Sunset over Atwater Avenue

Might as well close out April with a strong 60 blogs! Thanks for those who have been following, the view counts make a positive difference to my artwork. In this painting, I was standing next to my bike on location, looking north west along Atwater Avenue. The Alexis Nihon mall is on the left, the old Forum is just visible on the right. In the background up on the side of Mount Royal is the imposing Montreal General hospital. I was mostly inspired by the people hanging out under the entrance to the mall, but by the time I set up they had dispersed. Just an Indigenous man wearing blue and red and walking on crutches made it into the painting from the initial group. As usual, a flow of pedestrians and rows of cars completed the scene. I signed in yellow ochre on top of a car windshield on the bottom right.

Sunset over Atwater Avenue, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025

World Inspired Landscapes: Turkmenistan

 

I initially though that Turkmenistan would be yet another mountainous country like neighboring Afghanistan or nearby Tajikstan, however the vast majority of Turkmenistan is flat plains and steppes. Just a few rivers bring waster into fertile stretches of land, while the remainder is mostly desert. A large salt lake sits on the west part of the country next to the Caspian Sea. The salt lake has been a source of wealth for a long time, since there are valuable minerals to be extracted and the salt itself is valuable. In one valley, they are incredible rock formations, even more spectacular than the grand canyon. At one particular location there is a rocky outcrop that influencers, and/or people who risk their lives to take a picture of themselves, will sit there and pose infront of the scene. It looks kind of dangerous to me, but indeed a spectacular landscape. I usually talk more about the history, and the story of Turkmenistan is that it suffered a bit from being a flat, indefensible terrain that fell under the regional powers of the time. For instance, its name is a Persian word, because all countries ending in 'stan, used to be part of the Persian empire. It actually had one of the largest trading centers on the silk road in antiquity.

When planning the painting, what struck me most was the overhead satellite image seen on Google Maps. The sweeping, extraterrestrial landscape was stunning, like a view of mars when it had water. The painting is loosely based on the satellite view of the large salt basin Garabogazköl Lagoon, where the briny water meets the arid desert. Unfortunately when the industry drains the brine from the lagoon, it causes powdery salt to blow around the adjacent soil which poisons the agriculture and contaminates fresh water sources. To create the fantastic textures and flowing colours of the landscape, I used a heavy wet-in-wet technique that I called the colour splash technique. Adding to that, I employed some of the highest 'granulating pigments' available including bloodstone genuine (Daniel Smith, its a hematite iron oxide pigment) and goethite, another granular earth pigment. On the left I used turquoise (PB16) and lemon vanadium (PY184) which I thought would be strong enough to stand up to the earth pigments. The whole thing was a puddle that I tilted and drained until it seemed to look okay. Luckily, two round white spaces formed, I don't know why that happened, there must have been imperfections in the paper. I left the image in a high resolution so you should be able to tap and zoom in. I like how the goethite bled into the turquoise water, and how the salty brine blended into the hematite pigment. Somehow it ended up looking just like, or even better than the satellite view.

World Inspired Landscapes: Turkmenistan, watercolour 7 x 10" hot press, April 2025

Lab Book #26: Freezing Solution (Paper Thin)

As promised, here is Lab Book #26: Freezing Solution, with the subtitle Paper Thin. The doodles for this painting were mostly from the 26th lab book, its a hard-topped chemistry notebook that I used mostly for meetings and recording results from students or my own research. And of course I can not resist doodling in the margins and any open spaces on the pages. In the past, I tried to copy every single doodle into the paintings, but in this case I took a subtly different approach. Looking through the whole note book I marked some of the more developed doodles that had good ideas, then grouped them together in my art sketchbook to get a general idea of the composition. Thus, each quadrant, and the center of the painting, each contain one major doodle element. That allowed me to fill the open spaces with a few smaller doodles and with freestyle doodles. The freestyle doodles were just made on the spot, for example in the top left I used the same technique as in the Trinidad and Tobago faux bill painting. By using freestyle doodles in the filler, I could better connect the elements and complement the main focal points. 

The other decision here was the choice of paint and colour scheme. I went with a simple carbon black pigment (PBk6) all the way, using mostly a number 2 brush, that is a very small brush, like the tine on a fork, or a couple of toothpicks wide for example. A number 6 helped fill some areas. As I painted, it became clear that the drawing and the value contrasts were fantastic with the carbon black, it creates a nice soft grey where needed, and with brush work I created strong textural variations throughout. So in the end I made the veteran move of leaving it black and white.
 

The last thing to mention is the subject matter. I made these doodles mostly last year when my laboratory budget was down in the dumps and we were struggling to pay for the research. Luckily as I mentioned earlier, that problem is more than solved now, but the doodles were still from that time that had a mixture of optimism (happy results), and despair (empty fund accounts). The character on the left is meant to me, although the face turned out looking a lot like my oldest nephew, and the character is paper thin (spread too thin). In my jacket pocket a siphon is draining cash, and a flame is blazing away under my crotch! Over top a frozen fish is melting, which creates drops, which look like tears, which merge with the flames. Hence the title 'Frezing solution'. If your accounts are frozen, work your butt off. But the best part of the painting is the donut really. I will post some crops below. 

