For the month of March, Café 349 is honoured to present a special exhibition of limited-edition prints by the distinguished American artist Paul Calle, featuring his evocative oil paintings of the 19th-century Western frontier.
While this exhibition differs from our usual presentation of original works, it offers something equally compelling: museum-quality limited editions of historically significant paintings by an artist whose career bridged fine art, illustration, and documentary storytelling. Calle is widely known for designing United States postage stamps — including the iconic Apollo 11 “First Man on the Moon” stamp — and for his remarkable portraits of astronauts, explorers, and frontier figures. His work is held in major public and private collections and is admired for its technical mastery, historical accuracy, and deep respect for those who lived and worked close to the land.
In spirit, Calle’s work invites comparison to Canada’s renowned wildlife painter Robert Bateman. Like Bateman, Calle combines precision and atmosphere with a reverence for wilderness and the resilience of human life within it. His frontier scenes quietly honour endurance, settlement, labour, and the bond between people and landscape.
This collection was assembled over many years by the late Vernon Fairhead, a Clarendon resident for forty years who passed away in 2020. Vernon possessed a deep connection to nature and a lifelong fascination with the lives and journeys of early settlers. His interests extended beyond art to the material culture of the era — capotes, moccasins, mittens, tools, and black powder rifles — tangible pieces of history that reflected his respect for craftsmanship and survival. For Vernon, these works were more than images; they were stories preserved.
We believe this exhibition will resonate strongly within our Upper Ottawa Valley community, particularly on the Quebec side, where wildlife, the history of settlement, and a love of outdoor life remain central to our shared identity. Calle’s expansive skies, working horses, hunters, and homesteads feel both distant in time and intimately familiar — echoes of landscapes and lives not unlike our own.
The works on display are large, beautifully framed, and presented with care. They are offered for sale by Vernon’s widow, Linda Roy, at half the current market value of the prints alone — a rare opportunity for collectors and admirers.
