Theater Snowdon, Montreal

The best scenes to paint are sometimes in surprising locations. Theater  Snowdon is right next to the Decarie expressway, a major submerged highway that connects the north to downtown Montreal. I pass this intersection every day on bike or by bus, and have noticed this scene. Today I headed out and found a good place to sit, on the overpass road sidewalk (I bring a lightweight portable camping chair, an aluminum tripod), looking south onto the Decarie. I liked how the 50's style art deco sign of the theater was dominating the skyline, with the traffic roaring by below. Incidentally I rode past the theater and it looked totally shut down. That's what was cool about the scene... this out of business theater, with it's sign proudly reigning over the land (a noisy highway).

Painting the blue sky and clouds is a staple technique when doing landscapes. I look back on my older works, and see that I have been doing it the same way pretty much the whole time... if it ain't broke. I start by wetting the area where the sky needs to be, then I drop in cereulean  tinted with a bit of rose madder genuine and ultramarine... this mix should be a little purply, it goes at the top of the sky. IF you judge properly the blue should bleed, making cloud shapes. The more wet the background was, the more fuzzy the clouds are. Then you drop in a grey-blue mix... use the sky blue you made and add a little more red and yellow. This becomes the shadows that are at the center of the clouds. If the paper is still wet then the shadow also bleeds, making it fuzzy. You may need to soften the edges here and there because it is really difficult to keep the paper moist, especially outside.

11x7.5" cold press 2012