Lab Book #26: Freezing Solution (Paper Thin), watercolour 22 x 30" cold press, April 2025

 

 crop 1 in the top left, my B.Sc. Bachelor's of Science, and Ph.D doctorate of philosophy (in Immunology) are seen, with my office window to their right. The melting fish, and a computer monitor that says no more email, with a picture of email being crossed out. The background is similar to the Trinidad and Tobago painting style but in black and white.

 crop 2 in the bottom right, a microscope is magnifying a sample slide, in fact, there are happy faces on the slide you just needed a microscope to see them! The background contain flying papers (an academic's worst nightmare, or, how you grade term papers in a rush). Abstract patterns complement the scene. The composition invites the viewer in to see what I am drawing.

 

crop 3 finally the real star of the show, the Homer's donut, inspired by the new restaurant here that was inspired by the TV show. Even though the donut is black and white, you know that the icing is pink, and the sprinkles are all different colours. The rest of the scene contains an illusion of sorts. The light is illuminating a vase of flowers in the photo, but not the vase of flowers in real life... try not to look too much at the table legs, it might hurt your brain.

 

 

World Inspired Landscapes: Türkiye

I got a bit hung up on the design for the Turkey painting, more on that later. Note, that the country recently decided to change their name to the official spelling Türkiye. It has been a geographically important country for as long as humans could walk and migrate because it connects Europe with Asia and the Middle East. All things had to flow through Turkey, not to mention it has water access on both sides making it even more powerful as a geopolitical area. Unfortunately its proximity to the various tectonic plates also make it geologically unstable, its one of the most earthquake prone areas in the world owing to several tectonic fault lines. When the land separates and creates an indentation its called a gorge, or a canyon. This is different than a valley which forms between two steep mountains. Turkey is known for its rocks features, there is even an area called love valley where numerous phallic-shapes rock buttes stand tall. In the painting I depicted a gorge, with lush green growth at the bottom due to the accumulation of water. The rest of the landscape looked arid and desolate.

World Inspired Landscapes: Türkiye (Turkey) watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025

 

So the reason I got hung up on the composition was the idea to make a landscape painting out of Turkish delights... these are popular Turkish confectioneries made of gelatinous flour and sugar with red colouring and sometimes a pistachio in the center. The cubes are about one square inch, and covered in powdered sugar. Actually I did this one first, now that I see it on the blog I am liking it more and more. Its a sweet painting. When doing the second, more realistic painting, I infused some magenta colours inspired by the Turkish delights.

World Inspired Landscapes: Turkish delights, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025

Fleischmann's yeast silos

Painting down by the river and there was an alluring smell of yeast in the air. Thinking it was beer brewing, I followed the odor which brought me to the Fleischmann's baking yeast factory which is a massive complex. A row of 6 or 7 silos could be seen, with a tall, red-brick structure behind them. Off to the right there were a bunch of vats and water towers. I would have stayed and painted more but it was getting late and I wanted to ride home while there was still sun light. When in Lasalle you also have to account for getting lost because the roads are like a pile of tiddly-winks, like at weird angles. Luckily I found Dollard which leads north west, back to the bridge into st Pierre and back to NDG.  

Recently I ran out of red ochre, instead of buying more, I decided to try and use up the excess of burnt sienna and pyrol red that I have. So in this painting, I mixed burnt sienna which is normally a chocolatey brown, with the pyrol red to give the sensational brick red. Doing this also helped keep my other blob of pyrol red clean. It worked great, I may just do this as a regular thing. Riding down the rest of this street, which was Rue Airlie, there were more good scenes, and then turning left on Newman there were more good scenes, at least for open industrial kind of scenes. When the trees get leaves it would be a good place to go and paint again. Have to leave some things for the future.

Fleischmann's yeast silos,  watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025

 

Under and around the bridge

Just west of the Mercier bridge is the Saint-Laurent railway bridge, its the one that crosses over the Lachine canal that I have painted so many times. Here, you see the st Lawrence in the background, and a small shack on the shore in the foreground. These small shacks have probably been there since the 1950's or so, it seems unlikely that anyone would get permission nowadays. They could be boat houses too, its hard to say. I've been down around here before, there are a few trails and a small forest. This one was also painted over top of an old cut up painting but you'd hardly notice.

Under train bridge, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025

 

Looking just to the left there was a neat dirt path with squiggly trees and shadows. In the background, the Mercier bridge could be seen, but I forgot to add it until it was too late. It was good to practice painting trees and using green paint for a change.

Bumpy path, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025

 

The main subject matter here was the iron train bridge which I could see up close. At the top of the iron panel I used a warm variation of the colour, then shifted to cold towards the bottom part of the panel. Its hard to describe the technique, they were mixes of burnt sienna (PR101), burnt umber (PBr7), violet (PV55) and indo blue (PB60). Detailing was with carbon black. It ended up drying perfectly and looking a lot more realistic than I thought. When you paint dark colours you have to remember that they look darker when wet, and dry about one or two shades lighter.

