Twisty groove

 

At Rue Notre Dame and autoroute Décarie next to the adult education center, there is small, overgrown plot with one park bench in the middle, a twisty tree, and a ventilation pipe wound around a felled, sun-bleached tree. The tree had gnarled branches and looked half dead, but it was still pushing leaves out and making the most of it. To find such a scene smack in the middle of highways and industrial area was remarkable, the painting doesn't quite even do justice to the magnitude of the open space and prominent tree. In the background you see parts of the Turcot interchange with its distinctive red railings. Its the kind of scene that deserves a painting while it lasts, and I only found it because I was trying to take a shortcut back home. Hopefully the composition does enough to bring this tree to life and show its connections to the sky, sun, land, grass and even the highways. To create the darks I used the trusty combination of burnt sienna deep (PR101) with navy blue (PB60), and warmed it up here and there with a dab of raw sienna (PBr7). I started putting raw sienna back on the palette its one of my favorites. Its scenes like this that make me want to keep riding my bike around the next corner to see what comes next.

Twisty groove, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, May 2025

Canal and Turcot scenes

After work, I headed down to the canal and made a painting of the bottom section of the gantry crane reflecting in the water. It has been some time since I saw blue sky reflecting in the canal. If you follow my blog, you know I paint the canal all times of the year including winter, so I am more used to seeing it covered in sheets of snow and ice. The crane was done with burnt sienna deep (PR101) from Da Vinci company.

Gantry crane canal reflection, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

 

I detoured off the bike path around where the recycling facility is located, then found my way up through the Turcot interchange on the way home. Standing near the bike path I made this painting looking up to the curving highways that seem to soar through the sky.

Under Turcot, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

Doctor Dumpster

Since 'Monet of the parking lot' was not going to be applicable all the time, I thought maybe 'Doctor Dumpster" would be a better nickname. On lunch hour, the weather was fantastic, a hot sunny, blue sky summery day in Montreal after weeks of rain. These bins have been subject matter many times, today I liked the way the black bin was silhouetted against the bright yellow dumpster. The commuter train zoomed by a few times as I painted.

Yellow bins with commuter train, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

Looking the other way, south down Elmhurst, there was a wooden palette resting against the bear mural and a green bin on the corner. The image of the bear came out well, and there is no doubt that the green bin is the star of the show. I like how the palette pops against the shadowed-side of the city Fruterie store.

Green bin bear mural, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

Fossilized pop art

Missed opportunity, this painting should have been called fossilized pop tart. As I finished it, the scene looked like some kind of fossilized insect from 300 million years ago, with a kind of Gustav Klimt or Andy Warhol style. To get the neon-green background, I used almost pure yellow (PY154) with a very slight touch of green (PG36), then faded to pure yellow at the bottom. It was actually done as a palette cleanser since my palette was pretty gunky with paint stuck around the corners of the wells. Having cleaned it out I squeezed in fresh paint and its good to go. I keep two nearly identical palettes on the go so that one is all ready while the other one sets. Unfortunately, we have more rain on tap for the next week, so I may have to engage my new series idea a little earlier than expected. Series painting was good for doing things a bit different in the studio (kitchen table), on rainy days for example. Maybe I will do a painting of a fossilized pop tart, or even better, a petrified pop tart.

Fossilized pop art, watercolour 6.5 x 9" cold press,  May 2025

Twin peaks, double summit

The plan was to make the double summit today, that is, south summit in Westmount, then the adjacent Mount Royal... with paintings to prove it! The summit part went fine, they were a grueling pair of uphill bike rides interspersed with some exhilarating down hills. White and pink trilliums were growing all over the ground in the summit forest. I noticed a lot of cut and fallen trees, the tree worms are doing work in this forest for sure. To paint a scene like this takes good brush control since the flowers have to be kept as negative space, then filled in with the delicate pink.

Summit forest trilliums, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

 

Wide paths cut through the forest. We are not allowed to ride bikes in here so I walked with my bike and avoided trampling things. You see the cut and fallen trees strewn about. New trees are growing back, so the cycle of life continues. Forest scenes can be difficult, its easy to overwork the paint leaving a muddy mess. Being deliberate about the painting strategy and working fast helps keep everything looking bright and fresh.

