Sometimes the best scenes are right next door. This scene was painted just down the street from where I live. You can practically smell the fresh bagels made at Fairmount bagel down the street. The building in the middle ground is College Francais, the green is actually not grass but painted concrete. I liked the contrast between red and green of the hydrant and the potted plant in the foreground. I remember somebody parked their car right in front of where I was sitting, I was rather upset and made sure to spill a little dirty water on the car before I left (the paint is water soluble, and not toxic!)
The key to making a colour appear bright (like the red hydrant) not so much the colour itself, but the colours that surround it. For example, to make a colour appear bright, place less bright versions of the colour nearby. In the painting the sidewalk is a pale pink, and the bricks of the college is a red-grey, this makes the red of the hydrant appear to be brighter. A beginner mistake is to use a bright colour right out of the tube (especially in oil painting), but this will only lead to 'fake' looking colours. And placing complementary colours (green in this case) also brightens the appearance of the main colour.
Red Hydrant, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 2009 (No. 1069)
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