Train bridge overpass, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025

Ranger park, mill in Lasalle

Ranger park is a small stretch of land next to the st Lawrence river at the west part of Lasalle. I paint there occasionally, but its hard to get there in the winter and the scenes are pretty generic in the summer. This time of year seems optimal since the foliage has yet to grow and you can see across to the other side of the river. It would be the shores of Brossard or maybe Longueuil. To do this painting I established the background, the water and the foreground, then painted the trees over top when it dried using a mix of earth paints applied thickly. Painting thick paint goes against the watercolour 'rules' but so far the watercolour police have not arrested me!

Ranger park river view, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025

 

This tree must have been massive judging by the size of the stump. By the colour of the wood it was probably cut down several years ago. When the sun bleaches fresh wood for long enough it goes a pale grey, which then reflects the sky more creating a blue or lilac shade. The park was still earthy and muddy as the new grass grew in. The coast at the top right would be Lachine mostly, and in the distance is across the river looking at the shore of Kahnawake.

Stump in Ranger Park, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025 

This old mill is mostly just a tourist attraction, it has not done work in a very long time. Its also a thing for artists to paint, evidently. This is actually painted over top an old painting, since I ran out of paper recently I decided to cut up an old 22 x 30 painting that was not very popular (not many upvotes) and paint on the back. The front had a wide blue sky which allowed me to just paint over top and you hardly notice. In history, many artists painted over old paintings, usually with oil paints. 

Old mill Lasalle, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025

Montreal rain colourful dumpsters

The rain held off but there was steady drizzle today and heavy cloud cover. Usually I would zoom down the bike path here into ville st Henri on route to the Lachine canal, but today I played it safe and stayed closer to home. To the left of this scene is the Glen Hospital, named after the Glen train yard which is where my Grandfather used to work on trains back in the day. On the right is highway 720 through the downtown, there used to be a small village there before the highway was built. With dense clouds, the tops of the sky scrapers were enshrouded.

Montreal rain, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025

On the way back the rain continued to hold off, and some colourful dumpsters caught my eye. In the background is a waste depot building, and in front was a bright yellow and a bright red dumpster. Since the asphalt was wet, it was reflecting the colours of the dumpsters. I suppose the main draw is the bright colour which rarely appears in Montreal, I only get to paint these colours when doing abstract paintings or occasionally when objects like this appear.

Colourful dumpsters, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025

World Inspired Landscapes: Trinidad and Tobago

 

When researching Trinidad and Tobago, a tropical island in the Caribbean near the coast of South America, it turns out they have one of the most beautiful paper currencies in the world. Elaborately designed and wonderfully composed, their money is colourful and artistically masterful. Many of their bills represent the landscape, the people, and other culturally significant images. One notable exception is the Queen of England who did not appear on their money since Trinidad and Tobago became a Republic and they are no longer part of the United Kingdom since the mid 1970's. As the name indicates, Trinidad and Tobago is composed of two main islands, the bigger one, Trinidad, has a mountainous coast, a wide flat valley, more mountains, and a rocky/sandy coast plentiful in palm trees and nice beaches. 

To create an artistic representation of the landscape I simulated a paper bill, in this case its worth $25, just because I always put the year on my paintings, so 25 it is. On the bottom left I simulated a label, with my initials, with the series name and title just beside it. The illusion of a paper bill took several steps. First I researched fancy paper currency and thought about how to paint the features. Then, I established the big colour blocks you see in the background using a playful colour scheme of purple, yellow, blue, and coral orange. In doing so I left a rectangle for the faux label, a circle for the textured 25, and a square for the simulated hologram in the top right. Then I applied the thin, wavy lines using a number 2 brush, careful to keep the lines thin, pale, and separated by small gaps. Next I filled in the hologram using two layers, a colour, then a dark fade. Using red and magenta paint, with some dark blue and purple, I finished with the landscape rectangle, the guppies (which are endemic to Trinidad and Tobago), and the fancy flower and squiggle overlays. My idea was to overwhelm the image with details that in the end would come together in a cohesive paper bill. It might not win most beautiful currency of the year award, and nobody would mistake this for real money, but its a truly fascinating piece of artwork and neat addition to the series. 

The reason bills are so complex is to prevent forgeries, so I guess this is the hardest to forge painting I have ever done!

World Inspired Landscapes: Trinidad and Tobago, watercolour 4.5 x 9" cold press, April 2025

Green grass Trenholme park

Its easy to miss the significance of an open green space. Lately the city has been renovating the parks to include activities like skateboard park, fenced in baseball fields, kids play areas, water works. It sounds great and certainly brings more layers to the community, however, it also gobbles up what little green space remains. Trenholme park has quite a few installations already, at least two thirds of the park area is fenced off or built upon. Last summer they had a poster up, showing plans to fill the rest of it in with activity stations. So this kind of painting shows a big, open green space, with the significance being that we should try to appreciate it for what it is. 