Summit forest path, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

 

You couldn't tell from the painting, but this lookout point is completely surrounded in tall fences with signs saying closed for renovations. The locals were murmuring about how long its been shut off for.  I remember back in the pandemic painting this scene, it was also fenced off then, albeit to prevent people from congregating at the time. From the looks of it, this structure could from the mid 20th century, it must be strong to hold up on the steep slope. About the second summit, I rode up to the top of Mount Royal but there was an inky-purple sky approaching fast and I barely made it home in time, in fact, I got quite wet in the sudden deluge.

Westmount view, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

 

World Inspired Landscapes: Zimbabwe

 

At long last, five years to be precise, I reached the final country alphabetically, which of course is Zimbabwe. There are two pages summarizing the series, from A to L, and from Ly to Z. Before I get to describing the painting, a little about Zimbabwe. Once the Kingdom of Zimbabwe, it was a regional power that gave way to a series of other entities prior to colonization by the British. Going back further, there are human settlements dating back almost half a million years! Unfortunately after independence they suffered from authoritarian rule and military dictatorships. The country geographically is sitting on a high plateau, and has part of the spectacular Victoria falls on the north border. Mostly savanna, there are intense rainy seasons interspersed with extreme heat and dry weather. Tourism was popular, but poaching and deforestation has eroded this resource. Despite the troubles, Zimbabwe has well developed infrastructure and an active research sector with higher education. Such innovation gives hope for growth and realization of their potential. 

Since its the last installment of the World Inspired Landscapes series, I composed a scene that takes a tour of various styles. The scene is a massive baobab tree standing tall over the savanna while some zebras try to blend in. Centered on the tree, there are five shards each with a different style. The top left is night, the top right is day, the right is black and white, the bottom is bright primary colours, and the left is sepia tone. Its a good way to end off the series. Looking forward, there are about half a dozen of the paintings I might revisit in the future, and I have an idea for a new series that would be less restrictive than painting every country in the world. As an artist, this series pushed me past my limits, some of the paintings like the United Kingdom rain drops and a few others were really advanced stuff. It was great fun to do this series, I learned a lot and hopefully you did too.

World Inspired Landscapes: Zimbabwe, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, May 2025

Rain holds off for a bike ride, sort of

The rain subsided long enough for a bike ride, although it came back intermittently and I was pretty soggy by the end of the trip. In this scene, you can see the massive Grand Library in the background, its on Maisonneuve and Berri street where two of the major bike paths intersect. Its an important cross-roads in the city, go north its Le Plateau, south is Old Montreal, east is the Cartier Bridge, and west is downtown Montreal. An ambulance sped by and I decided to paint it from memory. I modeled the shape of the pinstripe on the side of the van after the A-Team, although they had a black van with a red stripe. The lime colour is yellow (PY184) with a touch of green (PG36), then blended with yellow to give the neon-glow effect. Little stickers were on the side of the ambulance, they put them there as a form of protest (strike on work). 

Ambulance and grand library, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

In the Old Port there is a famous clock tower, the Cartier bridge just visible to the left background, a powerboat marina, and the artificial beach with its bright peach-coloured sand and brilliant blue umbrellas. Nobody was on the beach, and it looked like most of the boats were in the marina. We are awaiting some sunny warm weather. 

Beach and marina, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

This large mural is on the side of a condo building near the st Laurent metro station.  I could not discern the artist's name, so I will update the blog when I find out. Condo developments have sprung up in the entire area here which is adjacent to Place des Arts, and they are champing at the bit to develop the old st Laurent station into a condo/metro/shopping complex.

Mural and tree, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

World Inspired Landscapes: Zambia

 

Zambia has a familiar history for an African country, it was populated by Bantu people prior to colonization by the British which ended in the 1960's. Rich in minerals, and home to part of the incredible Victoria falls, Zambia is located next to Malawi, it is landlocked, and nestled into the central part of southern Africa. Otherwise, the country is a sweeping, arid plateau with low lying mountains in the distance. Having painted all of the countries in Africa except for one more, I decided to go with a more traditional scene of the savanna set onto a backdrop of dusk. Dusk was representative of this being the second-to-last painting in the World Inspired Landscape series. The last country of course is neighboring Zimbabwe known for its rich wild life and safaris. 

The key elements to the painting were the pastel sky, the dark earthy foreground, and the near-black silhouettes of the trees. Colour was infused into the distant mountains, an electric blue made with ultramarine (PB29) and dabs of phthalo blue sapphire (PB15). There is actually a colour on the computer monitor called electric ultramarine with the hue formula (63, 0, 255).. that means 63 parts red and 255 parts blue. When your eye is stimulated with red and blue simultaneously it produces shades of magenta and blue-violet. Complementing the blue is a thin rib of pure yellow at the base of the cloud. As it turns out, the prolonged period of rain we have experienced in Montreal was the best thing for finishing off this series, which is entirely done in the 'studio' also known as our kitchen table. I will take some time to contemplate the final painting in the series, and hopefully get a sunny day on Sunday to do some location paintings. 

