Dumpster depot blue

 

As an art connoisseur of dumpsters, I found this selection to be delectable. It was the mother lode of dumpsters. Usually I see one, maybe two side by side, but this lot had dozens of them, all blue, in all different shapes and sizes. Unfortunately (or fortunately if you are a dumpster connoisseur) they were all pretty rusty and looking worse for wear. I painted the blue first, then over-painted rust with rust... literally, red ochre pigment (PR101) is iron oxide, to which I mixed in yellow ochre (PY43) and pyrol orange (PO73) for good measure. In the background you see the trees lining the lachine canal, which I would normally paint from the other direction. It was neat today to find Turcot Place road and see what is beyond the tree line and down in the industrial area. Completing the scene, there was a pile of gravel, some old 2x4 planks, and some scattered bricks. I just added blue to the painting name in case I find another dumpster depot and they are in a different colour. Those neon-yellow ones have to be kept somewhere in Montreal....

Dumpster depot blue, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, April 2025

More paintings of the Turcot interchange

This prominent suspension bridge tower has been featured in many of my paintings over the years. In this scene, I am on the bike path that runs along the edge of the service roads, looking up the massive, landscaped ramparts. The bridges off to the left are highway 15 coming from Verdun and connecting with NDG. Today's goal was 'more is less', I mean, more detail, less paintings. Using smaller brushes and adding more brush strokes increased the paint time by about 50%, but I still knocked out seven paintings. I like the way this one turned out, I wanted it to have a monumental feel, like a modern day Roman coliseum in Montreal. 

Turcot tower, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025

 

You just go for paintings like this and hope for the best, its not possible to think about the finished product. In the end the whole scene gives me a woozy, tipsy feel like a bowl of spaghetti. The horizon line anchors the scene. A couple of train engines went by in the middle of the scene, one was towing the other. The Turcot is an appealing subject matter because its a modern, awe-inspiring, grotesque thing, with lots of places to stop and paint, and bike paths all throughout. Monet painted trains and train tracks, and train station, which were relatively new and exciting in his time. Anyways, I would rather be painting it than driving in it.

Turcot tipsy, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025

Industrial strength paintings

 

On the way back, I rode over the Rue Pullman bridge over the highways and found my way down Pl. Turcot, an industrial street that skirts between a bunch of warehouses and light industrial shops. Its just next to the Lachine Canal bike path, I could see the embankment where I painted the other weekend. In this painting you see one of the enormous piles of recycled paper waiting to go into the boilers and become cardboard once again. One day I will donate my entire painting collection, they are already in cardboard boxes and all my watercolour paper is high quality rag that would be easy to recycle. Just kidding sort of, but the paper in the stack was very colourful and I had a great time painting it, complete with the smell of wet cardboard.

Recycled paper, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025

Out front, the business is called Kruger, there is an enormously long warehouse painted in ochre and pale green. A row of cedar trees, and those trees with banana-shaped seed pods lined the front. I like industiral plots from this era because they still valued landscaping and tried to make the property look nice all around. There was garbage everywhere though, the bits of paper and cardboard were strewn about.

Cardboard warehouse, watercolour 10 x 7" cold press, April 2025

Luckily the rain held off today, it made for some interesting skies. I do the sky with a dilute wash of yellow ochre, surround with the sky blue, and drop in the purple-grey shadows. I wanted to include the truck, the parking lot, and some other structures but the paper was way too small for that. Could be a candidate for a larger painting one day. I struggled with the perspective on this one, must be a little rusty after only one location painting over the past week or so.

Kruger sign, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025

To practice perspective I took on this scene of a truck trailer in the parking lot. The back of the truck was the main focal point, you see all the interesting signs and textures, with the sun reflections creating a highlight here and there. Its a real feat to paint a scene like this and still have it filled with light and shadow. Incidentally, it was a great location to paint, I had a whole area to myself, of course, there was a fence between me and the scene which was omitted. I am pretty sure the bit of road I was standing on used to be an access road for the highway prior to the Turcot renovation, now its mostly covered in dirt and grass. If I go back here I will try paint that scene too. 

