Meldrum Movers, NDG, Montreal

Today was the first time I attempted an outdoor painting this year, in fact this decade. It was en plein air as they say en français! This scene is at the end of our street, Walkley which can be seen to the bottom left, at the cross with Sherbrooke, which would be just at the bottom of this scene. I was sitting on the other side of the street looking due north west. Meldrum movers has been there forever, they have a beautiful old building with a large, rather gaudy sign on top that proclaims Meldrum, Allied Vans, Entrepot. At night it lights up in neon, that will have to be the next challenge.

In the palette today I had some new pigments and some old ones, including quinacridone red (PR209), Sennelier yellow (PY154), winsor green (PG7), pthalo blue (PB15:3), violet (PV19), and burnt sienna (PR101). The first five on that list a very strong staining pigments that have bright transparent qualities. Burnt sienna on the other hand is a thick brown 'muddy' pigment. The colours in this painting were entirely based on burnt sienna, and I used the other ones to tint it one way or the other. It was a new way of mixing colours and I think it worked well enough. The biggest problem was at +5 C my hands were getting cold!

5 x 7 " cold press (Fabriano block), watercolour, March 2020