As the sun descended behind a large purple-grey cloud, its beams shone through in a star-burst pattern. To create the effect I started with a yellow ring for the sun, then filled the middle area with a neutral purple cloud. While moist, I dabbed in a wet brush full of bismuth vanadate yellow (PY184) and let gravity pull it downwards. Since I paint standing up, the paper is naturally tilted this way, I just had to be sure not to let it run elsewhere. My brush was true today and I got the effect in one clean pass.
Lemon sunset lachine canal, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025
The Turcot highway interchange looms in the distance, its a massive twisting and turning concrete nest of serpents with cars and trucks crawling on top. It makes for a great backdrop when composing scenes, and often catches the sunset effects as seen in the recent painting called
Sunset on the Turcot Overpass. I painted the top half first, leaving the bottom blank paper, then filled in the dark highway shapes and vehicles with grey and black forms. As it all dried, I applied impressionist-style hatch marks to tie the two sections together. Had I painted the entire background first, it never would have dried in time to overlay the highway. I will try to use this technique in the winter when things dry very slowly. Today it was cool but the air was dry, making it a pleasent afternoon to paint.
Sunset clouds Turcot, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025
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