Green grass Trenholme park, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025

Freezing Solution sketch

I've embarked on another doodleism painting based on doodles from my 26th lab notebook from work. Its been awhile since the last one, Lab Book #25 Eclipse Flowers, mainly because I was accumulating enough material in the current lab book to start a new one, and its been busy times with the World Inspired Landscapes series which is almost finished, and a lot of location painting. Instead of trying to fill the painting with every single doodle, I took a different approach this time. First, I looked through the whole lab book and identified half a dozen sketches that were more complete, for example, a microscope with smiley faces in the lenses (as if you are magnifying something very fun). And a depiction of myself, paper thin and in an uncomfortable position (cropped on left of this drawing, cant spoil all the surprises). Another adjustment to the style was what you see here, the sketch which I did to arrange the main doodles and group some of them together in an interesting way. As I am painting now, there are a few changes to the plan, and for the blank spaces I am painting in filler from imagination instead of being stuck on the doodles so much. If you follow my art, you know that I have been working on the so called 'doodleism' style, and the lab book series since about the year 2003. The style has evolved a lot, but not quite got to the point where my audience, the viewers, are quite seeing what I see. Hopefully the new adjustments, that is, featuring certain elements more strongly, and downplaying the filler areas, wil make the painting more visually accessible and allow the viewer to enjoy the doodles as much as I do.

Surprising places nature grows back

There is a small plot of land across from the Parmalat factory, its currently a parking lot but has been put up for sale, you see it in the foreground of this painting. As I looked around for things to paint, I noticed how much nature was growing back around the old parking blocks and metal railing. Since the mowers can not get into these nooks and crannies, plants can grow, and leaves can accumulate which returns nutrients to the ground. Then small tufts of grass, wild flowers, and other plants start to grow back. The patina on the metal railing was also visually interesting, the red-orange paint had peeled off in places, with dark orange rust appearing on the blue-grey iron. The rest of the painting was basically filler, and the composition was to show how this little slice of nature was existing in the midst of a busy city road (Rue st Jacques).

Railing Parmalat, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025

 

Here is another view of the railing with nature growth from the other angle, looking east towards the new condo. The new condo is still bright green because the insulation vapor seal is showing, eventually it will be bricked over. You see the McDonalds sign in the distance too. Like the first painting, the railing and natural growth was the subject matter so I painted it carefully, the rest was filler meant to look a little bit brutalisk-style. I noticed my scanner had been doing an auto adjustment for awhile, so I scanned two more version without one, or both adjustments, however they all look the same to me, will check on phone.

 Railing condos scan 1, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025 

 Railing condos scan 2, Without the 'image adjustment'

 

 Railing condos scan 3, without  the 'image adjustment' or the auto sharpen

World Inspired Landscapes: Tunisia

Yesterday with the lousy weather I painted six more paintings in this series and planned out another two including this one, and Trinidad and Tobago which will take a little longer than usual to complete. I also recomposed the Switzerland painting and posted a second version that looks much better. Getting back Tunisia, it is a country on the north coast of Africa located along the Mediterranean Sea. Historically, and to this day, it is inhabited by a people called the Berbers, who lived all along the north coast, down to the west coast, and in the Sahara desert. I knew a Berber person from Algeria, she worked in a laboratory at McGill University. She even spoke the Berber language which was neat. Being a French colony for some time, the French culture and language remains, as does a bit of French Joi de Vive. In fact, the famous Arab Spring uprising originated in Tunisia, which lead to free parliamentary elections. In general, Tunisia is more liberal minded than some of the other countries in the region, tolerant perhaps owing to the vast history of multiculturalism. Another fun fact about Tunisia, you may have guessed from the painting, was that scenes from Star Wars were filmed here back in the 1970's. Luke Sky-walker's home was based in a traditional Berber-style underground home, intended to create a cool living space in the desert. Of course, the set designers added some faux-doors, futuristic looking trims, and the communication device that looks something like R2D2. Usually I try to avoid specific, touristy things, but in this case I could not resist. I even made the numbers 25 recede like the opening text to Star Wars.  

World Inspired Landscapes: Tunisia, watercolour 7 x 10" hot press, April 2025

World Inspired Landscapes: Tonga

Although Tonga was influenced by the various colonial empires and was affected by World War II, it maintained its full sovereignty throughout recent history. Going back far enough, there was an ancient civilization called the Lapita who spread throughout many of the south Pacific islands, until Polynesian settlers merged into the culture. We think about displacements of people in terms of colonialism, but history is filled with examples of one group of people trying to move in on another group of peoples territory. One thing the people of Tonga have kept sacred are the bats, in particular, the flying fox. If you google it, you will see one of the creepiest (scariest) looking animals, kind of like a cross between a dog, cat and bear, with bat wings. Its actually a fruit bat, so not really that scary. Some of the paintings in the series contain very little landscape, maybe I am running out of ideas for tropical island nations, and here I just show the tops of a mangrove tree with a bunch of bats waking up for the night. To make the effect more dramatic I enlarged the moon, and created a pink under-glow like its twilight. Composing the bats over top of the moon was a little cheesy, batman-esque perhaps. Interestingly, the indigenous people have a story about a flying man-bat (sound familiar?). Another neat thing about Tonga is that volcanic activity has recently resulted in two small islands being joined into one medium-sized island. Geology in action.

