Au pied d'une roche

The first piece in my Au bord de l'eau collection.

Au pied d'une roche is rooted in the village where I grew up: Petit-Rocher, New Brunswick, a small Acadian fishing community on the Bay of Chaleur.

Growing up in a fishing town, it felt almost inevitable that a boat would be the place to begin this collection. The water, the boats, the rocky shoreline, and the weathered textures of coastal life are all tied to the memories I have of home.

I wanted this first piece to feel rustic and nautical, like something that could have belonged there for generations.

The centre of the piece features a wooden rowboat resting against the rocks, surrounded by the textures and colours of the shoreline. The boat, rocks, and surrounding details were individually cut, shaped, and hand-painted, giving the piece a layered, dimensional quality.

The rope border was also built and painted by hand, framing the scene like a weathered piece of coastal memorabilia. The round cedar backer was milled, jointed, and biscuit-joined before being finished with a deep navy blue stain, creating the feeling of a piece of old coastal woodwork.

Much of the shaping was done using Kutzall carving bits, allowing me to give the individual elements their own texture and character while still keeping the overall piece simple and rustic.

Au pied d'une roche translates loosely to “at the foot of a rock,” a fitting name for a piece grounded in the rocky shores and fishing culture that shaped so much of my early life.

This is where Au bord de l'eau begins: with a boat, a shoreline, and a little piece of the place I still consider home.