Darlington Nuclear Reactor, Ontario

Nuclear power painted in the traditional, old english watercolour technique... what a contrast in ideas and media. I did this one years ago while working at my Aunt and uncles house in Ajax... you are looking at the Darlington nuclear reactor that supplies 20% of Ontario's power. If I turn the lights off the painting glows green too... hehe. as I did this painting a massive storm came over the sky, you can see the dense purple clouds on the left.

Painting sunlight coming through the clouds is fun.. and not so hard. You can do it with a wet brush and just lift off some of the sky... this works well if you did the sky with ceurelian blue because this colour lifts off easily. You can also make vertical blur brushstrokes and then blurr them a little afterwards... the 'white' of the paper in both cases becomes the light. That is the basis for the old english method.. no white paint, use the paper for the 'white'. I also use the impressionism rule of 'no black paint'. Too many rules. I'm going to do a black and white painting just to flout the rules.

5x7.5" cold press, summer 1996