World Inspired Landscapes: Zambia, watercolour 7.5 x 11" cold press, May 2025

World Inspired Landscapes: Yemen

Yemen is on the south coast of the Arabian Peninsula located along one of the most geopolitically important sea-trade routes in the world. It has a very long history of civilization going back some 3000 years, and most recently in 1990 it unified into one entity. Being on a peninsula in the near East, one might assume that Yemen would be very flat and close to sea level, but the truth is that almost the entirety of Yemen is on a massive plateau 1000 - 2000 meters above sea level. Long river canyons, called wadis, carve out paths and accumulate water during the rainy season. For the rest of the year there is practically zero precipitation making Yemen one of the most water-stressed countries in the world. When climate change is factored in, Yemen is extremely vulnerable since the arable land they have, less than 3% of the country, relies on brief season rainfall. Its no wonder the people have terraced the hillsides and built irrigation paths to facilitate agriculture wherever and whenever possible. It was also remarkable how many houses were built up on the steep sides of the canyons, houses were seemingly clinging on like sculpted boulders. It made for some spectacular images, which I compiled into one scene here that captures key elements such as the colour-fade into the distance, the terraced canyon walls, the thin river with golden beige water (yellow ochre PY42), and the neat houses. Talk about a room with a view!

World Inspired Landscapes: Yemen, watercolour 7.5 x 11" cold press, May 2025

World Inspired Landscapes: Vietnam

 

Vietnam is probably best known, from a North American perspective, for the tragic Vietnam war which scarred the country and the people. Nowadays its a popular tourist destination along with neighboring Cambodia and Laos. They have an enormous population of 100 million people, and an extremely long and winding coast line. From a brief look at Wikipedia Vietnam appears to have a range of problems with politics, the environment and human rights. But the World Inspired Landscape series is about more than just people and politics. Like other countries in the region, Vietnam has stunning landscapes consisting of lush jungle, jagged peaks, and undulating mountains next to water. Their sunsets seem spectacular from the looks of it. When I first thought about painting Vietnam, that scene from the movie 'Apocalypse Now' kept playing in my mind, the one where Robert Duval's character crouches on the beach and says the famous line something to the effect of "I love the smell of napalm in the morning", while the other soldiers are surfing in the water as mortar shells hit all around. It was a powerful scene, although perhaps actually filmed in Cambodia according to the all knowing internet. At any rate, Vietnam happens to be a good place to surf due to the long coast and shallow water. 

While researching surfing in Vietnam I saw a photo of a wave, taken from underwater. Further searching revealed about half a dozen pictures of underwater waves from various angles and perspectives. I contemplated this image for several days, unsure about whether it was even possible to paint such a scene. With several sketches and observations, I finally put together the pieces... for the landscape element, you can see the coast line of Vietnam with a beach and trees, through the water of the wave. The barrel shape, if seen from the beach, would be the cresting wave. At least twelve different effects had to come together to make it work, and judging from the scan here, the underwater wave seems to have become more than just a sum of its parts. However, I do prefer the smell of coffee in the morning.

World Inspired Landscapes: Vietnam, watercolour 7.5 x 11" cold press, May 2025

World Inspired Landscapes: Venezuela

Venezuela has some of the most spectacular landscapes in the world, including the highest waterfall in the world, Angel Falls, and the picturesque Mount Raraima with its tall black peaks and granite reflecting pools. One can easily find such images on the internet as tourists often visit. I've had the pleasure of working with several Venezuelans in research, they were from Caracas, which is depicted in the painting. They also seemed very happy to have left Caracas, it is only the wealthy educated people who can easily emigrate to other countries. The images that struck me the most were the sprawling communities on the steep mountain sides,  these are small brick shanties with a simple roof and window, with a water collector on the roof. Its hard to even see where the roads are, most of the abodes are only accessible by foot. We saw communities like this in São Paulo first hand, some extended family even lived there. Unfortunately, the living conditions are dreadful, and most of these communities are run by drug traffickers, their houses are closer to the top and built with lavish construction and fencing. Its too hard for the city to police or service these regions, so they are mostly left to their own devices. From a landscape perspective what struck me was how the contours of the mountains could be discerned from the undulations and shadows of the sprawling shanty structures. In the background, soaring white condos house the wealthy.