World Inspired Landscapes: Tonga, watercolour 7 x 10" hot press, April 2025

World Inspired Landscapes: Togo

I often start these blogs with a description of the history of the region, and Togo has much the same story as Ghana to the west or Benin to the east. The whole coast was invaded initially by Portuguese and Dutch empires who began trans-Atlantic slavery. After independence, Togo has been slowly gaining economic strength through resources such as cotton, and agriculture. Rich in phosphate, they have access to cheap fertilizer, although many other staples have to be imported. Near the coast it is partially forested with lagoons and rivers, while the central area of the country is savanna with mountain plateaus, giving way to desert in the north. One success story has been bee keeping, with over 2000 bee keepers now running small businesses in Togo. The bees get pollen off of flowers and in particular mangroves are a good source. Most of the images I saw were of conventional looking bee houses, some painted with elaborate decorations and flags, and there were a few images of natural bee hives like the one in the painting. African bees are a pest in North America, but in Africa, they are well, just bees. It was ambitious to paint a giant ball of bees. I started with a purplish-grey under painting then dabbed in three-segment bee bodies using a mix of yellow ochre (PY43) and yellow (PY154). Then I painted in the brown blobs and stripes using a mix of burnt umber (PBr7) and indo blue (PB60). Beforehand, I made some detailed sketches of the anatomy of a bee. The landscape by the way, is along the bottom, its a typical tan-and-olive green landscape with the occasional palm tree.

World Inspired Landscapes: Togo, watercolour 7 x 10" hot press, April 2025

World Inspired Landscapes: Timor-Leste

 

The next three paintings were done yesterday when the weather was kind of rainy. Timor-Leste is on the east part of an island way north of Australia, the other half of the island belongs to Indonesia although there is a small enclave there. Collisions between the Eurasian and Australian continental plates is what drives the formation of islands in this region. Its a volcanic area with activity. You see in the painting the interesting volcanic rocks crusty black-brown embedded with various coloured smaller rocks inside. Bits and pieces were strewn about the beige sand. Timor-Leste had a lot of trouble getting its independence, and the local indigenous people were persecuted and fled as refugees. Due to the Portuguese influence from the colonial times, the people of Timor-Leste are majority Catholic although they speak a local language not Portuguese so much. A student who was in my laboratory was from this area, she said people were extremely conservative and Catholic, although some of the old indigenous ways are still a part of the culture.

World Inspired Landscapes: Timor-Leste, watercolour 7 x 10" hot press, April 2025

Jacques Cartier bridge, Park La Ronde, train tracks

While riding over the Cartier bridge last week I noticed a big open parking lot next to the U Haul which is part of the Molson Brewery structure. Its still intact and being used, not sure if the plan is to demolish it too. At the end of the parking lot there is a patch of open space with a view of the bridge overhead, the park across the river, and the train depot. It was a bit much to cram into one painting, in fact, the bridge was probably twice as high relative to the park. Its such a good spot to paint I might go back, although its not easy to get to. Instead of painting the bridge accurately, I used abstract forms to represent the shapes and rhythm. Its a neat way to depict the bridge I think. 

Bridge park trains, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, April 2025

Molson Brewery demolition and heavy metal

Approaching the Molson Brewery along Notre Dame street and half of it was surrounded by a tall boarded up construction fence. Finding an entrance gate to look through the fence, I got this neat view of the west side of the brewery completely razed, with a rare view of the river in the background. Aside from being a painting of opportunity, the composition also worked out really well, and I was enjoying painting the blue sky for once. It may look bland in places, but there are about half a dozen different shades of grey in this painting. Okay, it looks bland in places, but hey its a demolition site.

Brewery demo west side, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025

A short road, actually Papineau, runs part way through the center of the brewery. With chunks of the building missing now, the sun was pouring onto the sidewalk where I painted. One hazard of a demolition is heavy metal. In fact, there was a lot of it here... but not that kind! Loud heavy metal music was playing, like black Sabbath style grunting and yelling live inside of the building behind me. I guess a band had rented it out to practice since they were just playing bits and pieces of their songs, if you could call them songs. I think somebody was killing kittens in there. Just kidding, it was like a dog-monster vomiting into a toilette with loud guitars and drums. Kind of catchy.

Brewery demo center,watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025

Blue sky, chilly wind ride through Old Montreal

The tourists are starting to flock into Montreal, converging on the historic Old Montreal neighborhood. In the painting you see Cartier place, which is the main tourist drag, in the summer it will be wall to wall people with vendors in the middle. Along the cobblestone streets there are numerous restaurants that tend to be over priced and lesser quality than just about any other restaurant in Montreal... if they just headed up to Duluth street they would find much better fare. The restaurant in the front had giant photos of hamburger and poutine, just in case there was a language barrier everyone knows where to get burger and chips here. 

Burger Royale, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025

Next to Peel Basin sits an old warehouse, probably turn of the 19th century or earlier. Its clear now that the city has protected it, otherwise it would have been razed for condos. A huge vacant lot also sits beside this structure. One can only hope they preserve it, maybe retrofit some stores and put some park area here for the locals. There are a lot of locals now, with all the condos going up. New condos also means lots of wall space to hang paintings... hmm.

Warehouse peel basin, watercolour 4.5 x 9" cold press, April 2025

History gets preserved where it can be, like under this bridge. A very old wall, probably 18th century or earlier judging by the stone work, was preserved under this bridge. The brick alcove looked newer, and it had a metal grate over it probably to stop people from sleeping under it. Too bad, I needed a nap. In the distance at the end of the road you see the Molson Brewery, or what's left of it. As I would soon learn first hand, the brewery is finally being demolished. 

