An elementary school teacher for 35 years he held his first one man show in 1960, the year he retired. The solo exhibit was made possible through the efforts of Simon Dresdnere owner of the Dresdnere Gallery in Montreal. All 33 of Gécin's drawings were sold, certainly an achievement for a first solo exhibit. Most of Gécin's early work was done in ink but later he began using water colours and finally became interested in texture, collage and plastics.¹ He has also held one man shows at Galerie Martin, Montreal, 1964 and Musée d'Art Contemporain, Montreal, 1965. Réa Montbizon² of the Montreal Cazette had this to say of the artist, "His work has nothing of the uninhibited outpour, nothing folkloristic about it. At times it may appear playful, but this is a deception, Gécin reaches deep into himself and the creative process causes him pain. Creativity besets him in cycles . . . . He needs solitude and replenishment and seeks these in the contact with nature. He goes for extended retreats and contemplation to the Trappist Monastery in Oka and returns refreshed." She went on to point out that in much of Gécin's work was the element of gossamer webbing and morphological forms as well as `flowing abstract configurations', humans and she mentioned a linear composition entitled "Homage a Cézanne" which she found exciting. Robert Ayre<sup>3</sup> noted a year later the following " …. in the close stitches of his elaborating embroidery, he has moved out of his own immediate personal experience into paraphrases of the masters Rembrandt's `Burning Bush', Cézanne's `Card Players' " and he went on to describe other works.

1.Montreal Cazette, Quebec, Snturday December 26, 1964 "Art" by Réa Montbizon

2. lbid

3. Montreal Star, Saturday, December 11, 1965 "Gécin and Roussil - Major Exhibitions" by Robert Ayre

His work is included in the permanent collections of many galleries nationwide, including the National Gallery of Canada

Excerpted from A Dictionary of Canadian Artists. Colin S. MacDonald. Vol. 2 p. 262 1982

SOLD

Drawing on paper Pen/Ink

Signed and dated (1967)