One evening in early February of this year, while quietly huddled in my winter-braced hotel room in Calgary, AB, a vivid memory of myself as a young boy fluttered in: A boy enthralled by the movement of coloured shapes flowing onto my uncle’s paper. Skilled brushstrokes dancing between water and pigment in the hands of world-renowned artist Llewellyn Petley-Jones kept revealing new Albertan landscapes, best known for its sky. I have always been deeply moved and inspired by his work, his talent and passion. 

Uniquely, this was the first time that my reminiscing of him had sparked an irresistible desire to further explore watercolour medium; A very intimate, subtle, and spontaneous work. In my experience, one cannot fix a mistake, only ride with it and adapt to the movement it desires. The less controllable aspects can work for you: humidity, air temperature and even the type of paper combine their effects to always reveal a superbly singular result. Unrepeatable. Although my university training has provided an in-depth knowledge of painting, it is what my uncle had taught me that has stayed deeply within. If you wet the sky area with water before the colour has been applied, he said, it will all flow together into a unified, yet one-of-a-kind movement.

With my first watercolour series, Studies of Colour I, I have used landscape as a base while my focus was on the immediacy and intimacy of the watercolour medium, and the way it presents the relationship between energy and colour.

Painted in Calgary. Inspired by the Prairies. MPJ