As part of the Journées de la Culture, Héritage Montréal celebrates the artisans who work every day to preserve and restore Montreal's heritage. Discover here the interview of decorative arts painter Marie-France Kech.
What is your job and what does it consist of?
I am a craftsman in decorative painting, from the ancient tradition of decorative painters in Europe. They are artists-craftsmen who take care of the decorative finishing, always in connection with architecture, in interiors or exteriors. The decorative techniques are varied: painting, gilding, imitation of textures or noble materials (fake wood, fake marble, fake precious stones), trompe l'oeil, stencils. There can also be landscapes or characters. For my part, I have specialized in the restoration of this trade.
How did this vocation come about? How did you learn your trade?
I studied art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgium. I followed workshops with craftsmen to learn ancient techniques. I obtained a grant from the King Baudoin Foundation which helps craftsmen to specialize in the conservation of their craft related to architectural heritage. I was able to specialize in restoration in France at the École supérieure d'art d'Avignon, at the workshops in Beaucet and in Haute-Loire.
What are the qualities you need for your job?
A lot of patience. Great adaptability. You have to adapt to the place, to the physical constraints but also to the teams working around the decor to be restored. There is a notion of respect, of what is being restored, of the history, the material, the technique, the rules of restoration ethics. You have to forget yourself in order to put yourself at the service of history. Humility is important in order to recognize one's limits and to withdraw if one is not capable or to seek help.
What is special about your job in the Montreal context?
In Montreal, decorative painting is very present in institutional and religious buildings. There are many influences, French, Italian and German in churches, more British and American in institutional buildings.
The first craftsmen came from Europe, but soon a tradition of decorative painting in Quebec appeared with painters such as Napoléon Bourassa and François-Édouard Meloche. There is also Emmanuel Briffa who worked a lot in theatres. There are many stencils, gilding, simple trompe-l'oeil, plays on nets, shadows and lights. The techniques, processes and materials often come from Europe but have been adapted. One of the challenges in restoration today is to find the materials, pigments or even the tools to reproduce the old techniques.
Imitation painted bronze patina, Collège du Mont-St-Louis, Marie-France Kech 
Imitation painted faux marble, Bain Morgan, MArie-France Kech
Craftsmen have a very important role because they have expertise in old trades from architectural history and often accompany managers who are less familiar with the practices of the trades and know-how in architectural restoration. Overall, we are looking for a more finished visual, we can go further in the restitution. But the basic rules are respectées : identify the problems and gaps, stabilize them and make minimal interventions so as not to destroy what exists, keep the original visuals as much as possible and use reversible processes that can be removed so that the restoration can be questioned later.
What is a typical construction site like? What are the steps?
Before starting, there is a whole pre-construction period which is very important. I discuss with the client to understand the needs, deadlines, budgets and particularities of the project. Then, I analyze the location, the decor, the techniques and the materials used. This is followed by a period of research and preparation in the workshop where I do tests and create samples. With all this information, I put together a file that will document the project and my intervention. This is very important. Based on this work, I order the necessary materials and tools.
Finally, I arrive at the construction site. I protect around the work area. I prepare the ground and the space. And then come the concrete steps of the restauration : preparation of the support, stabilization, levelling, restitution or restoration of the decorative finishes. I finish the finishes with patinas and protective varnishes.
Can you tell us about your first project?
I worked at the Saint-Antoine-de-Padoue co-cathedral in Longueuil with an imitation of marble on the bases of the columns, which had to fit in with the existing one. I also remember the Bell Building on the side of Beaver Hall, where there is a 1930s decor with suns that were very dirty and that I had to clean and touch up.
The site you're most proud of?
The Quebec Court of Appeal, Ernest Cormier Building in Old Montreal. In the Cusson Room, there are wonderful ceilings with painted and gilded plaster ornaments with lots of patinas, textures, glazes, colours, patterns and stencils. The original decor was painted by a team of New York painter-decorators in three weeks! It took us three months to restore it with a team.
It was a very nice context because I took the project from A to Z with a team of about ten people and we were trusted. There was a part that was very damaged by water infiltration. So we had to clean, stabilize and consolidate before restoring the paintings and gilding. The objective was to bring the decoration back to the original.
Heritage is history, culture, professions, visuals, buildings. They are the roots of a population, important foundations and bases.
Marie-France Kech
What are the issues/challenges of working in heritage in Montreal?
Montrealers are not always aware of the richness of their heritage. In Europe, heritage is omnipresent. Here, it is to be found, in certain details, surrounded by more modern buildings. If you don't know it, you don't always see it. It is a challenge to work on. Perhaps the architectural heritage and its know-how, its craftsmanship should be more present in history classes from a very young age, in school.
The same could be said of the construction industry. It is as if we wanted to go too fast, to enter into modernity at all costs. Our trades existed, there were Quebec decorative painters, but slowly with modernity, these trades and their know-how are disappearing. And today, when we have to restore a decor, few craftsmen have this expertise.
In addition, the construction culture is very strong in Quebec, with standards of productivity and efficiency that do not adapt well to a heritage approach that sometimes takes time. There is a certain lack of knowledge of heritage trades. People often approach me as if I were a house painter. The CMAQ helps us on this point to have the place of craftspeople on construction sites recognized.
Which Montreal building would you like to work on?
On the interior decor of Notre Dame Basilica. It illustrates the history of painted decoration in Quebec. It is very rich in the technical particularities and trades from here. The first painters came from Italy. They adapted their technique to be according to the needs, expectations, the deadlines here and the means sometimes less than in Europe. For Notre-Dame Basilica, they were inspired by neo-gothic decorations and worked on the vivacity of the colours.
Are you integrating new elements related to sustainable development into your practice?
The craftsman has always been committed to sustainability and to the local area as well. Crafts and techniques have always been adapted to the craftsman's environment. He used the materials he found on site. In Belgium, you can find beer techniques for example. Here, there are milk paints. There is little documentation on this subject. It would be interesting to research the materials, pigments and recipes developed here. This is a subject that I would like to develop in the future as well.
What will be the challenges, stakes and opportunities for the practice of your profession in the 21st century?
The biggest challenge is the next generation. Today's decorative painters are often women, between 45 and 60 years of age. There are not many young people. There's not really any training either. There are a lot of self-taught painters who train in Europe or in specific workshops. This is another challenge that CMAQ is working on, developing training courses.
You really have to take this notion into consideration and the risk of my job disappearing. A few years ago, during a project, I was replaced by less expensive processes such as photographic reproductions that are applied to the sets. Just imagine! How could I stay? How can we confirm the importance of our expertise without heritage buildings? Should we accept to disappear from the project to invest more in the documentation of the trade and training? How can we support our achievements through promotional and educational activities? These are questions that I ask myself.
Finally, if you had to describe your job with a smell?
Beeswax or Marseille soap
Texture?
The velvety softness of old paintings. The paints are made of a binder, a filler and pigments. The very old processes are very charged. They can be polished and made very soft to the touch.
A color?
Yellow as gold
A noise?
The song of the oil mixture is ready to receive the gold leaf called 'love' because it is quite sticky and it sings under our fingers.
Find another portrait, that of the stonemason Alexandre Maquet, by clicking here.
