House and Telephone Pole, London Ontario

Most landscape scenes have many elements that an artist can choose to keep or omit. When painting on location with small formats like this one, you have to omit some things just to be able to finish it and fit everything on the paper. Despite the size and time limitations, I managed to fit quite a bit into this painting- the houses in the background have convincing textures and windows, the trees nicely abbreviated, the fences and telephone pole complete with wires are depicted in the foreground. What caught my eye here was the interesting contrast between the rich violet shadow of the house's facade, and the dark ultramarine paint on the window frames and trim.

Based on the picture this looks like spring, but I really can't remember when or what year I painted this. I have a vague awareness that this was very late in the London, Ontario paintings, it could have even been one of the last ones I did there from that era. I went to Western University and lived there from 1994 until 2004. During this time I painted landscapes from about 1996 until the time I left. Being young and bold I also painted all seasons including winter!

5 x 7" hot press watercolour, 2001-2004?

CN Tower, Rainy Day, Toronto

When it rains, watercolour painting becomes very challenging! I can see the raindrops in this painting, they landed when the paint was wet and created little snowflake effects. This scene was done in downtown Toronto, I am not even sure when exactly, but I recall painting about half a dozen paintings around the Spadina and U of T campus area.  There is an amazing amount of detail in such a small picture, all the overhead tram car wires, the tracks, window sills, leaves, even a red sign on the post. And oh yeah, the CN tower is hidden in the background!

The perspective lines in this painting are surprisingly good considering I did not do any preparatory work and used no pencil drawing underneath. I read a book recently from the library, it was called "Watercolor Secrets" by Robin Berry. She talked a lot about preparatory work and using photographs as source material. It made me think, if I had taken a photo of this scene maybe in the studio I could have merged this small study with a larger more accomplished work. I find landscape painting in a studio to be boring- it is hard to capture the feel you had when the tram car was rumbling by, the people were looking over your shoulder, and the rain started coming down.

5 x 7" cold press watercolour, Early 2000

Sea Bird, Florida, USA

This painting depicts a kind of sea bird living on the Florida coast. It looks like a heron or egret. Animals are always difficult to paint on location since they tend to move away. In this case it must have stood still long enough to capture the colour, shape and texture of the feathers. The rest of the painting depicts some characteristic stormy weather and choppy water of what is probably Sarasota bay.

I recently borrowed a book on Japanese wood block prints called One Hundred Famous Views of Edo which was begun by the famous print artist Hiroshige in the 19th century. Many of the French impressionist painters, and Van Gogh, were familiar with those types of prints and even collected them. When  I did this painting I wasn't really aware of Japanese prints, it just stuck me that there were a few similarities with the vertical picture format and the unusual foreground composition. One could say this painting has a birds eye view.

5 x 7 " cold press 2002?

NDG, Tennis Court in Winter

Perspective matters when painting landscapes. I recently got a book on perspective from the cultural center library and started to read about all the different kind of perspective. In fact, this painting was done earlier this year at the end of Winter in Parc Somerled looking at the tennis courts that were thawing out. I used a trick to get the perspective right on the fence and trees and walkway: I held up the painting in front of the scene and made small marks on the edge of the painting to know where the lines would cross. Notice the top left of the fence behind the trees intersects with the edge of the painting around the middle, whereas the top right of the fence intersects near the top of the painting. So the fence is on a shifting diagonal. The book recommended the same trick so I felt smart that I had already figured it out on my own! But the book has a ton of information to learn, it is by Matthew Brehm who is also a watercolour landscape painter, it is called Painting Perspective, How to See it and How to Apply it.

7 x 10" hot press (block).  2019

Mailbox, University of Western Ontario, London Ontario

London Ontario has plenty of interesting landscapes to paint...I just had some trouble finding them! But no matter where I was, something caught my eye. In this case it was the back side of a mailbox, with the University of Western Ontario entrance structure in the background. I was actually sitting within the campus looking outwards towards Richmond Street (seen cutting across the scene behind the entrance structure). The mailbox was a simple geometric shape with interesting variations on red-orange. I like the foliage details, there is a lot of variety in the different greens. Compare the rich emeralds of the manicured campus lawn to the rugged yellow-green of the wild growth in the background. The shadow of a tree is suggested on the right middle.

I was not big on putting dates on the paintings back then, so I can only assume this was done in the early 00's just before I left for Montreal. I can sort of tell based on the ambition and skill level it took to accomplish this, but it also has a rough finish to it, so that puts it around that date. 

5x7 " Cold press, 2001-2003 ?

St. Mary's, Ontario, Train Bridge

Near London Ontario, there are several small towns such as Strathroy, Stratford, and St. Mary's. In St. Mary's there is a prominent train bridge that goes over the river valley towards the north. It is held up by massive stone pillars cut from that pale-rose stone that you can see throughout this town and others that are near the stone quarry. I was down in the valley and the sun was going down when I did this painting, it was probably the last one I did in St. Mary's. There are several others I did on the trip depicting houses bridges and rural scenes in the town. I accidentally left my thumb print in the sky in the upper left of the picture!

Cold press, 5 x 7" Watercolour, (some time between 2001 - 2003?)

Lachine Canal

Going west along the bike path from the bridge that connects Ville St. Pierre to Upper Lachine (Pont Lafleur) there is a small train bridge, maybe its the one connected to Station Du Canal? I am just looking at google map now to find out the street names. I chose this angle to show off the brick work under the bridge, the interesting perspective, and the cool light and shadows on the water. Trying to capture the spirit of Van Gogh, I overlaid lively brushwork giving each section a unique feel, and made good use of yellow and green. This kind of viewpoint was made popular by Monet with his painting "The Railroad Bridge at Argenteuil" which was done at a time that railways were spreading all over Europe, and the cost of train tickets was more accessible to the middle class making it possible for artists to visit the country side. That is a big reason Van Gogh was able to make his formative trip to Arles. I did another Monet-inspired train bridge once, years ago, on my train trip to St. Mary's, I will make a blog of that one too.

This painting is very small, it would be considered a sketch by most standards. Watercolour paintings are inherently smaller than oil paintings, the maximum size of watercolour paper is only 22 x 30" compared to standard canvas size which is more like 36 x 48" and commonly even bigger. I bought a new block (where the sheets are loosely fastened together), it was made by Fabriano- the product was Artistico extra white rough press, 140lbs. It cost a lot as I recall, but so far I am satisfied with the quality and performance. The rough surface was perfect for this rugged train bridge!

5 x 7 " (12.5 x 18 cm) rough press, watercolour, October 2019