Cardinals rule

John Pohl

These two paintings, one abstract, one realistic, are my contributions to Oiseaux Morin-Heights Birds: Exposition Art et Science, which will run Friday, May 22, to Sunday, May 24, at the Chalet Bellevue in Morin Heights. The vernissage is 5 to 7 p.m., on Thursday, May 21.

The exhibition is the second that Elizabeth Whalley has put together on nature. I participated in the first show called Arbe moi, which was about, as the title suggests, a personal connection to a particular tree or species.

For this show, I chose the cardinal as my bird. The cardinal is expanding its scope in the face of climate change — and it is common both in the Laurentians and in Longueuil, where I live. Also, a pair of cardinals appears in my yard every year and always makes me wonder how the male’s bright plumage doesn’t make it more visible to predators.

The painting of the male cardinal and its female counterpart is supposed to reflect their resiliency to our extreme weather differences, with a separation showing the female on a spruce tree branch as buds bloom in the spring.

In the painting below this essay, the male enjoys the summer and fall warmth emanating from the stone walls that allow pear trees to thrive in the mountain climate. I was inspired by the natural wall created by an exposed stone ridge in the yard of one of the participants, who took advantage of the heat-storing nature of stone to create a microclimate that includes pear trees.

The abstract red and yellow painting above the text comes from a photo I took one night in my backyard to record the lights in the sky from jet contrails and the moon. I manipulated the photo to emphasize the strange shapes, and used that as the basis for my painting. Elizabeth actually liked it and “demanded” that it be included in the exhibition.