Yelling at Young Mosquitos in Rain Barrel, 1967

Galerie Agnès Lefort, Montreal Private Collection, Toronto

“Most people are mystified by this picture,” wrote William Kurelek about his 1967 homage to his childhood in Manitoba. “In fact,” he continued, “nobody has yet guessed what the boy is doing. I guess because it’s a personal boyhood game I amused myself with. Mosquitoes, as you know, breed in stagnant water, and the larvae have breathing tubes to the surface of the water. I didn’t like mosquitoes because they plagued man and farm animals in Manitoba, so I would frighten them to the bottom of the barrel beside the farmhouse with the vibration of my voice. And as soon as they’d surface for more air I’d send them down again with another yell.” Describing the technique he used to depict the humid late summer weather for which Manitoba is well known, Kurelek wrote, “I have pictured heavy clouds such as we had the next day after the rain by alternate use of luminous colour and dark green oil paint to recreate the play of light and cloud shadow on the field and farmyard.”