Taverne, with sterlized glasses!

On the way back I did one last painting somewhere along the bike path in Le Plateau. It took awhile to find this on google maps in retrospect, it is on the south east corner of Rachel and st Hubert. The taverne sign looks pretty vintage, it has neon tubing on it which must light up at night, just in case you need to know where the entrance is. Some nice fall colour trees were in the background, a variety of yellow and orange. The sign over the door said Verres Stérilisés (sterlized glasses!) which always makes me laugh, since you would assume that a bar would have clean glasses, but this one says so on the sign over the door. In fact, the name of the taverne appears to literally be "Taverne Aux Verres Stérilisés Inc", so its some kind of chain since I saw this sign elsewhere in Le Plateau. At any rate, the neighborhood is full of these hole-in-the-wall pubs that are probably a good place to go for a drink and hockey game for the locals.

Taverne and fall colours,  watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024

Fall scenes from st Helen's island

To paint the Expo67 dome I painted the sky first and then painted a greyish ring and faded it into the middle like a bubble. When that was dry I overpainted the central structure, then the criss-crossing supports. The colours in the trees got too heavy, I was adding burnt sienna which muddled things up. I will use pyrol orange (PO73) next time. When the season's change it usually takes me a few trips to sort out the mixtures. This fall so far is very mild and sunny.

Stone tower and dome, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024

You get a good panorama view of the city, mount royal, and the old port with its ferris wheel. Somehow it all got crooked, a rookie mistake. Unfortunately the feeling of malaise was working against me today, but it would pass later in the afternoon.

Mountain and city across river, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024

Its the same scene but with a lot more detail, and the river line is straightened out. There were interesting colours in mount royale, I used pyrol orange (PO73) and orange (PO62) with yellow ochre (PY43) and various shades of green.

Detailed mountain and city across river, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024

 

The concert area on the island was renovated in recent times, they laid down a vast desert of interlocking brick and crushed white stone, with these monolithic, almost alien looking sound towers. At the concert they hook speaker up there and lights, and it projects into the crowd. A few small figures and a cyclist were added for a sense of scale.

Concert towers, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024

 

Various scenes from Dieppe park on a nice blue sky day

These giant cruise boats were in port, separated by the tall glass tower and the grassy seating area where they set up colourful red, blue, yellow and green deck chairs for the tour boat people. The boats are so small they have to use the tower, which has staircases and an elevator inside, to get down to ground level. The tower is a funny shape, like a lego leaning tower of Pisa. 

Cruise boats old port, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024

 

This bench looked like a great place to sit, with full sun on top of a hill. Sitting in the bench, you would be looking back at the Montreal skyline. In the background on the right is the Concorde bridge with its dusty turquoise colour. There were plenty of fall colours today, this tree was almost entirely yellow.

Bench on hill yellow tree, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024

 

I have never quite got this scene right despite trying several times, in this version the reflection seems too long, and the shape of the tower is off. But you get the sense of a blue sky and the Montreal scenery, on the right is the Molson Brewery, on the left is an old factory-turned condo.

Clock tower reflection, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024

 

Fall scenes from Dieppe park, bridges

It was a cool and clear fall day here in Montreal, perfect for a bike ride down to Dieppe park where you get fantastic views of the Jacques Cartier bridge. Quite a few people were fishing down below, not sure what they were going to catch but it seems there were over a dozen people. The river flows from the right with a lot of turbulence, while on the left it has a calm and steady flow. The middle was just a sort of abstraction of what I saw in the swirling foamy water.

Cartier bridge fisherpeople, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024

 

I painted a similar scene but without the people fishing. It was the first one of the day and I was feeling unwell. Where there are waves, the water took on a brownish tone, probably from the river bottom showing through. It must be really mucky down there.

