Roberts Gallery Blog

LENNARD & ROY

This last body of work was created during the covid isolation. The time gave me the opportunity to review the countless drawings and journals I have written over the years.

I find limitations and one’s memory in most cases can spark  fire for the imagination. I have used my memory and sketches to revisit the moments I have enjoyed and experienced along the way. I wanted to bring back these moments to life and take me to a wonderful place during this time of isolation.

–  John Lennard

In nature, there are places we tend to return to again and again. Lac à Loutre (Otter Lake) is such a place for me. When I was a teenager, some good friends and I would often go there to try our luck at fishing. We would set out at one end of the lake with our canoe, cross it and, at the other end, we would paddle up a lazy stream that brought us deeper into the woods. Occasionally, we had to lift the canoe to get over a beaver dam. Each time it felt like an adventure.

This past winter, as the pandemic situation caused everyone to limit their movements, I decided to go for a long snowshoe trek. I had painted from the studio most of the winter, and now that the days were getting warmer, painting outdoors was very compelling. Out of nostalgia, and because it’s not very far from home, I decided to snowshoe to Lac à Loutre. The snow was starting to melt and already the meandering stream was gouging a deep dark channel in the landscape. Interesting and restless clouds in the sky were all that it took to entice me to make a few more paintings from this familiar corner of the wilderness.

There are other ponds and small lakes in the area that I often return to explore and I always end up painting something. One lake in particular has a small log cabin on one of its islands (see “Pleine lune sur le lac Nigadoo’’). Who can resist painting that?

– Rejean Roy