Gust of Wind

 

Painting motion seems the impossible task but the Japanese print designers figured it out, for example the masterpiece by Hiroshige showing a person chasing a hat in the wind seen in this link. I go to that link all the time (ukiyo-e.org) to study Ukiyo-e prints so it is safe to explore. In this painting I was sitting in a familiar spot, looking down on a field of wild grasses and the brilliant cedar shrub in the foreground with some magenta-flowered plants. To create the illusion of a gust of wind, I applied the golden yellow, then applied high chroma backwash for texture and value, followed by the four coloured grass brushwork. The colours were orange-yellow, yellow, umber, and chartreuse. A scary looking wasp landed on my palette for a few seconds, they tend to be attracted by the paint, and I included it in the painting, bottom right. Watch out!

Gust of Wind,  5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, June 2021 (No. 2697)

By the way, I went past the scene I painted yesterday,  and took a few photos to determine what colour the tree-shrub was with the pink flowers. Turns out, the simple answer was grey-green, but the highlight areas were turquoise, blue, green chartreuse, yellow chartreuse, magenta, orange, orange-red, grey, and near white. So the tree was literally all the colours. Because it was a destaurated grey green, it took on reflected colours from the sun, sky, and magenta flowers. I have no idea how to properly paint it but will have to go try again.

Path with Bench

On my way back from picking up fresh bread at le Meunerie, an artisinal bakery in NDG, I stopped at Park William-Hurst,  and found this lush, almost magical arrangement of landscaped trees. The flowering tree-bush in the center above the bench really caught my attention, it was an intoxicating shade of neutral green peppered with little pink flowers. At first I tried phthalo blue green (PG7) with caput mortum (PR101) but it dried too cold, so I glazed it with a mix of ferrari red (PR254), school bus yellow (PY110) and purple magenta (PR122). In the end the green from those bushes looked pretty close, I am curious to know what colour it really was. The rest of the trees were shades of green that I more familiar with. Copious amounts of lemon yellow (PY175) were used! One tree in the middle is almost pure yellow with the slightest touch of phthalo green (PG36), what a pleasure to paint out that colour. There is also another tree stump here, Montreal has lost thousands of trees recently. But this painting is meant to convey some hope, that many trees can replace the fallen ones.

Path with Bench, 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, June 2021 (No. 2695)

Beat the Heat, Benny Sports Centre Tree (Nocturne)

As the hottest day of the year so far, 34℃, draws to a close, I made a quick walk out to one of my favorite local locations, Benny park. The Sports Centre was warmly lit up against a pale purple sky. One of the trees was in silhouette against the stair case wall, each stair actually has a built in light which created an eerie glow in the painting. I brought a small clip-on reading light and fixed it to the top button of my shirt. It helped me to better judge the colour and contrast, and to figure out where my brushes were at in the kit bag. The mini light was a big help, I got the idea from reading a biography of Van Gogh who used candles affixed to his straw hat to paint nocturnes (night scenes). At least I was not in any danger of starting a fire. It was hot enough today.

Benny Sports Centre Tree (Nocturne), 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, June 2021 (No. 2694)

Nature Contained

After some disappointment on a recent painting trip to the remains of the secret spot, it occurred to me that people could see nature in a different way. Growing up, my parents always took me and my sister on summer camping trips where we learned to appreciate wilderness through canoe rides, hiking, and the children's programs they run at places like Balsam Lake and other parks. My eye picks up on natural elements, it is the main thesis of almost every location painting I have made, the contrast between urbanity and nature. After seeing the secret place destroyed I was a little sad and angry about it, but still hopeful that when they finish it, the new walking/cycling path they are building will allow more city people to experience nature. My role as an artist, will be to continue seeking out the beauty in every crooked tree and 'weed' that I can find. In this painting, a large growth of queen anne's lace was growing in between some ramps leading to the soccer fields at Trenholme park. The 'weed' is completely surrounded by concrete walls, stairs, goal posts, and the manicured soccer pitch, yet it still exists if one cares to notice. I hope this painting draws some attention to the small details of nature found in our community. 

Nature Contained, 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, June 2021 (No. 2693)

June Palette Update, colour saturation

If you followed last year you know I posted regular palette cleanser paintings that were a lot of fun. I plan to do those again using the Van Gogh student paints and a new pad of the same watercolour paper I had used from Fabriano. This one was just a quick sketch made as I prepared the new paint out for June's palette update.
 

