Chateau Frontenac, Quebec City (Summer)

Here is an older painting I did back in the summer of 2013 sitting on the promenade behind the Chateau Frontenac, looking up. At the time this painting seemed like a total disaster but now that I look at it, it actually worked out pretty well, at least, I get the sense of what it felt like to be there. Capturing this much detail seemed impossible on a small piece of paper using brushes, but I tried. I like how the bricks are a warmer red in the circular tower in the foreground.

Recently I have been studying the Japanese Ukiyo-e artists who made drawings in the 19^th century. Their drawings and accompanying colour schemes were  converted into woodblock prints by a team of craftsmen and then sold to residents and tourists of Eto. What amazes me is just how much detail they put into relatively small pictures. Elaborate Kimono fabrics, signs, interiors of shops, leaves, trees, faces... they could cram hundreds of people into a 25 x 35 cm picture plane. Of course they were using tiny brushes to do the drawing and had 50 years of experience, and a professional woodblock cutter would then make the plates. Maybe I need to up my game in the planning and detail department!


7.5 x 11" cold press, watercolour, July 2013

Quebec City View of Edifice Price Building

The weather in Quebec City was extremely cold and windy, snow was falling and piling up everywhere, including this staircase seen out of our window. I made this painting from the vantage point of the bed and breakfast room where it was a balmy 20 Celsius, facing southwards towards the Chateau Frontenac. I thought the building in the background was in fact the Chateau Frontenac but later on realized it was the Edifice Price Building. It seemed funny to name a painting "View of.."
when you can hardly see the object in question. There was heavy snowfall covering the whole scene but I couldn't easily capture that effect in one sitting- paint dries especially slow indoors making such details difficult.

Each decade I try to shift gears a little with my art hobby. At the outset of this decade (it is 2020 now) the theme seems to be 'planning'. For example, this small watercolour painting is accompanied by a pencil sketch with notes on the location, effects, colouring, and composition. There are also several photographs from this vantage point, taken from inside and from outside on the small balcony. I had to crawl through a window to get on the balcony, that was the only way to get there, it was more like a door-window. With all of that information I should be able to produce a larger size work of the same scene.

5 x 7 " cold press, watercolour, December 31^st 2019