My paintings can be described as mental landscapes.  They are not actual locations, where I have been, but my experiences of these places. I begin with colours and the forms emerge.

Over the last ten years, I have repeatedly visited water sources from Lake Erie and the Niagara Escarpment to Vancouver and on to Auckland, New Zealand.  In North Vancouver I hike in the Capilano Forest. It has  an abundance of waterfalls, rocks and one of my favourite rivers, the Capilano River.   After BC, I fly to New Zealand. The similarities, and differences between Vancouver and Auckland always delight and amaze me.

While travellling I take digital photographs of rivers, rocks and vegetation. I hike, bike and kayak in rivers and lakes looking for something that surprises me. Usually I choose a special stone to take home as a reminder of my trip. 

On my return to Ontario the contrasts in the landscapes appear extreme at first sight.  After a few weeks, I find the renewal that comes with spring in Ontario and on the Thames River, offers up new and similar themes.

 Jaquie Poole, 2013