remain silent at all times.

So I added to my night prayer

Thank you, God, for not consulting my grandfather

when you made the world."

Portrait of Adrien painted by his friend Henry Purdy

Father Adrien was the officiant at my parent's wedding. 

Sadly Adrien passed away at a rather young age. He's buried in the cemetery at Our Lady of Mount Carmel, in PEI. My sister and I visited his grave site during the Arsenault family reunion.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel