Clemence Wescoupe was born in 1951 on the Long Plains Reserve near Portage la Prairie, Manitoba.  In the 1970’s he began to study the work of Cree artist Jackson Beardy (one of the Woodland Group of Seven), learning much from Beardy’s mastery of formline and colour.  As his style developed, he attained a sensitive command of negative space.  His is an art of sensitivity and power, much concerned with animal spirits, spiritual guardianship and shamanic transformations, yet many of its images are familiar and its appeal is immediate and profound.