René LeBel

Fine Furniture Maker
Medium: Wood

Lebel’s mission is to design and build fine custom furniture, using solid wood, with some shop-sawn veneers and certain extraordinary commercial veneers. His core philosophy is to use traditional furniture making techniques to build refined, contemporary furniture. Traditional furniture making techniques have been around for hundreds of years. They have proven effective through time with pieces of furniture that have lasted for hundreds of years. However, modern tools and techniques are also embraced, as required, for the sake of efficiency and to remain current.
Through experience, this combination of old and new is used to create distinctive pieces of uncompromising quality designed to gracefully last a lifetime. To borrow a basic concept of sustainability, the pieces, at the minimum, should be designed and built to last at least as long as the tree lived from which the wood was taken.

 There is a responsibility to make things aesthetic as well as well built. What is the point of a scrupulously crafted piece if it has not been touched by art to evoke an emotional response, please the eye, or create attachment with the audience?

René has been crafting work in wood professionally for over 20 years. Starting out self-taught using only hand tools, then experimenting with a brief stint timber framing. In 2004, studying Fine Woodworking at Selkirk College in Nelson, BC became the springboard for nurturing a continuing passion for fine woodworking. His craft was further refined in a handful of shops in British Columbia’s interior.

“Woodworking is a very personal expression of a passion to build, explore, and learn.  Central to this is the never ending cycle of build, learn, build, learn…  The work continues to evolve as I explore new themes, techniques, and materials.  That may be the greatest reward of having landed in this craft, striving for the next challenge and the never ending opportunity to go beyond what I have done before.” René Lebel

René is located in scenic Canmore, Alberta. Surroundings that provide ample inspiration and motivation to create finely crafted and carefully designed pieces of functional wooden art.

For more information or to contact this artist for a commission, please contact info@bay1gallery.com.

Gallery

Ash End Grain Coffee Table 17.5” tall by 31” by 39”

Ash End Grain Coffee Table 17.5” tall by 31” by 39”

Low table - red oak, jatoba SOLD

Low table – red oak, jatoba SOLD

"Seven of Nine" End Table using cedar, fir, maple, poplar, jatoba, batu, sapele, walnut, red oak, white oak, hickory, ash, beech and finished with a hard wax oil

“Seven of Nine” End Table using cedar, fir, maple, poplar, jatoba, batu, sapele, walnut, red oak, white oak, hickory, ash, beech and finished with a hard wax oil

Seven of Nine

Seven of Nine