Lac des Deux Montagnes, Auberge Willow Place Inn

This is a view down the Lac des Deux Montagne, sitting in the garden of the Auberge Willow Place Inn restaurant where people go to hang out on the best patio in town. Cilei and her sister and boyfriend were chilling out on the patio having a cold one while I was sitting down on a small and uncomfortable rock among the reeds doing this scene. We had visited the National Gallery in Ottawa the day before and the memory of Monet and colleagues was fresh in my mind when I took on this painting. The composition was meant to show off the water as much a possible, with a Lauren-Harris kind of background with a church steeple and rolling mountains. The water ripples are modeled after Monet's brilliant brush stokes, and the directional effect of the waves was all part of the illusion. At the bottom I put in the little reeds and weeds for a splash of colour and to maintain the sense of depth in the picture.

8 x11" (20 x 28cm), cold press watercolour , May 2016


I then turned by brushes to the patio itself... here was an energetic and lively scene bathed in hot sun and good cheer. Loud voices and music, all there mixing with the historic old building and brilliant sun-brellas.The trick here was to put most effort into the background and supporting elements of the picture, namely the building and the lawn in front. The focal point: umbrellas, people and seats and tables were all done rather quickly to maintain a sense of energy and vibrancy. Parts of the central section are actually just blank spots left to create negative tension. Note that the feeling of scene should match the brush strokes and colour choices. In the top painting of the lake, it is meant to be calm, serene, with a mild breeze...so the colours are neutral and the brush strokes are solid and flowing. The patio painting on the other hand is dynamic, contrasting colours, and lots of jagged, unfinished lines that all come together to make the energetic feeling of a patio party.

To note, both are B sides done on the back of the old flower grid thing I tried to do ten years ago.

8 x11" (20 x 28cm), cold press watercolour , May 2016

The Clown Fish

There was a story in the news about a group of divers who went into a cave and then two of them got stuck near the bottom. It was kind of sad and tragic. When I went to make this doodleism painting that idea was still fresh, and influenced the design here which shows a watery-body full of fish and aquatic creatures, with a low lying ceiling of rocks over it like a cave. A little face appears at the bottom in a window, reminiscent of the original lemon sunset painting.

Creating the eerie glow on the rock overhang involved several layers of wet-in-wet applications. I start with a thin layer of clean water, then drop in some medium-wet peach colour, let it dry. Do the same a few times using increasingly darker tones, making smaller and smaller washes to get the shadow effect. Then put in a few tiny brushstrokes of dark. To finish the effect 'scrape' on some darks to create texture.. this is done with a fairly dry brush of paint, used on a steep angle, almost sideways.

7 x 11 " (17.5 x 28 cm)