Monday, September 23, 2019

Tree on Benny Avenue, NDG, Montreal

I am really posting a lot of paintings lately- over the years I probably average about 32 posts, this year looks like I will tip 40 blogs- like, is that over the hill? Not all the posts are new paintings, I like to scan and show off the old collection of landscapes and abstracts partly because it helps me understand how far my skills have come along. I also hope that the people who read the blog can get some back story on me as an artist. This painting was just done yesterday on a beautiful September Sunday down near the train tracks on Benny Avenue. The colours of the bark really caught my eye, they were a mix of yellow ocher, orange and mossy green which contrasted perfectly with the turquoise roof of the school and the sky blue. It is hard to see in the scan but I managed to get an airplane-streak across the blue sky by daubing out a diagonal line when the paint was still wet. I used the same technique for the tree. The outline of the tree was made first, then the blue sky and turquoise roof was added on top making sure the washes were even. Then I daubed out the tree trunk so the paper showed again. When it dried, I laid down the bark colours and started layering the different washes. There is a healthy amount of 'Glasgow Green' in this one (A colour I bought in an art store in Glasgow it is a brilliant pea green) to give it that Autumn feeling. The foliage is composed of hundreds of small blobs of colour, including some thick windsor yellow that sits on top of the darker tones almost like a gauche.

8 x 10 " hot press (block) Water Colour. Sept. 2019

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