A Painter named Pepe: A truck driver finds joy and colour during a dark time

HAWKESBURY, ONT. -

Hawkesbury’s hidden gems are tucked away in unsuspecting places.

In the shadow of a Pizza Pizza, for example, you’ll find a slice of culture.

It’s an art gallery in a mini-mall, sharing a space with a seamstress, a hair salon, Service Ontario, and a local MP.

“This is Cranberry Gallery,” said Karen Mingarelli.

“It’s a gallery for amateurs and they exhibit here. Our benefactor, Yves Berthiaume, gives us the space for free. He’s very supportive and kind.”

The gallery has no walls separating it from the other tenants. Paintings line the walls of a small corridor; its open concept design offering glimpses of colour and creativity to everyone who enters.

“So, people who don’t know there’s an exhibit are caught up in the exhibit when they come in because no matter where they look there’s paintings,” laughs Mingarelli.

The most recent exhibit on the walls was painted by Roland Coulombe. Most know the artist by another name.

“Pepe. It’s like Grandpa,” said Coulombe, 72, with a wide grin.

Roland Coulombe, also known as Pepe, is a picture of optimism. (Joel Haslam/CTV News Ottawa)

He’s not a famous artist. For a lifetime, Coulombe made his living doing something else.

“I drove truck for 51 years,” he said.

However, recently, Coulombe’s health took a tragic turn.

“I had a cancer of my throat and my vocal box,” he said.

That’s when Pepe, who had dabbled in painting 30 years earlier, decided he’d begin again. Creating vibrant, bold works of art would serve as a distraction from disease and weeks of radiation therapy.

“I don’t think about cancer, or I’m going to die. I think positive. My painting keeps me positive and keeps me going. So, it helps me to stay alive,” he said.

“I’m not going to drive truck anymore but I’m going to paint the rest of my life and that’s good.

“He’s very positive, a very positive man,” said Mingarelli, who organized Pepe’s gallery exhibit.

“He refuses to stop. He refuses to accept cancer as an end for him. No, he found his passion in painting, and he just wants to paint now,” she said.

A painting by Roland Coulombe, a.k.a. Pepe.

In the cramped quarters of a room in his basement, Pepe pours his art, and his heart, onto each canvas. He carefully lifts the canvas and gently tips it from side to side, the paints colliding to produce swirls of multi-coloured imagery.

“He knows his colours and I think he takes a long time to prepare his colours, beforehand,” said Mingarelli.

“Pepe does not just slap something together. He chooses his colours carefully; he mixes them carefully and this technique for pouring is very complicated because you have to turn your canvas so many ways to get it just right. It’s not easy.”

Pepe describes his technique this way.

“It’s a way to guide the colours to see the picture in my head,” said Coulombe.

“When you get to know Pepe, you know that the painting he just created is from his mind,” said Mingarelli.

“I have to say Pepe has a beautiful mind. You can see what’s in there by looking at his paintings,” she said with a smile.

A painting by Roland Coulombe, a.k.a. Pepe.

The gallery’s location attracts spontaneous showings and chances to meet the artist in person.

Countless people stop to view Pepe’s paintings and comment on his artistry.

“‘Beautiful’. That’s the word I hear the most. They say ‘I love it’,” said Coulombe.

Pepe is awaiting results of a biopsy of his tongue, but he says doctors believe his throat cancer is gone.

“Like I said to my wife, I’m going to stay alive 225 years,” he said with a laugh.

“Pepe is an exercise in optimism,” said Mingarelli.

“You have to see how someone like Pepe can go through everything he’s gone through and be happy, full of life, full of positivity and with great hopes for the future. He just doesn’t entertain the thought of not having a future,” she said.

And for his future, Pepe has three holiday wishes.

“I want that Covid is gone and that everybody is safe. I want everybody happy. If everyone around me is happy, I’m going to be happy. And finally, and I think it’s the best wish for people, good health. Le bon sante. That’s what I want.”

Here’s to wishes come true.