Born in 1949, Réal Calder grew up in Normétal, a small mining town in northern Québec. He lives now in Mont-Saint-Hilaire in Quebec. He studied painting at the Montreal Fine arts School and later acquired his MFA at the Université of Quebec in Montreal. For over 30 years, Réal Calder has taken part in group and solo exhibitions in Quebec, Ontario, France, Israel and the Netherlands. He is the recipient of several grants from the Council for the Arts and Arts and Letters Council of Quebec. He has theached Visual Arts at the University of Quebec in the Outaouais for many years. Calder's work is inspired by the changing natural environment and the extreme forces that can  be both beautiful and terrifying. His oil paintings portray the natural activity and turbulence of the landscape in such a highly expressive style that borders on abstraction. In his physical application and manipulation of materials, Calder explores the relationship between artistic creation and the creative forces of Mother Nature, which can at times be productive and other times, destructive. Calder captures the power and wonder of nature in his work through his expressive brush strokes and layers of paints which allow his canvases to come to life.