Kruger truck, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025

World Inspired Landscapes: Seychelles

Here is another exotic country that I have actually visited in person! Instead of researching this landscape, I went from the memories of sitting on a pure white sand beach surrounded by large smooth granite rocks and with pristine turquoise water lapping up to the shore. It was so darn hot I had to sit under a tree to make paintings. Its one of those snobby things Europeans like to do.. go to Seychelles and 'island hop', that is, take ferries to progressively smaller and smaller islands with progressively more and more expensive hotels. In the Seychelles I discovered what is at the end of the world, and it was a 20 Euro Martini with a sunset. Not bad. The proverbial speck in the ocean, it is actually a collection of hundreds of islands in the Indian Ocean. These islands were uninhabited prior to its discovery by Europeans (let the islands hopping begin). The sea is so hostile around these islands, it was unlikely that any ancient people could have made it there in one piece, although Arab traders has visited other island nations in the Indian Ocean. The other funny thing about this place is that you have no shadow at noon because the sun is directly above, being on the equator, when I looked straight up, there was the sun above me. Very odd feeling since it never happens in Canada. Usually I try to avoid the 'screen saver' style beach scene, but for Seychelles, its perfect. Now just imagine a 20 Euro martini and a sunset. 

World Inspired Landscapes: Seychelles watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, April 2025 (No. 4305b)

World Inspired Landscapes: Serbia

Serbia is a small country located between central and south eastern Europe. Evidence for human habitation goes all the way back to the early stone ages, and Serbia has remained a country in one way or another for a very long time. I was writing about how some countries seemed to resist regime change, however, Serbia has been conquered and re-conquered so many times, there are several Wikipedia pages dedicated to the historical twists and turns. It appears that 2006 is the year they finally claimed independence and self rule through democracy. Ancient mountains in the south east are covered in grassy meadows and old pine trees, as depicted in the painting. To paint the bright green grass, I first applied pure vanadium yellow (PY184), then surrounded it by chartreuse, which was a mix of the yellow with some green (PG36). Adding more green and neutralizing with some orange and blue gave depth to the scene. It all looked pretty bland until the dark pine trees went on, the foliage is perylene maroon (PR179) with blue-green (PG7). This series has challenged my creativity and compositional skills, and allowed me to explore landscapes that I never would have encountered in Canada. If I ever visit one of these countries, I am ready! It is also fun to learn more about geography, politics, and history of the world.

World Inspired Landscapes: Serbia, watercolour 8 x 10" hot press, April 2025 (No. 3880b)

World Inspired Landscapes: Senegal

 Located on the west coast of Africa, on the northern bulge of the continent, it is the western-most country of all Africa. It is a semi-arid climate with plenty of water, forest and jungle remaining, and desert in the north. Unfortunately Senegal is extremely sensitive to climate change, even a 2 degree change will have major effects on the wetlands. In antiquity, the land was part of a large coalition of territories spanning the whole horn of Africa, but that ended shortly before the landing of Portuguese colonists and long colonial rule that followed. In fact, Australia seems to have been in charge during war time, then France was influential until just last year when the withdrew their forces. It remains one of the poorest countries, its main exports are gold, and fishing is a major industry too. I saw a documentary where Senegalese fisherman could not fish anymore because huge Chinese vessels were in their waters scooping up all the fish. Like many African countries, a history of slavery, resource exploitation, and political instability has made life hard for the people. 

This painting reminded me a little of one of the first one I did for the series, Argentina, which featured a meandering river. For Senegal, I amped up the green, chartreuse and blue sky to create an image of the meadows, or wetlands. I threw in a small pointy mountain on the horizon and added some orange-earth tones to complete the African look. Those features are common to most of the countries I painted from this amazing continent.

World Inspired Landscapes: Senegal, watercolour 8 x 10" hot press, April 2025 (No. 3881b)

World Inspired Landscapes: Saudi Arabia

 Saudi Arabia formed as a country between the two world wars, just before vast oil reserves were tapped. Of course its the world's largest oil producer by quite a margin, even more than the neighboring countries in the middle east. Most of the geography is flat desert, with grass land and rivers more to the east. There is a also a mountainous region that gets the occasional snowfall. The painting shows some cliffs receding into the distance with a stretch of desert. When cliffs or steep mountains erode, rubble accumulates at the bottom creating the skirted shape. 

With yet more rain today I put together eight more world inspired landscape paintings trying to move the chain closer to the finish line on the series. 

World Inspired Landscapes: Saudi Arabia, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, April 2025