Artist’s Statement

I love the outdoors and am an avid cross-country skier, hiker and canoest and many of my paintings are inspired by scenes from these activities. Hiking in the bright autumn colours, skiing past a stream coming out of the woods or just gliding across a still lake in a canoe are things that turn me on. Watercolour lends itself particularly well to snow and landscapes and I strive to capture my emotion and excitement of these scenes in my paintings. There is nothing more satisfying than painting a that captures the same emotion you felt when you first encountered it.

While x-country skiing in the Rattray Marsh Conservation Area near my home early one morning the rising sun was peeking through the trees across the partly frozen Sheridan Creek. It was a unique and beautiful scene and lasted only a few minutes but long enough for me to capture it on my camera. It reminded me of the poem Morning Has Broken, written by English author Eleanor Farjeon. I was so moved by the scene that as soon as I got home I brought out my watercolours and captured it in paint while it was still fresh in my memory.

I have a cottage on a lake in the Laurentian Mountains north of Montreal and in winter it becomes a winter wonderland. One late afternoon when the shadows were very long and I was x-country skiing on the lake I was coming around the corner of a headland of tall spruce trees. They cast their long deep blue shadows almost across this narrow part of the lake. The sharp contrast between the dark shadows and the still sunlit shoreline caught my attention and again, I was compelled to capture the feeling in watercolour when I returned home.