To paint it, I first painted the contours and shadows of the underlying mountains, then I painted over the foreground structures in detail, and used a more abstract pattern towards the background. A few trees popping up here and there completed the effect. I had no idea if this painting would work out, looking at it now, I see the mountain undulations, and feel the shock of realizing that the entire area is covered in tiny brick houses.

World Inspired Landscapes: Venezuela, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

World Inspired Landscapes: Vanuatu

 

Vanuatu is one of the least populated and remotest countries in the World, located in the Melanesia region of the South Pacific Ocean, almost 2000 km east of Australia! Thousands of years ago the elusive Lapita culture populated the islands, they left behind some shards of distinctive pottery and a few other relics. Afterwards the Portuguese explorers, then French explorers arrived and attempted to colonize but the local tribes repelled the attacks and living conditions were so harsh that the explorers packed up and mostly left. Regional conflicts lead to kidnapping of many of the men on the island for labor, and later on, Europeans came to settle on the island to grow coffee and other cash crops. Like most Pacific Ocean countries it was also used in World War 2 by the allies to stage attacks against Japanese occupied islands to the north. A lot of drama for a teeny island in the middle of the ocean. The other drama is tectonic... Vanuatu is an active volcano region, where eruptions lead to creation of new land and fertile soil. In the painting I depicted an underwater volcano next to a coral-encrusted shelf. Underwater volcanoes eventually rise to reach the surface, then create a new island eventually. Its cool because this is one place where the landscape is being created. 

To compose the scene, the shelf on the top left had to have higher colour saturation and contrast as compared to the bottom of the shelf, which is shrouded in cyan (PB15 + PG7). The adjacent water is dark blue (PB60) which gives the colour contrast with the underwater flame. A few schools of fish casually swim by.

World Inspired Landscapes: Vanuatu

World Inspired Landscapes: Uzbekistan

 

Uzbekistan is centrally located in middle Asia, it is one of only two doubly landlocked countries in the world, that means it has two full circles of other countries separating it from the sea. The other doubly landlocked country is Liechtenstein, located in the middle of Europe. Being centrally located and mostly flat steppe landscapes interspersed with tall mountains, the country was subject to control by the Persian empire, hence the -stan ending, followed by Soviet occupation until independence in the early 1990's like a lot of the other former Soviet occupied lands. Rich in natural resources like cotton and natural gas, Uzbekistan has modernized its economy to be a trading and economic hub leading to very low national debt. Historically there were human rights issues like modern day slavery in the cotton fields, but recent political turns have led to improvements in this respect. When researching the landscapes of Uzbekistan is was very 'toasty brown' everywhere on google maps, although there were some spectacular mountain scenes, postcard worthy ones, seen on google image search. I thought about painting the impressive Steppe Eagle flying over the landscape, but the idea that stuck with me was the Dung Beetle. Uzbekistan has some endemic beetle species (endemic means only found in that country) living up in the remote mountain regions. The painting depicts a dung beetle using its back legs to roll a ball of dung, probably from cows or yaks, and the perspective makes it look like its rolling the dung ball up the side of a mountain! For good measure I put my initials and year on the dung ball. Luckily I painted some dog poo recently on Harley street, so I had some idea of the colours and textures of it.

World Inspired Landscapes: Uzbekistan, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

World Inspired Landscapes: Uruguay

South America was inhabited for tens of thousands of years before the arrival of the Portuguese and Spanish. For awhile the Brazilian Empire existed, then in the 19th century Uruguay became independent and remains a democracy to this day. Its apparently a politically stable country, although deforestation was profound, it ranks very low on the global forest preservation scale. Suriname, incidentally, was one of the highest in terms of forest preservation. Clicking around google maps confirmed it, Uruguay was mostly barren grasslands for agriculture with just thin trees around the hilly areas. Unlike other countries in South America, Uruguay is very flat with the highest point being only 500 meters. For this reason, wind and bad weather can blow across the country unabated leading to fierce tornadoes. Another thing they have a lot of is gold and minerals. The painting depicts a rare geode containing amethyst, a purple gemstone, that happens to be shaped like a heart. It is based on a true story, of miners who found a heart-shaped geode. Any reason to use carbazole violet (PV23) is good with me, it one of my favorite, albeit kind of useless, colours in the palette. Dabs of quinacridone purple (PV55) create the reddish-violet hues. The rocky part of the geode was done with orange (PO36, PO73) and prussian blue (PB27) mixes. Prussian blue was one of the first synthetic pigments used in art and textiles, but nowadays, it is more reliable to use phthalo cyanine (PB15) or better yet indo blue (PB60) for dark blue.

