I thought long and hard about this painting before I officially took out my brushes and started. Probably for two years. The reason was that I wanted to find out exactly what I wanted to represent, what I wanted to communicate through all these touches of color, which will remain permanently.

The initial idea came to me when my grandfather passed away, so I decided to pay tribute to him in my own way, by creating a painting that would represent him. My grandfather loved being in the forest. He loved to go there to recharge his batteries, to be alone with himself, to take in all the benefits that trees can give us. Having worked as a lumberjack for many years, the forest probably became a second home for him. Even though his work must have been very hard at times, I think he still saw the forest as a therapeutic place that gave him peace and tranquility.

So last summer, armed with my camera, I proudly walked the same ground as my grandfather. Accompanied by my father, we went to a forest of magnificent cedars, where my grandfather had once cleared the land. The scenery was sublime; rays of sunlight from the sky illuminated every patch of moss covering the roots on the ground, which intertwined as if the trees were holding hands. It was also possible to see the remains of a fire that had taken place in 1909, and how masterfully the forest had managed to regenerate itself. But above all, I loved the idea that through his work, my grandfather had helped to shape this land, to make this landscape so unique... that he had left his mark on it.

Through our actions, we all leave our mark on this land. But it was when I put my signature on this painting that everything really took on meaning; I realized that I too was leaving my mark. And that by writing the name "Bourque", which is also my grandfather's, I was in fact myself one of the traces he will have left... and that we are each and every one of us someone else's trace.