De ma main la couleur / Hand to Colour

Jean McEwen (1923–1999) was a Canadian painter who was known for his abstract, colourful paintings. De ma main à la couleur (Hand to Colour) is a series of 16 watercolour paintings accompanied by handwritten poetry by McEwen.

The book will include an essay by art historian and writer Laurier Lacroix, and an additional text by McEwen’s widowed wife Indra McEwen. It is also published to coincide with 50 limited edition box sets that are stamped and authenticated by McEwen’s estate. The watercolour series is a collection of love letters addressed to colour, produced near the end of McEwen’s life.

Poetry was another form of artistic expression for McEwen, with renowned poets Baudelaire and Valéry among his revered idols. The works included in De ma main à la couleur act as precursors to his oil painting series Poèmes barbares (Barbaric Poems), painted during the last year of his life and now represented in the collections of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the National Gallery of Canada. The watercolours of De ma main à la couleur were donated to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts by Indra McEwen, and were exhibited in 2005.

McEwen’s watercolours and poetry are not as well known and represented in public collections as his oil paintings but they were constant in his art practice throughout his life. De ma main à la couleur aims to fulfill McEwen’s desire to have these luminous, colourful works reach a wider public audience.