Wall under bridge, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025

World Inspired Landscapes: Thailand

Most people in North America have heard of Thailand because it is a popular tourist destination. In fact, when I typed Thailand into the internet a lot of the images were inebriated looking people taking party pictures at night. Its funny that some places get a reputation for being a party place, like Thailand, Amsterdam, Rio de Janeiro, when in fact the people there are incredibly conservative and probably annoyed by the hedonism that occurs. In history, Thailand was the center of the powerful kingdom of Siam that served as trading hub between the orient and the sea faring traders. When Portuguese traders arrived in the early 16th century Siam was one of the few countries to resist colonization, although they were forced into certain trade agreements. Things stabilized throughout the wars more or less, and Thailand emerged as one of the wealthiest and technologically advanced countries in the world. Finding a scene to paint from Thailand was difficult, since most of the material on the internet seemed to be promotional, touristy photos. Google maps showed quite different views, much more neutral and brownish. It was striking just how many roads there were in Thailand, nearly the whole north part is covered in roads and houses. Finally, I settled on some waterfalls pouring into a lagoon full of fish. Makes you kind of want to visit and take some selfies eh? 

World Inspired Landscapes: Thailand, watercolour 7 x 10" hot press, April 2025 (No. 2051b)

World Inspired Landscapes: Tanzania

Tanzania is well known for some of, if not the oldest fossilized human ancestors. The most famous find was in Egypt, a hominin who lived about 3.2 million years ago was named Lucy after the Beatles song. There are quite a few nature reserves and parks, its clear that Tanzania is serious about preserving the nature and history of the land. Stone cutters and bones millions of years have been found there. But do you know what is even older? The rocks... in Africa the rocks can be 2.5 billion years old! You can say the rocks have seen it all, including these elephants walking along a creek. Painting the elephant silhouettes gave a sense of place, and scale. You can appreciate the enormity of the boulders and prominent tree in the middle. Parts of central Africa are very sparse, with just a tree here and there. Colours vary from pale peach to pale blue, accented by the surrounding olive green and tan grass. The earth in most African countries has a distinctive orange tint from the iron oxide, although Tanzania had a more yellowish sandy appearance. I only have the internet to go by, I wonder what it would look like first hand.  

World Inspired Landscapes: Tanzania , watercolour 7 x 10" hot press, April 2025 (No. 2049b)

World Inspired Landscapes: Tajikistan

Tajikistan being in the middle of many powerful countries seems analogous to Switzerland in some ways. A very mountainous country in the center of central Asia, Tajikistan had the misfortune of being conquered by most historical empires, in fact Wikipedia had a lengthy summary of the history. There is some debate as to whether the people are primarily of Persian descent or Turkish descent, but most scholars know the country is incredibly diverse. Scanning around the country I saw mountain after mountain and thought for some time about how I could paint another mountain scene without actually showing a mountain. Using google earth view I rotated the camera into the valleys and saw the most fascinating patters consisting of small flowing rivers and adjacent dried-up remnants of rivers. These would be the leftover of the season glacial melt, when the mountains release their snow melt into great torrents of powerful rivers, until it fizzles out in the dry season. The patterns reminded me of those picture of the surface of mars which used to have flowing water. To paint the scene the main challenge was getting the scene to make sense, with a bit of abstract at first glance. The foreground outcropping is more detailed and uses orange, while the background mountain and its shadow were grey-blue. I did the river by painting around with brown, then over-painting the darker dry rivers, and sharpening the shadow.
 

World Inspired Landscapes: Tajikistan, watercolour 7 x 10" hot press, April 2025 (No. 2048b)

Siding on Fielding

In Montreal there are a lot of interesting housing arrangements if you look. In the painting, the barber shop is on the first floor, with some apartments above. Behind, where there may have once been an alley, an extension clad in wood-siding stands with a boarded up door, and a window at the top. The siding was in three different shades of grey, pale pink, pale yellow, and light grey. I was lucky enough to get the painting done since it was on the verge of rain. Tomorrow it calls for rain and thunderstorms, but it will be a great day anyways since its my birthday! One thing I brought home was the current lab book, so perhaps I will put some work into a new doodleism painting, its been awhile.

Siding on Fielding, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025

Branch Brunch, thoughts on brown

 

Time for another palette cleanser, in this case its the old broken palette I am trying to completely use up before tossing it. Brown is a difficult colour to work with, its essentially a dark version of orange, something I summarized in an old blog. There was a stretch of time from about 2018 - 2022 that I took it upon myself to learn about colours and art in general, it was basically a masters-level self education! Then the last few years I just forgot about it all and let the knowledge percolate into the paintings. With brown, it goes well enough with yellow, and dark blue. Other colours are awkward, like green and brown make you think of trees, and red/orange brown ends up looking like dessert. There are a lot of brown paints because they are based on iron oxide pigments, the oldest pigments known to humanity. 

