Edmond Chatigny was born in 1895, and spent the whole of his life in St. isidore de Beauce, Quebec. He was a farmer who raised thirteen children. When he retired from the farm, around 1972, he started carving.

“When I was on the farm I used to work hard, then when I retired I had nothing to do and I became bored. That’s what decided me to start making little things - wooden flowers, birds, then all kinds of things. I do it with a little saw and a little knife. Sell them? They are not sellable. They are not made in a minute. It’s all green, white and red with a little brown. This year I think I am going to put a lot of green and white”.

He continued to carve and decorate his yard, which he turned into a fantasy garden.

“In the summer when I mow the lawn, once a week I move everything and then put it back. It takes me two days.”

Edmond Chatigny died in 1985.

Reference: Les Patenteux du Quebec, Grosbois, Lamothe, Nantel, 1978. Folk Art, McKendry 1983. Les Paradis du monde, Pascale Galipeau 1995.

For more information, read the short post from a guest on the Folk Art Forum who also met Chatigny and admired his work.