Saturday Painting Trip: Sides of Buildings

 

Today's theme was 'colourful sides of buildings'. I rode past these scenes many times and always wanted to do a painting of them but never really stopped. The first example is the side of the Decarie Square shopping mall, it has a minty-green roof, bright red and orange trim, and some old school toffee-coloured concrete walls. Including the two cars this painting took a bit longer than usual, it was done on the new Winsor and Newton cold press paper I picked up recently at Av des Arts. Instead of soaking it, I just cut it this morning and used as is. In fact, it worked great and stayed flat the whole time. I called this one complementary because it has the red-green and blue-orange complements.

Complementary Building 6 x 7.5" cold press, watercolour, May 2021 (No. 2643)

 

Once you cross under the train tracks via a narrow sidewalk you are in the shopping complex parking lot that leads past the old Hippodrome land and up to Devonshire street. Following it North to Autoroute 40 there is an underpass for pedestrians and bikes that opens into a mixed industrial residential area in the Bois de Franc neighborhood of the St. Laurent borough. This building is actually a sprawling storage warehouse for people's stuff. Getting the colours right was tough, especially that green wall. I applied the colours very bright, because watercolour paint always dries a little duller. I called this one triad because orange, blue-green and violet are a classic colour triad.

Triad Building 8 x 10" cold press, watercolour, May 2021 (No. 2660a)

 On the way back I stopped at a derelict building just across from the old Hippodrome land, this is actually Jean-Talon west, and seems to be the end or the beginning of Jean-Talon street. Of course I had to put my initials on the graffiti wall. I enjoyed painting the hanging vines on the left of the painting, they were blowing in the wind. The top half of a pickup truck was in the grass. I used all the earth paints for this one, so it was called Earthy building. Today I brought a new palette with me, physically it was new it is to replace my very old one which was all cracked and held together with duct tape. It also has less colours on it which simplified the mixes. Today's paintings were essentially a test of the new paper and paint setup, not to mention my skill at depicting straight lines!

Earthy Building 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, May 2021 (No. 2638a)

Thoughts on paint mixing, part 1

I used almost the same group of paints and mixing strategy for about 30 years prior to 2020. The main 5 paints are depicted in panel A of the figure above, they were viridian green, aureolin yellow, burnt sienna, alizarin crimson, and french ultramarine. Those paints could produce a wide range of turquoise, brown, black, greens, dull orange and dull purple. In panel B top right, I had cerulean blue and rose madder genuine, along with aureolin yellow, they produced a range of subtle grey mixes for concrete and shadows. To paint sky I combined cerulean and french ultramarine in a separate area of the palette (panel C). As I learned how to paint green it was important to have a separate area for that too, in panel D were greens including some convenience greens, burnt sienna, and yellow. Finally, I had some accent colours that were useful in situations and I used them a lot for abstracts. 

The main advantage of that setup was that each colour area could produce a wide range, but stayed focused on a theme. In particular, the greys and blues had to remain clean, without any of the phthalo green or alizarin crimson which would mess them up. The limitation was that I had to mix a lot, it was almost a matter of pride that I could swish together 4 or 5 paints and come up with something that looked good. When I look back on old paintings, one trip that really impressed me in retrospect, was the 2000 Keystone Colorado seen here and here. The colours required really pushed the limits- warm wood paneling, atmospheric greens on distant mountains, glowing skies, pine greens, and mounds of snow. Clearly I could do a lot with the palette, so why change?

Part 2 of this blog will have to come some time in the future, because I have totally redone my paint selection to remove toxic, obsolete, and non-lightfast paints. If you follow my blog you will see updates from time to time, I added a lot of paints, then simplified it for spring time painting. I would prefer to settle on one way of painting, it is the best way to learn. At some point your paints and palette become an extension of your vision and inspiration requiring no thought whatsoever. But it takes years to get there. One thing I can say is that painting is a life long pursuit, there is always another discovery or improvement to be made just around the corner. 

Note: For the recreation of the pre-2020 palette seen above, I copied alizarin with pyrole red (PR254), with a bit of perylene red (PR179) and quin purple (PV55). The rose madder is actually dilute PV19, and the cerulean is cobalt blue with a touch of phthalo. Aureloin is just PY154 diluted, and sap green is PG36 with PO36. Just wanted to note that replacing those old colours was not too hard. 

Knotty Tree, Coffee Park

 On my way back from the office I walked through coffee park, it looks a bit different than the last time I painted it in the winter, as seen in this link. Last year it took me awhile to switch from summer/fall painting to winter painting, it required quite an adjustment in technique and materials. Now I find myself readjusting to summer painting. The paint dries much faster, and the colours are more complex. Today's painting is filled with warm green and browns, with magenta in the blossoming tree, I used the new kit which is mostly Van Gogh brand paints. The dandelions are two tones, yellow light for the highlight, yellow ochre for the shadows. The black fence provides the backbone to the composition, and gives dark contrast to the rest of the painting which is important if you want colours to appear to glow. I wanted to channel Van Gogh as much as possible, so each element has a life its own, and I used excessive amounts of yellow paint!