World Inspired Landscapes: Uruguay, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

World Inspired Landscapes: United States of America

Being a reader of the news one gets a lot of information about politics in the United States of America and its easy to forget what an incredible landscape they have down south of the border. And its even better north of the border! Awhile ago I did a series of painting for my Aunt and Uncle based on their photos from Yukon, a territory of Canada. Looking at the landscape of nearby Alaska, part of the USA, and there were similarities in the tall mountains, sparkling lakes and dense forests. Thus, this edition of the series is done from the memory of my paintings done from photos taken by my relatives in the territory next to the state of Alaska! 

World Inspired Landscapes: United States of America, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025
   

World Inspired Landscapes: United Kingdom

After writing many blogs on the topic of colonialism, we finally get to the United Kingdom, formerly the British Empire and center of the colonial power that dominated most of the world's trade. Cro-Magnons lived there tens of thousands of years ago, followed by various stone-age ancient people, then the invasion by Romans around the turn of the millennium. Just a few hundred years later, invasion by the Saxons, probably Germanic tribes or maybe Scandinavian, or both over many generations lead to what became an island of warring kingdoms. Somewhere in the middle of it all my ancestors survived, we know at least some of them came from Darlington, a city in the north east. Once a part of the European Union, it is now a separate entity after the infamous Britain Exit or Brexit, which dominated the news for all too many years before becoming a reality. Looking around the landscapes, there were a lot of familiar looking scenes that could have been Canada. I used Google Maps to explore Darlington and was impressed with the number of parks and woodlands they have preserved around this medium sized industrial city.

Obviously rain is one of the prevalent themes in the United Kingdom and I wanted to convey that in the painting. On the first attempt I used liquid frisket, known as masking fluid, to preserve the rain drops but the product was goopy and could not be removed from the paper so I tossed it (both the frisket and the failed attempt). Messing around a bit, I found a way to infuse wet washes using wet brush strokes to create the blurry forest and field scene in the background, while painting around some blank spots for the rain drops. Working fast to prevent it from drying, I got in the whole background in one go. Once that dried, I used a three tone scheme using small brushes within each droplet. Luckily (or not) it was raining today so I studied the drops on our windows and saw that the background was reflected upside-down by the drops. The entire painting was done with careful brushwork, and it turned out better than I could have hoped, almost photo-realistic. Its been a fun series, and this effort is a good example of how it has pushed me as an artist.
 

World Inspired Landscapes: United Kingdom, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

Made me buy it

At Deserres art store, like I needed any more paint, they made me buy it with deep discounts. Actually, there were some 'liquidation' prices but still kind of pricey compared to Kama Pigments. I picked up 15 mL tubes of bismuth vanadate yellow (PY184), burnt red ochre (PR102) both from Daniel Smith, and some umber (PBr7) and yellow ochre (PY42) from Shin Han. I had a bit of birthday money to spend so it was fine at any price. I also noticed that all of the iridescent and duo-chrome paints from Daniel Smith were on liquidation... they probably were not too popular from the looks of it. I got one once, iridescent moonstone (the name was cool), but it was of limited usefulness, and the main attraction, the sparkle effect, did not scan or show well on the computer screen. 

In the painting above, I used the four 'new' paints... in fact I have identical or similar versions before. The yellow ochre from Shin Han was very similar, just a half shade lighter perhaps, than the yellow ochre I have from DaVinci (I got a jumbo 37mL tube of that a few years ago). Bismuth vanadate yellow is the bright yellow, the rusty colour is burnt yellow ochre, the muddy brown is the umber, and the toasty yellow is the yellow ochre. These paints will really turn up the warmth on the palette.

Made me buy it,  watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

Between rain in Montreal

 

Between rain I got to pick up a few items at Alexis Nihon plaza, it has quite a few stores I like including Deserres the art store, Nature Pet Center, Canadian Tire, and Winner's for discount clothing. Just outside there are a few small parks including the Hector-Toe-Blake park which is surrounded by the new condo skyscrapers they built around Cabot park. The tree was neat, it was a dark yellow, with new leaves, and a beige/black bark. The pink flowering trees in the background were turning a brownish colour on their way to becoming green.

