Copyright 2005 Sharon Crawford

Everything watercolourist Jack Reid paints is related to water—tidal pools and rocks, snow, fog and rain reflecting the autumn colours on the ground. The artist is “fascinated by their translucent nature.” He hates artsy and happy, preferring to paint reality on the melancholy side “because that’s how I feel.”

His two-acre property in the Credit River Valley outside Brampton, Ontario mirrors this watery existence, especially the gloom on a grey rainy day. Cars swish by on Steeles Avenue at the front, but the rear area of his property transforms into a Lord of the Ring's Middle Earth, with stately fir trees surrounding a large grassy area, and a cardinal determined to peck through the living room window of the rambling bungalow. To the right lies a swimming pool, long surrendered to the bull rushes flanking its top. You can also see this view from Reid’s studio attached to his house.

This scene is typical of those which Reid, 79, has created during his 34-year career as artist and teacher. Painting isn’t his original calling. Reid owned a graphic design company, which he sold to a client. He worked for the new owners, but they soon fired him because “they wanted someone to do what they’re told and I don’t design that way.” He was 45, his wife, Maggie, was pregnant, and they were in debt. So, Jack, who had a grade seven education and had never held a brush before, started to paint.

“Often the worst things that happen to you are the best. I never learned anything on a good day. I came to see change as an essential part of my existence.” He learned to paint by combining technical information from books and by doing. His first significant painting depicted a stone house on the Guelph Line near the Mohawk Raceway; the second was an old barn based on one he saw near Milton. He first exhibited in the Carling Kiwanis Outdoor Exhibition, Toronto, where his watercolours won first prize. One of the judges was Jack Pollack, who owned the prestigious Pollack Gallery in Toronto’s Yorkville area. Reid began exhibiting solo at various galleries across the country. In 1992, the Canadian Government awarded him the Commemorative Medal for contributing to Canadian Art, and in 1999 he became a life member in the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour. Although he still paints, he now focuses on guiding other artists.

Reid started teaching in 1971 when the owner of the Doon School of Fine Art owner told him, “You paint very quickly. If you could do that for people, I’m sure it would inspire them and teach them to paint.” After Doon, Reid took on more teaching assignments. He has developed quite a student following, some 15,000 over the years throughout North America, Europe and the British Isles.

Reid removes his glasses and rubs his eyes as he quickly clarifies his curriculum. “I don’t teach art; I teach technique, composition, value and design. Art is personal. I don’t know how you see the same thing as I see it, so I can’t teach you. I go to where people are, not where I think they should be.”

At one location, overlooking a harbour, Reid and his students prepared to paint a blue cloudless sky. “A student asked what I thought was a stupid question—‘what colour are you going to use for the sky?’ ” The student wanted the blue shade on Reid’s palette specified “because she was colour-blind.” Reid uses this example in every class to show that no questions are dumb.

Reid snatches the moment to paint. “Something that will work me up today, won’t work me up a week from now.” Several years ago, Reid, attired in rubber boots and raincoat, stood on the frozen Eramosa River in the Rockwood Conservation Area and focused his camera on “the last bit of sunlight down on pancake ice. I was so bloody excited I went through the ice.” Despite cold water up to his knees, Reid snapped the photo. Another time, he stood in the rain on the tailgate of his van to paint the perfect picture of Crescent Beach south of Haliburton. “Water is usually deadly to watercolours, but not this one.”

But Reid’s painting and teaching almost stopped permanently when his wife died in 2002. He couldn’t paint his way through the depression and spent two months the following spring recuperating from his own medical problems. A June 2003 workshop in Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland was already booked for 40 students. Reid knew he had to go for the students, but a friend from Victoria, BC accompanied him to Newfoundland and painted beside him to break the stalemate. For two days Jack sat and stared at the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Then he saw a lighthouse and “just started to paint it.”

Over the years Jack has created numerous books on watercolour, including the bestseller Let’s Get Started – a basic introduction to watercolours; Painting Snow and Water (published in English and Chinese), and he is one of two Canadians featured in The Watercolor Sky & Clouds Painting Techniques of 23 International Artists (November 2004). He also produced  a CD-ROM and hosted a TV show. His calendar of on-site workshops reads like a what’s where of Canada and England. Back home in his studio, he has basic watercolour workshops lined up for 2005.

“I have a talent, given to me by God and I try to share it,” says Reid.

His art is on view, by appointment, at his Brampton studio: (905)457-2078, www.jackreid.com