Cavendish Blvd Overpass, NDG

Depending on the time of year the colours can really change, for example the grass goes from a beige-light green to a bright green as spring becomes summer. In this painting the grass across the boulevard was in full sun and was already turning green, while the grass just in front of me is a neglected corner beside an overpass ramp. I sat there to avoid people, I was a full 5 meters from the sidewalk (and people were still walking by and gawking in my direction). The small blue blob at the very bottom of the painting is the shadow of my head and baseball cap, the sun was directly behind me by the time I finished the painting.

Another unique colour is 'Montreal Orange', the colour of a construction cone. Here, I used 'ferrari red' and some bright yellow paint to make the cone, and a similar mix with more yellow to make the other sign with the stripes. One reason I did this painting was to feature green porphyry, a special edition paint made from crushed stone. In the last post I used lapis lazuli for the shadowed side of a warehouse, here I used green porphyry to create that beige-green you see in the foreground grass. There is a bit of synthetic green dabbed in to show the new grass just starting to grow. There are several tulip beds in this area, so I will return soon. It is a pandemic-friendly (is there such a thing?) location to paint because there are several out of the way places to put my seat. It is the Fleet St. overpass.

5 x7" rough press, watercolour, April 2020