Hector-Toe-Blake park benches, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

 

The busses parked here next to Cabot Park waiting for their departure. I liked the reflection in the windshield of the bus. In the background is Mount Royal and part of the General hospital up on the hillside. On the left, there is a snippet of the old forum building once an arena, now painted black, its a movie theater.

Bus near Cabot, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

 

Another few scenes from the neighborhood

As usual for the spring and summer my parent's have geraniums planted in their hand-made and hand painted flower boxes. Our friend, and a fan of my art, Jennifer, left them a nice hydrangea flower which had a fascinating blue colour. For good measure, there was a tree in the background with white flowers on it.

Geraniums and hydrangea, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

 

The back patio on the ground floor had lots of growth, with chives coming up between the patio stones, forget-me-nots, dandelions and red and violet tulips. Everything was bright from the spring time sun. I simplified the fence so as to complement the scene without being a distraction. They obviously painted their hand-made steps (on the left) with an iron oxide-pigmented paint probably red ochre. Iron oxide paint resists fading, and its easy for me to paint since I have as the similar pigment on the palette.

Back patio growth, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press,  May 2025

 

Painting a lot in Montreal and you get good at signage. This sign was next to the storm pond/restored wetland, it actually had multiple pictograms saying no swimming, skating, fishing or boating on the water. Luckily it did not actually say anything about art so I made a painting.

No Art! watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

Bike ride through farmland

Riding my dad's bike up the line, I got to make a few paintings on a nice sunny day in Caledon. He even had a bike pack similar to mine, so I could prop the bike up against me and use it as a portable studio like I do in Montreal. The amount of land around here is unreal, there are vast expanses and vista views of the horizon everywhere you look. In the foreground is some old corn, some still standing, with rolling fields and a small work shed in the background.

 Old corn and shed, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

 

This was just a good place to stand and paint, not too close to the road, and not on private property. There were some better scenes but I was not going to set up and paint right on the gravel shoulder with the cars whizzing by. I had some vanadium yellow (PY184) on the palette to help make chartreuese, which conserved the benzi yellow (PY154). Vanadium yellow is very potent and mixes a bright chartreuse, although it is also opaque and otherwise not a good mixer. I bought a small (5mL) tube awhile ago, if it seems useful I will buy more just for spring and summer.

Path through field, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

 

At the low points there are marshes with reeds in the fields. These reeds looked dry, like from last year. All the fields are likely to be corn fields, the farmers will probably plow and plant them soon enough.

Reeds in field, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

 

To get the dark olives greens in the background trees I used a mix of shadow green (PBk31) with deep yellow (PY110). It can get really dark and muddy, so benzi yellow was added to the mix. You can buy these so called 'convenience greens' which are pre-mixed by the company, but many of them are far too green to be useful. You might be surprised to know that most 'greens' you see in a landscape are much closer to yellow. 

Old corn and dandelion, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

 

 

Spring flowers and blooming trees and creek

Back in the ravine behind my parent's house there is an asphalt path winding through the woods. Being from Montreal I am used to painting asphalt, but here I was more interested in the spring flowers and blooming trees. After painting pink trees blooming there were plenty of white trees blooming, you have to imagine the smell is just like a flowery perfume in the forest. On the ground there were dandelions, and a small pale blue flower called forget me nots. The tree on the left was wound up with creeper vines. Each year I pull down some vines and it seems to help the trees grow better.  

Forest path flowers, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

 

A small creek runs through the ravine, this tree's roots were growing into it, although it ended up looking like a giant spider! The blue and yellow flowers adorn the foreground. Painting the background forest entailed a layer of beige with dabs of green, then dark brown trunks and some leaf texturing.

Flowers and creek, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

 

No flowers in this one, its a view of a small waterfall in the babbling creek with a makeshift footbridge crossing it. My experience from doing the world inspired landscapes series really helped me compose this one, the angle on the creek and the contours needed to be clear in order to give the sense of space. The log bridge also helps orient the viewer. 

Log over creek, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

 

Magenta flowering trees on campus

This is more or less the view I had while unlocking the bike from the rack on campus. Although the colours were embellished slightly, these trees had bright magenta flowers, with olive and green foliage. Magenta is essentially hot pink, like flamingo pink, and the pigment PR122 is the closest thing to being magenta. True magenta is not possible to recreate with paint, although it can be created on a digital display, if you go and search 'magenta' you will see it on your device. The PR122 pigment is roughly half way between magenta and red. Purple is actually dark magenta, the pigment PV23 is exactly on the hue angle of magenta but very dark, it ends up looking like grape juice concentrate. Its pretty rare to see magenta on location, at this time of year there are plenty of trees with pink flowers at least for a week or so.  