Knotty Tree, Coffee Park, 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, May 2021 (No. 2636)

Gogh Auto (with Van Gogh Paints)

By now this is a familiar scene, Joe and Ralph auto on Somerled Avenue, now renamed 'Gogh Auto'. I just had a little time today during the sunny day to make a quick painting, and wanted to test a new product I got called Van Gogh paints by Royal Talens a dutch company, sold by Kama Pigments in Montreal. I promised myself to stop buying paint but then I figured, of all the addictions to have this one was pretty harmless! These paints are considered 'student quality' because they add some filler and keep the pigments simple. I found them to re-wet beautifully and provided very strong pigmentation. The new paper helps too, it holds the paint, notice how bright and vibrant the brick red is.

Gogh Auto, 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, May 2021 (No. 2637)

 

Here is a picture of some of the Van Gogh paints before they were unwrapped. I got several yellows, just because it was his favorite colour. The size of these is about that of your thumbnail, but they hold a surprising amount of paint.

This is a shot of the new aluminum palette I got also from Kama Pigments, it was the main thing I wanted to buy so that I could bring my other pan paints on location. The pans are little plastic cubes with the paint in them, you see how they clip in to the holder area, and you use the fold out to mix. On the back is a ring to put your thumb, that lets you hold it with one hand. I also filled two empty pans with indo blue (PB60 Daniel Smith) and magenta (PV19 Shcminke) from tubes that I have, and clipped them to complete the set. I had to draw the line at buying any more blue or pink paint that is why I used some from tubes, once they dry it is almost the same as the premade pan paint. 

In this snap you see the test painting, and the paint-outs of the Van Gogh paints, they are very bright almost whiteish, that is likely from aluminum hydroxide brightener/filler they add, and the yellow has white in it. I think they were out of stock on some of my order because they sent yellow light and red light instead of regular yellow and red. Close enough!

The pigments are...

Permanent red light (PR255)

Azo yellow light (PY154 +PW6)

Pyrrole orange (PO73)

Permanent yellow green (PY154+ PG7)

Viridian (hue; PG7)

Phthalo blue (PB15)

Raw Sienna (PY42)

Yellow ochre (PY42)

Light oxide red (PR101)

Oxide black (PBk11)

The word permanent has no meaning anymore, all these pigments are very lightfast (stable). They use that word because in the old days they would have used a non-stable pigment, then they replace it with a new one that is 'permanent'. In fact, no paint is permanent, and the inclusion of brighteners may diminish the longevity of these paints further. In general modern watercolour paints will remain mostly unchanged for 50 - 100 years, so its not something we need to worry about!

Canadian Legion

On my way back from picking the bike up at the shop I stopped for a quick painting of the Canadian Legion building on Decarie. In the foreground you see the green (PG36) markers used for the bike Maisonneuve path which goes from NDG all the way across Montreal. To capture the interesting coffee-brown brick colours I mixed yellow ochre (PY43) with burnt sienna (PR101) and raw umber (PBr7). It would have been easier to use raw sienna but I took that off my palette for now. The red is pyrol red (PR254), the blue is cobalt blue (PB28), and the Canadian flag is pyrol red-orange (PR255). I also snuck in some yellow on the curb (PY110 and PY154). When you consider the sky blue and chartreuse tree colour, it would appear that I got almost every colour of the rainbow into a rather drab scene. The bike is great now, the spoke was replaced and all tuned up and ready for the summer.

Canadian Legion 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, May 2021 (No. 2635a)

Stormy Sky St. Henri

 On my way back from dropping my bike off for a tune-up, I saw this scene of a stormy sky with the Hardware store in the foreground. I was impressed by the contrast of the grey-blue sky which I did with graphite grey (PBk10) and indo blue (PB60) and the orange roof which was a mix of paints (PY110, PR255, PO36). Since I had some cobalt blue (PB28) on the palette, I could create the downtown Montreal skyline with glowing turquoises. The cobalt blue paint is a lot easier to handle than the phthalo blue paints especially when working on a small format like this. My new paper block also amplifies the brightness of the paints and really holds the washes. Luckily the rain held off and I got in home just in time for the next on-line meeting.

Stormy Sky St. Henri, 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, May 2021 (No. 2634)

Earth Exploration

 After trying out a few different styles with the earth paints, I created this painting which depicts the interior of an imaginary factory that makes pigments. The roasting furnace is in the bottom left and delivery vehicle bottom right. I was also thinking of the oil painting Monet made of the Saint-Lazare Station which has a large v-shaped roof and smoke in the distance.

Pigment Plant, 8 x 10" cold press, watercolour, May 2021 (No. 2661a)

 

Most of this painting is made from earth colours too, along with a few accent colours. I was inspired by Rembrant who painted in the classic Italian style, and often had a light source emanating from small windows or some unknown source from above. Earth colours can create warm shadows and eerie depths, and they make the bright colours stand out such as the vermilion reds.

Robot Dancer (Earth Moves), 8 x 10" cold press, watercolour, May 2021 (No. 2662a)

 

Every 17 years the locust come out, they are currently about to emerge. They probably dont look anything like this painting, so we have to assume its on another planet maybe Mars. I used cobalt blue for the moon, it is a nice high chroma blue paint that has slightly more toxicity than an average watercolour paint but not so much as to be concerned. I took it out of my palette for about a year, now I picked up a new tube by Holbein (PB28) and will use it sparingly.

Blue Moon Larva, 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, May 2021 (No. 2639b)