Cartier bridge flow, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024

 

This is a view of the Concorde bridge seen through the trees, it connect Dieppe park area to st Helen's island. In the foreground you see part of the old viewing platform, it looks to be circa 1960 with the brown concrete walls with horizontal grooves, it was popular back then. The leaves are all turning various shades of yellow and orange.

Concorde bridge through trees, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024

Polymerase chain reaction thermal cycler, clinical analysis laboratory

That is quite a blog title, let me explain each word. Polymerase is the name of an enzyme, that is a protein that transforms one thing into another, more specifically this enzyme can replicate ribonucleic acid (RNA). RNA are the messages the body uses as instructions to make other things. Chain reaction is the name of the chemical steps that cause RNA to be replicated, just a few RNA molecules can turn into millions and billions. The thermal cycler is the machine you see in the foreground of the painting, it will automatically change the temperature of the reaction over the course of several hours, which makes the chain reaction keep going. Finally, clinical analysis is the name of the laboratory area where the device is located. In the background you see a cell culture area, where immune cells can be grown in incubators with carbon dioxide tanks, and the box with the chair is a sterile area where the cells can be handled. This painting is actually going to be a gift for one of the masters students who recently graduated. Its been a tradition for the last few years that graduates get a painting, although not always a lab painting but in this case it was requested after the last one, western blot apparatus, was a big hit with the lab members.

Thermal cycler, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, October 2024

Orbital debris

 

The other day I was reading about how many satellites are in orbit around earth, it went from a dozen in the 1950's to now like hundred's of thousands. There are so many satellites that the milky way is not visible in parts of the world, and astronomers see lines criss-crossing space when they try to observe. To think that the one thing that all people have looked up to and thought about from the beginning, is now cluttered up with piles of satellites and space debris. The painting was just an abstract painting, partly done to clean off the palette for the weekend, and to test out the various earth paints I have in stock. The burnt yellow ochre and red/brown is almost run out, so I will try one of the other ones or maybe make a mix. It is very subtle but the 'rusty' paints can vary from orange-leaning to red-leaning. Venetian red is the reddest of them all, while a classic 'burnt sienna' tends to be orangest. If you go any further towards yellow you get raw sienna, then yellow ochre.

Orbital debris, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, October  2024

Esso gas station at night

Another day another deadline passes, like the sun going down it will always come up again. Here is a painting of the gas station on Sherbrooke that recently became an Esso, hence the bright red trim. To paint this scene, I applied the sky first in dark blue, a mix of sapphire blue PB15 with navy blue PB60. Then I painted over with the clouds, which was the same mix but with yellow ochre (PY43). As usual it is very hard to properly judge colours at night, although I had the portable bike light to peek and see if it was about right. Compared to painting in the comfort of your home studio, painting on location adds a couple of points to the difficulty scale. This painting was about a 7/10 on the difficulty scale. By comparison, gas station on a sunny day was easier, probably 6/10, while gas station on a snowy night was probably 9/10 difficulty. Its just an imaginary scale I have to think about how hard a scene is, it depends on subject matter, weather, and other factors like where I am standing. For example, Chateau Frontenac was about the most difficult thing I could paint, while the Ice Flow Dieppe park was about as miserably cold and windy of a location and I even had to finish that one at home. And speaking of auto shops there was auto shop on a rainy night, where I stood on the corner getting blasted by ice cold rain while trying to hold an umbrella, brush, palette and paper all at once. But the challenge is part of the fun, if every painting was sky, trees and grass on a sunny day... well, actually that sounds pretty good.

Esso gas station at night, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024

Poplar guy on campus

 

The unassuming poplar tree can be one of the toughest things to paint especially in watercolour. The trunk has subtle shades of yellow, orange and blue, with delicate marks crossing around the bark. The leaves do not fill in completely, leaving a textured appearance with open spaces. Behind the poplar trees is a tall glass building that was all shades of blue and green. This is about the closest nature scene to my office, and there is a convenient ledge to sit on while painting. I was the most poplar guy on campus for a moment.

Poplars on campus, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024