St. Lawrence River, view from Park in Lachine

All things come to end, so hopefully this pandemic will too come to an end. The lock-down restrictions have been eased in Quebec although social distancing and personal protective equipment is still recommended. This is the last painting I did on my week off, it happened to be the last day of May. As I sat on the peninsula painting in the strong cold wind, I was getting pelted by hundreds of May Flies, little yellowish flies that hatch into adults for a few days in May or June. There were so many of them that they got into my palette, water, brushes, clothes, and I might have accidentally swallowed one! To remember the moment, I included a few of the little bugs crawling on my bike in the foreground. I also wanted to immortalize my bike, it has taken me many kilometers for the sake of art.

Knowledge and experience go hand in hand, you cant have one without the other. I have been studying handprint.com extensively, it is the greatest art resource for watercolour painters ever created on the internet. One point was that certain pigments dry a lot lighter than they first appear. I always knew this, but handprint had actual numbers. For example prussian blue looses almost 70% of its value and 30% of colour intensity! Putting this to the test, I created what appeared to be a dark blue wash for the water, it really looked bad... then as it dried over the next 10 minutes, is turned into the light sky-blue with a slight green tinge, perfect. After that I used raw umber natural (straw coloured brown) for the greens and the muddy water wave effects. The blogger and instructor Jane Blundell's writings on her website helped convince me on the use of earth colours. The last influence I can list is the group of seven. The day I wrote the blog on Group of 7 homage, I was inspired by Lawren Harris' Montreal River to actually go and paint the St. Lawrence river, complete with wind-swept trees (and May Flies).

As I rode home, cold miserable, and with a slight taste of May Fly (tastes like chicken?), it occurred to me that the 'pandemic blues series' of paintings was finished. It is time to hit the reset button on the art journey. It seemed fitting, last day of May, six months into the year, the pandemic abating, and the poor May flies briefly coming to life. The pandemic blues series began with my first foray into the outside world after the pandemic was announced, a small study on Somerled, NDG where I sat nervously away from the sidewalk, a study of the social consequences at the grocery store lineup, a trip to Nowhere Montreal, and many more.

Of course, I will never stop painting!

7 x 10" rough press, watercolour, May 31st 2020