Sunset, Nagoya Japan

Nagoya Japan was largely business-like with many large structures and office towers, yet there were many instances of spectacular landscape especially along the river. Here, logs from a timber-mill float on the mirror-like river reflecting a brilliant sunset. A bridge with modern design and the ever-present city-skyline dominate the background. Painting reflective water is always a challenge no matter what the media. In oil painting, greats like Monet and Tom Thomson used small interlocking brush strokes to create vibrant reflections, the american Turner and the old English masters used glazed-watercolour techniques. But a common theme among all is to use value contrast. Here, the logs are done in a fairly dark tone, which provides a contrast with the water. In the end the water ends up looking brighter than it actually is as a result of the contrast. To play up and enhance the effect I added some even darker highlights to the logs. 5x7" cold press, 2006.

Bus Stop London Ontario

Bus Stops in London were indeed few and far between (as were the actual busses which took their sweet time getting to the stop-Montreal has spoiled me with fast bus service), however it can be said that some of the bus stops had better views in London. This painting depicts a fall or spring (I can not remember which), the leaves are off the trees and the bushes are bare. What grabbed my attention was the yellow thing (a newspaper box?) and the way the sky reflected off the top.

Painting reflections from the sky is an important way to create atmosphere in your work. The trick is mixing the colours properly. In the painting there are two examples of reflected light from the sky, one on the mail box, the other on the glass rook of the bus stop. To make the yellow reflection I made a pale yellow with aurelian, and added a bit of green, and a touch of ceurulian blue. Adding green is a good way to neutralize your yellows withouth making them look washed out. The roof of the bus stop was just a thinner (more water) version of the beige colour used for the roof of the bus stop (that is not in reflection).

5x7" cold press. 2002

Barbados Sunset

Barbados provided some great landscapes and the sun was very brilliant illuminating the colours to heights previously unknown to me. Here the sun had just set on the sea, the clouds a cotton-candy shade and the beach a warm umber. The trees were a deep blue-green with red tints.

To enhance the illusion of reflective water I made the edge of the beach a thin dark line (see the bottom left) which made the pale orange of the sea seem even brighter than it actually is. This trick of value contrast was also used with the dark trees in the middle ground, which were set against the big purple cloud to make it look lighter.

5x7" cold press, 2002