Montreal Neurological Institute (Journey Southward)

The most common type of commission painting is a painting of a pet, a family member, an old house, or a vacation photo. In this case the project was to depict a transition of a colleague from one University (McGill) to another in the US. The painting has scenic elements from Montreal in the top left, the Institute in the central portion, and a symbol of the family going for a hike in the foreground. The tree colours were a bit of an embellishment to make the feeling of a fall scene. Unfortunately the colours are a little washed out in the photo of the  painting because I had to take it inside, using conventional lights instead of taking the photo outdoors in the full sunlight as I would normally.

This painting was extensively planned. For every hour of actual painting I spent about 2 hours planning, for a total of around 20 hours. This included meeting with the client and working with online resources to get the proper imagery. There was also several sketches and a preliminary mockup to work out the final design and colours. In the end it came out pretty much the way I had hoped. The painting was framed and given to the colleague at the end of a conference with a large audience. I gave a little speech and explained the work. People had been complaining about the weather and the relatively gloomy fall we had, so I made a quick joke about artistic license and how there was no rain in the painting.

22 x 15" cold press watercolour. October-November 2016

The Shadow Fisher

When you need to go fishing an old legend says that you need to lean over the water to cast a shadow and the fish will congregate there for easy pickings. That might work for minnow fishing but probably not for big ocean fishing. This painting was based on a doodle done a while ago, it depicts an abstract character fishing for ideas. I liked the name shadow fisher because it was like somebody fishing for shadows and that seemed impossible.

Painting shadows is actually ideal for watercolour as compared to other types of paint since the watercolour paint tends to blend into the background and it makes for nice translucent layers. Here I made the shadows for the trees using wet-in-wet techniques, then when that was just a bit dry I added the second layer. I used plenty of sky-blue to get that shimmering effect on the shadows. Also made the share line and waves a bit darker where the shadow fell.

8 x 10" (20.5 x 26 cm) cold press watercolour, October 2016.