Branch Brunch, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025

World Inspired Landscapes: Syria

 

Talking about a cradle of humanity, Syria has been an ever-shifting geographical concept most recently embroiled in civil war. Remains of some of the earliest sedentary settlements have been found in this land, they were the Natufian culture, apparently relying on agriculture. An array of other cultures and peoples including the Romans at some point, then the Ottomans, making the border designations in constant flux until 1920. Most of the landscape pictures I could find on the internet and on google maps were the approximate colour of the lower left part of the painting, a pale beige (ecru) kind of clay or sand. Yet, there were fertile valleys and olive groves here and there. I also noticed the spectacular skies, you can see in the painting beams of light coming through a crack in the clouds. Many of the countries in this region would be fantastic to visit, but they are simply too dangerous for a tourist. Some of our students have been refugees from Syria, and despite still having some family remaining, the closest that they can get to visit is at the border with Turkey. When I look at this painting, which was based loosely off a google map view, it would be great to be on such a location, like Van Gogh in southern France when he painted the olive groves.

World Inspired Landscapes: Syria, watercolour 7 x 10" hot press, April 2025

World Inspired Landscapes: Switzerland

While Switzerland has remained neutral in just about everything historically, they were cashing in quite literally by being a discreet world bank. Much of their involvement is atoned for. Looking at the map of Switzerland and we might see why they stay neutral, to the north is Germany, the the east Austria, to the south Italy, and to the West France. Talk about being in a European sandwich. Even their border is convoluted and twisted up, I noticed a small German enclave surrounded by Switzerland in the north, there must be some interesting history behind those map contours. A long long time ago, like 150,000 years ago, there were hominids living in the area, which would make it among the earliest European trace of human ancestry. In the medieval times Switzerland formed as a loose association of regional factions, and became a sovereign state in the mid 19th century. Researching the landscape revealed literally one type, that was extremely tall and rugged mountains with lush green passes. The rivers and lakes follow deep valleys that cross the land. With numerous mountain scenes in the series, and one recently in Spain, I decided to spice up the scene with the good old Ukiyo clouds. Those are the pink hotdogs floating in the sky... Japanese print designers used to include these to simulate the effect of clouds, and probably to cut costs on the wood block process. It has nothing to do with Switzerland, but perhaps it would be amusing to a Swiss person!?
 
World Inspired Landscapes: Switzerland version ii, watercolour 7 x 10" hot press, April 2025
    

 

 Here is the first version I had up on the blog for awhile, but upon reflection the pink ukiyo clouds were too strong. In the revised version I toned down the clouds and adjusted the overall colour scheme to be more pastel. We know a Swiss person really well and I think the new version is much more in line with being Swiss, like a little reserved.

World Inspired Landscapes: Switzerland version i, watercolour 7 x 10" hot press, April 2025

World Inspired Landscapes: Sweden

 

Oft times these blogs start with a discussion of the colonial past of a country and every now and then we come across one that was neutral. Alas, Sweden was once known as the Swedish Empire and had colonies in the Caribbean, Africa and a few other spots. The idea was to grow their own sugar cane and coffee to avoid paying the mark-up prices from the other empires. Who knew coffee and sugar played such a big role in shaping humanity. Like most Scandinavian countries Sweden has one of the highest quality of life, Norway usually held that record until being overtaken by Switzerland recently in the human development index. Fun fact, Canada used to be number one in that index until 2000. Lets not get too political, eh?  Researching Sweden revealed two major types of landscapes, flat grasslands, or rugged mountains. There were a lot of lakes too. Using google maps, I was also impressed with how many panoramas had been uploaded in Sweden, they must really like google map view. The painting features a rocky field with tufts of grass, and the 'screen saver' scene in the background including snow-capped mountains and a reflective lake. Ready for a selfie anyone?

World Inspired Landscapes: Sweden, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025

Dirt bags, burgers, gas, condos and a mossy tree

As an artist you look for motifs, and if you look carefully you will find them in surprising places. This parking lot is at the side of the Rona Plus (formerly Reno Depot), hundreds of bags of dirt were stacked up in plastic wrappers ready for the garden season to begin. I liked how the horizontal rhythm of the stacked bags played against the diagonals of the background scene.  

Dirt bags, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025

 

Closer to st Jacques there is a wedge-shaped area with a McDonald's, a Petro Canada gas station and the new condos in the background. I had to reorganize the position of the gas station so as to compose it with the other elements. That is what we call artistic license! I liked how the red, green, yellow and blue worked together. To complete the experience, try to imagine the pungent order of fast food in the air, along with car exhaust and fresh gas.

Burgers gas and condos, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025

 

This old tree was covered in several varieties of moss, light green, bright olive, and dark pine-green against the beige and orange bark. Artist's often wonder what colour tree bark is and nobody can give you a straight answer. Now I understand why, because trees are all colours. In the this example, practically the whole rainbow is represented albeit in de saturated (grey) versions. I did not quite get the textures right, maybe next time I'm in the area I can give it another shot if the tree is still there.

