Spring yellow, green and in between

 

If you follow my blog you probably recognize this street and the building, its Harley street and that's the Snowdon Bakery where I get fresh made bread and a sandwich at lunch hour or after work. The bricks are a neat shade of raw sienna which I approximated with yellow ochre (PY43) and burnt sienna (PR101). The bricks appear to glow warmly mostly due to the adjacent dull purple shadow, blue sky, and dark brown trim. The main subject matter were actually the dandelions at the corner of the building, its the first chance of the year to paint flowers. 

First dandelions, watercolour 5.5 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025

 

It was a non de-script scene ... yet, the variety of yellow, green and everything in between was tempting. In the winter my yellow and green paints mostly just sit there unused, but in the spring and summer I can use up a whole blob in one trip. Painting landscapes with accuracy requires a good knowledge of yellow to green and everything in between! In between, technically is a colour called chartreuse, like in the dumpsters it is yellow-chartreuse. It was actually more green-chartreuse I needed to tint slightly with green.

The pine tree on the left is an olive-green at the top, mixed with indo yellow (PY110) and a touch of green (PG36), and dark green shadows (PBk31). The dumpsters were yellow (PY154) with a touch of green (PG36). The dandelions were yellow with a very slight touch of orange (PO62). In the background, the tall tree has a dark yellow made with yellow ochre (PY43) and touches of green and orange here and there.

Yellow flowers, chartreuse dumpsters, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025