Sunflowers, NDG, Montreal

Here is a small painting I did of a large sunflower growing in one of the community garden boxes on Somerled Avenue near Prince of Wales. I exaggerated the proportions to make it look like more of a close up, in fact, I was sitting all the way across the street since there was no way to sit closer. In the background is the Metro grocery store, but I put windows on it so that it looked more like a building. That is called artistic license! This is on 140lb hot press for a change ( I usually use cold press). The conditions were extremely humid so the paint wasn't drying fast, which created the blurred effect. I kind of like that, it draws even more attention to the main sunflower at the top. I wanted to paint these flowers to practice!

5.5 x 7.5" hot press, Watercolour. Aug 2018

Ile de La Réunion

Here are a few paintings from my trip to Ile de La Réunion a small island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. The first two are on the top of the old volvanic ridge that forms part of St. Denis, a city on the north of the island. It is quite built up there, in fact the painting of the tree was done next to a large grocery store, that fence in the background is the parking lot. The one with the road is just in the suburbs, you wouldn't believe how good the view is from some of these houses. I emphasized the light and colour by using plenty of bright yellow.The last painting here is the pink flower growing on the side of the road that leads up the side of the old volcano. In the background you see the Indian ocean. It wasn't very safe there due to all the cars and the possibility of falling rocks. That's why they call it intense island I guess! 2011 Watercolour.