Mossy tree, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025

World Inspired Landscapes: Suriname

 

Suriname is located on the north coast of South America adjacent to Guyana and Brazil. Despite being part of the continent, its remoteness by land makes it effectively a part of the West Indies and Caribbean. Most of the population lives up near the shore line where there is trade and fishing. The rest of the country has the densest forest of all the countries in the world, with over 95% covered with rain forest. Indigenous peoples had lived there for thousands of years, then the Dutch colonialists established a presence and started sugar case in the the fertile valleys. It wasn't until 1975 they gained independence. When researching the country on the internet, it was clearly a well preserved place filled with interesting animals like the little bush baby creatures and all sorts of primates, reptiles, insects and birds. When I was a kid, my parents put this zoo wallpaper on my bedroom wall and I used to stare at it for hours. In the painting, I included some mysterious animal eyes in the dark jungle, with a starry-night in the background. The source material was likely taken from a night safari, they apply flood lights to the jungle to illuminate things for the tourists. 

Doing this painting was more like an illustration, I established the cool trees, vines and shapes of the background and foreground elements. Then I broke free of the outlines with embellishments and strong contrasts from the two light sources (a glowing night sky, and the suggestion of a flood light in the foreground). When doing night scenes, they will look off until the last blocks of colour are filled in, so as a painter you need to learn to trust the process. I knew that from location painting, there is a point where the magic happens. This painting looked okay when I finished, now that it is scanned on the blog it looks even better. I am enjoying the last leg of this series, and it gives me something to do as we continue to get cold rain wind and even snow late into April. 

World Inspired Landscapes: Suriname,  watercolour 7 x 10" hot press, April 2025 (No. 2044b)

World Inspired Landscapes: Sudan

Sudan is a country in the East of Africa, located above the country called South Sudan. In history, Sudan fell under control of the Arab powers centered in Egypt which changed the whole culture and society as compared to its Southern counterpart. Since then, Sudan has fragmented into political instability and poverty despite the wealth of resources including oil and minerals. Running through the country (and continuing through the South Sudan and onwards) is the Nile river including two of its branches, the Blue Nile and the White Nile. At the city of Khartoum these two branches merge into one. The White Nile picks of silt along the way hence its colour, while the Blue Nile is just a regular looking river. On the Google map images the White Nile looked purplish, while the Blue seemed to be more turquoise. My family visited a similar feature in Canada, it may have been in Alberta but I'd have to ask which confluence it was, perhaps Chalk river. In the Sudan painting, I showed a rocky river that is turquoise at the top, and a silty white at the bottom, and they mix going from left to right. When a scene is tropical, I add a few palm trees in the distance to give it some ambiance. I am looking forward to the next painting, Suriname, it is one of the most forested countries in the world with dense rain forests.

World Inspired Landscapes: Sudan watercolour 7 x 10" hot press, April 2025 (No. 2041b)

World Inspired Landscapes: Sri Lanka

As the World Inspired Landscapes series winds down, about 28 to go, I am definitely running thin on new compositional ideas. Yet each one of these paintings has been an interesting exploration and story to tell. To understand how the world is, the effects of colonialism comes up again and again, before the series I was not aware of how far-reaching it was. In the case of Sri Lanka, it was the East India Trading Company and the British Empire that ruled for a long time. Prior to the British, there was a local medical system known as Ayurveda, it was a complete set of medical teachings that covered everything from how to grow medicinal herbs, how to amputate limbs, and how to diagnose and treat a wide variety of health conditions. An important part of the concept was that the doctor would train from a young age, the student would have to show aptitude, then the doctor would follow the patients for their whole lives. It sounds just like we try to do here in Canada, like, a family doctor. When the British arrived they banned Ayurveda and burned most of the text books, but a few were translated and available to this day on wiki commons where I read through them. Sri Lanka is a lush, tropical island with old volcanic mountains and a variety of foliage. The colour notes I took from the internet included charcoal black, dark green, dark yellow, orange-red, and golden yellow. A subtle orange glow permeates the scene.
 

World Inspired Landscapes: Sri Lanka, watercolour 7 x 10" hot press, April 2025 (No. 2042b)

World Inspired Landscapes: South Sudan

 

South Sudan has an interesting back story, like most regions in this part of east Africa there are ancient fossils going back forever. In more recent times the region mostly resisted the regional powers such as the influential Arabs from the north, and the eventual colonial forces that arrived. The main reason apparently was that South Sudan has a massive wetlands on its borders that made it impossible for land armies to cross due to the conditions and the diseases that were carried in the swamp lands. This had the effect of protecting the local indigenous peoples, and the wildlife. To this day there are several millions of antelopes that still migrate in the country, while other areas, for example North America, mostly wiped out the migrating animals. In the case of our continent it was the buffalo that were nearly wiped out, there was an article about it in the CBC recently. South Sudan also has incredible teak trees that are in forests, although economic pressure is starting to affect the trees too. The locals plant them as a form as agriculture. This painting turned out better than I had hoped, it was a technical challenge. I made several sketches of antelopes, male, female and young, in order to understand the body shape, the running poses, and how the legs bent. Their joint are reversed between front and back. The back legs were particularly stressful since they seem to have two angles. The males seemed darker, and had larger horns. Completing the effect was the dusty beige and olive landscape with intermittent trees. There are also zebras in this painting but you cant see them because they are camouflaged.

World Inspired Landscapes: South Sudan, watercolour 7 x 10" hot press, April 2025 (No. 2043b)