Flowering trees on campus,  watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

Labatt Brewery spring scenes

Part of the reason for the whole trip was to swing by the brewery district of Lasalle, I found it a few weeks ago and decided to come back when some leaves were out. This scene is looking at the back of the brewery from an adjacent parking lot. Someone walked up and asked if I would give them the painting when it was done but I said no. Zero dollars was a pretty low opening bid. I only gave one painting away recently, it was the car wash, when the car wash guy asked for it. Maybe it was joke, do people want paintings of a parking lot and factory? Who knows... maybe I am like the "Monet of the parking lots" and my paintings will be worth millions one day.

Labatt Brewery rear view, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

 

When I saw this thing and deduced that it was the way they pumped beer into beer trucks, or something like that, I had to paint it. When you see something you have never seen before, paint it!. The blue sky was daunting, and I was a little rusty you see a few brush strokes here and there. I liked how the tubing went into a hole in the wall of the factory. This is like, the source of beer, kind of like a fountain-of-youth, but it makes you drunk instead. "Beer boom" has to be my favorite painting title of the year. Similar to "Crow on a pile of snow" that was another title that made my laugh to myself.

Beer boom, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

Douglas Mental Hospital and Institute Colourful trees and flowers

 

The Douglas Mental Hospital and Institute is a sprawling compound located between Verdun and Crawford Park area, not far from Lasalle. We used to go there in the summer to play ultimate (frisbee sport) tournaments. I had to think of Van Gogh while doing these paintings, he was famous for painting in and around the st Remy mental hospital in southern France, although the landscape there was significantly more interesting than here. None the less, the massive building was both ominous and beautiful in a way, back then they paid attention to construction and detailing, like the green trim, and brilliant red brickwork. This was a rear view, a lot of ventilation, heating and cooling infrastructure could be seen. Behind the creepy tree, there was a low-lying shed that looked like easily 150 years old based on the crumbling stone work and distinctive yellow cross beams holding the plaster walls together. Hopefully the painting channels a bit of Van Gogh here, its a nice scene, yet slightly unsettling. 

The shadow brick is actually burnt sienna (PR101) with a healthy dollop of pyrol red (PR254), while the sunny brick (facing to the right) is mostly pyrol orange (PO73). I am including pyrol pigments this year to brighten up the brick tones since I ran out of red ochre. 

Douglas Mental Hospital and Institute rear view, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press,  May 2025

 

Another theme of Van Gogh's paintings from st Remy were the elaborate landscaping, with tall trees and flowers. He painted them on strange angles and with prolific use of red and brown, although he was unwell at the time which may have affected the artwork. I went for a more pedestrian angle, and kept it light and bright. These are actually an accumulation of things I saw around the institute, which I bundled together into one scene. A group of people from the hospital walked by and sat under those trees (there are actually benches there), a few of them came by and looked at me painting, they seemed entertained a little.

Colourful trees and flowers Douglas, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

Ride down to river through Verdun

Most of the waterfront along the st Lawrence river is a manicured lawn with bike paths and walking paths. The embankments are mostly off limits, they are trying to restore most of them, although here and there a path winds down to the river. A few spots seem good for wading in the water, and some people even do stationary surfing on the small waves. Today there were plenty of dandelions, which are always fun to paint at first, then it gets tedious after a few weeks.

Lachine rapids spring, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

 

Crossing over from park Angrignon, I entered Verdun via the aqueduct bike path that runs all the way though Lasalle and beyond. The first part of the painting was the colourful spring foreground, then I over-painted the ominous power towers. The sky was painted in a dramatic fashion to complete the ominous, yet hopeful atmosphere.

Aqueduct path power towers, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025 

Here is the classic view of the park Angrignon pond, it is a very long, narrow, and shallow body of water where ducks and turtles live. I've painted this scene many times, there happens to be a good place to stand here, although every time there is a strong, often cold wind.

Angrignon pond spring, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

At the other end of the pond there is a group of birch trees, and this mallard was swimming by. A lot of people were having picnics here, I got a good whiff of barbecue meat and lots of loud music playing. Not to mention, little dogs barking. Sounds of summer are arriving.

