Françoise Lavoie talks about how she and Scott Kingsland took over Alphonse Paré’s workshop

Françoise Lavoie talks about how she and Scott Kingsland bought up the workshop owned by Alphonse Paré, who also introduced them to wood sculpting.

[Françoise Lavoie] In 1985 and 1986, Scott and I came to meet Mr. Paré. I was working in the tourism industry at the time, so I would often bring visitors to see Atelier Paré. And I really liked the man; he was a great Côte-de-Beaupré artist. And then I learned that he was looking for someone to take over his workshop. None of his children were interested. They were all skilled in other fields. And I was looking for a place where I could combine art and tourism. It was the perfect opportunity to come settle in the area while continuing to work in tourism.

Of course, when we took over the workshop, we tried our hand at sculpting, too. Often times, I would come down to the workshop in the morning and I would see pencil lines on the wood, which was Mr. Paré’s way of saying¸ “Try working at this corner a little bit to see if you can improve it.” And so, little by little, my husband and I learned to sculpt and work with wood. He was like our maestro¸ showing us and teaching us. And also showing us how to sharpen the knives, how to select the wood, how to glue the wood. So much of the knowledge we’ve acquired over the years comes from Mr. Paré.