Canary Condo Island,  sketchbook, watercolour 9 x 6" 2021

 

I am still using the 18 slot Holbein palette, it is an exact model that I had used for over 5 years. The old one was being held together with duct tape, aluminum wire, and had developed cracks after the winter painting. Apparently they don't design watercolour palettes for sub zero temperatures. The paint choice and ordering has been tweaked a little. Perylene red is up with the earth colours, I use it to increase the chroma on the red earth paints, or to make a red shadow if the object is red. I brought PG7 back, it is superb for making turquoise, and for greening up any mixture. A lighter, yellower orange (PO62) replaces the duller redder orange I had for mixing greens (PO36). Finally, I found a spot for pyrole red ferrari (PR255) just above its buddy pyrole red fire engine (PR254).

Out of curiosity I wanted to find out what was the saturated hue looked like for the blue and green paints, partly because the scientist in me recently deconstructed the colour of a rolling hill.  Here are the colour picks with maximum saturation digitally enhanced with Image J.

 Perylene green (PBk31):

Phthalo green yellow shade (PG36):

Phthalo green blue shade (PG7):

 

Phthalo blue Sapphire (PB15):

Cobalt Blue (PB28):

Indothrone blue (PB60):

What to make of this? The first one PBk31 perylene green appears to be the greenest of the lot, even though it appears to be a dark almost black paint. The phthalo greens are similar, both have a teal/turquoise tint. The phthalo blue and cobalt blue are very similar, while the indo blue is a true blue (not a blue violet really). The hue range is narrower than I thought- so to make dark chartreuse I need to add yellow to perylene green, and to make dark neutral blue violet requires some quinacridone magenta. Of course, you can never get the type of saturation you see in the digital images above, unless the paint contains additives. There is a new kind of paint they are marketing as super bright, but I noticed the adverts shine incredibly bright spot lights on the works, that is a known trick that galleries use to fool customers into seeing bright colours.

Two Flowering Trees

 

Here are two interesting trees in front of Joe and Ralph Auto on Walkley street. To capture the effect of blossoms I started with a neutral chartreuse (greenish yellow) wash with an umber shadow in the shape of the tree. As it dried I built up the textures of the leaves using a half inch filbert and sideways brush strokes. By leaving the initial wash showing in large sections, the tree has the illusion of flowers growing amongst the foliage. The auto building is seen just on the left, it was done with caput mortum (PR101), healthy doses of ferrari red (PR255) and perylene maroon for the shadow, and a touch of black. I squeezed in a turquoise car in the bottom right, it helps with the depth perception, composition, and the colour plays well off the sky and the variety of greens in the painting.

Flowering Trees, 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, June 2021 (No. 2688)

One Less Secret, one Less Shadow

 As an artist, when you see something worth painting you have to paint it. Last year I discovered a secret place, away from the crowd it was a pristine hillside populated with a variety of wildflowers, burr plants, insects, birds, and butterflies. With the Turcot work, access was fenced off, and today my worst suspicions came true. In the painting, I am standing where the hillside used to be, all that remains is a steep slope of clay devoid of life, a moonscape. Their beloved condo development right next to the highway can be seen in the left of the picture, and a surviving shrub on the top right. The only possible silver lining is that this is part of the promised forested park path. I guess you cant let nature get in the way of making green spaces. I had a tear in my eye painting this one. As you can tell from the painting, there was another name I had in mind, but renamed it for the blog...

One Less Secret, 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, June 2021 (No. 2691)

In case you missed the link here is what it looked like last year, as seen from above. I was very careful when I made this painting not to trample the natural growth... 

 To clear my head a little I rode down the Maisonneuve bike path, and came across the location where I painted a tree on Benny Av, way back in 2019. It looked like an old tree, covered in moss, so it probably was on its last legs anyways. A lot of trees were lost in Montreal due to the invasive worms, I did a painting called one less shadow the other day, since trees provide shade, oxygen, habitat and painting subjects. The old tree was gone, just a stump remained. There was a massive thunderstorm brewing which contributed to the atmosphere and hastened my painting speed. Luckily I finished and rode home in some mild rain before it really came down. Together with the other painting of a tree stump, this makes 2 less shadows. The school where this is located was actually planting a bunch of new stuff, so the wheel keeps turning.

 2 Less Shadows, 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, June 2021 (No. 2692)