Birch and mallard, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

World Inspired Landscapes: United Arab Emirates

The United Arab Emirates is a collection of seven Emirates in the middle east, with its most populous city being Dubai. Built up from oil revenues, the land was occupied as far back as over 100,000 years ago as evidenced by ancient stone tools used to butcher animals. In the colonial times, Portuguese and British forces jockeyed for position in the Persian gulf and the United Arab Emirates which geographically, forms a bottleneck passage to the Arabian sea and to India where the major trade routes ran. The biggest change occurred with the discovery of oil reserves after World War 1, it added to the economic growth and geopolitical importance of the region. When researching the landscape, the Emirates consists of the Hajar mountains (Hajar roughly translates into stone mountains), and vast expanses of desert with long coast lines. In the series, I have tackled many desert scenes, its amazing how complex and difficult it is to paint wind-swept sand dunes. The thought of another sand painting was uninspiring, then I found out that dune buggies (sand cars) are really popular in the dunes around Dubai. So in the painting, you are sitting in the back seat of a dune buggy, careering over the sand. To create a dramatic sense of motion, I used the good old Dutch angle... that is, when the horizon line is tilted on an angle. Because the dune buggy is level you feel secure, but still get the sense of being on a pitch. Adding to the effect, I made the hands on the wheel signify a sharp turn, and showed the right wheel. The roll cage gives a sense of perspective and motion. The driver here depicts a woman wearing a head scarf, in the google images women were often driving the dune buggies. 

World Inspired Landscapes: United Arab Emirates, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

Scenes from Mile End tracks

I was out in Mile End to pick up some bulk food at Anatol Spices and made a few paintings up by the tracks on the bike path. This one shows some signals set to red and the Mile End warehouse in the background. Leaves were starting to really come in today. A lot of people were jogging on this path, it made me tired just looking at them jog. 

Train signals, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

Here is the rear view of the Lumber yard, it is completely plastered with colourful graffiti. The underpass is St. Urbain street which goes all the way from the Park Jarry to down town Montreal. Elaborate concrete railings and trim adorn the walls that line the sidewalk below.

Lumber yard rear, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

World Inspired Landscapes: Ukraine

 

Ukraine is an eastern European country that is currently in a protracted war that has made a lot of headlines. People have lived there since the stone age, it is centrally located next to six other countries and the Black Sea to the south. Ukraine is known for large expanses of wheat and sunflowers which give it the distinctive yellow and blue flag, as a child we knew of the Ukrainian painted Easter eggs which can be very elaborate. Using fine wax drawings on a carefully emptied eggshell, the layers of paint would create blocks of colours, then upon melting the wax the fine lines would show up in the design. When we tried it in class most students broke their eggs including me probably! Ukrainian traditions are really important for maintaining their cultural identity in the face of many challenges. Researching Ukraine landscapes revealed a low-lying forested land with plenty of lakes and rivers. I started to see pictures of mushrooms, including some that looked just like the ones that the Smurfs live in, red with white spots on top. It was actually an article on bioluminescent plants and insects in Australia that gave me the idea, as it turns out, a lot of mushrooms are bioluminescent when viewed under a UV light. In the painting, it depicts the glowing mushrooms on the forest floor. It reminds me of the James Cameron movie Avatar, when they are walking around the fluorescent neon forest. 

World Inspired Landscapes: Ukraine, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press,  May 2025

A few paintings on an overcast day

With gloomy weather you start to wonder, when is summer starting? Soon enough we will be complaining about the heat. On overcast days, its best to seek out strong value contrasts since the colours tend to be dull and muted, and there is a general lack of cast shadows. As this woman walked by across the street from the Maisonneuve bike path, her clothing, which appears to be a Thawb, was shimmering white and complementing the cherry tree blossoms in the background. A dark rich green shrubbery and red bricks provided the framing of the scene. Usually I don't paint people because they move, indeed, the woman had long passed when I got around to including the figure, so I had to memorize the shape and values.  I see that I forgot to initial this one.

Woman under tree blossoms, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

 

Turning to the other direction towards the train tracks, I tackled this complicated scene of the fence, a post with sign, plenty of foliage, and the commuter train in the middle. I had to paint the train from memory, by now, I've painted it enough to know the general shapes, colours and patterns. As I painted this one, I thought of it more like an abstract painting since there was so much going on with the foliage, fence and train. Somehow it worked out well enough. A fellow stopped and talked to me for awhile, he warned me about the poison ivy in the area, and said he was an acrylic painter. He also said he was resistant to poison ivy, like he can rub it on his face and nothing happens. Some scientist should study the guy and get the cure to poison ivy like they did recently with the snake venom guy. Its amazing what you learn on location.

Train and foliage, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025