A Look Inside a Surrealist Sculptor’s Rural Quebec Retreat

You know how a lot of great chefs, after spending long days in the kitchen creating rich, complex, exquisite cuisine, like to eat very simply when they get home? A comforting bowl of soup, perhaps, or some pasta aglio e olio? I’d always assumed that artists might be the same way — that all the visual stimuli they encounter in their daily work would lead them to want something starker at home. This stunning country residence in Bolton-Est, Quebec, owned by surrealist sculptor Jacek Jarnuszkiewicz, is proof that I was kind of both right and wrong

Collaboratively designed by Jarnuszkiewicz himself with architects Marie-Claude Hamelin and Loukas Yiacouvakis, the house appears minimalist on the surface. But a closer inspection reveals a glut of artful, ingenious choices — the entire home, if you will, is a sculpture in itself.

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Let’s start with that roof: it’s a cut-out wedge that hangs over the home on an angle, accentuating its verticality and supplying some immediate wow factor.

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Inside, toweringly high ceilings and massive windows combine for a gallery-like ambience that’s heavy on natural light.

Glass floors on the upper level help that light flow throughout the home…

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…and also offers a somewhat surrealist view to onlookers below.

A stripped-down palette of natural wood tones, black and white also adds to the home’s overall airy, fluid and unpretentious vibes.

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Outside, a second-floor terrace offers sweeping views of the surrounding coniferous forest and nearby Lake Trousers.

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All in all, it’s a deceivingly simple home whose wiles and twists will linger in your mind for days and weeks at a time — just like a great work of art.

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Images: Francis Pelletier / YH2 / V2Com