The storm clouds are rolling in

Painting the weather

Seeing the heavy fog and clouds coming in makes me think of trips to the coast with their salty air, wind gusts, and stormy clouds.

In Montreal, we always hear the local weather followed by regional weather, including the city of Gaspé – which always seems to have some sort of crazy gale, massive blinding drifts of snow or bitterly cold temperatures. Before visiting the peninsula and surrounding region, that was most of what we knew of it.

We visited Gaspésie mid-summer and the lupins were in bloom. I remember the weather was tempestuous and full of rain-saturated clouds in beautiful greys and blues, windswept stone beaches, and houses with charming metal roofs.

Here, a couple of paintings of the moody foggy, rainy days along the coast. Soft framing is perfect for expanses of sea and sky...

A windswept house with wonderfully cheerful turquoise tin roof. Drawn using a fountain pen loaded with water soluble brown ink. Painted in watercolour with a tiny touch of opaque white gouache.

Gaspé roadside windswept house with tin roof. Pen and watercolour.

The Pointe-au-Père lighthouse and adjacent buildings, Rimouski/Bas-Saint-Laurent region, in stormy weather. Drawn with black pen and painted in watercolour.

Pointe-au-Père lighthouse, Rimouski/Bas-Saint-Laurent region, in stormy weather. Watercolour.