Fowl Future

Weirdo paintings are a lot of fun and you can't really be wrong about anything, its all from imagination. This one was done from doodles I did at work which were combined into a unified landscape design. Since I have been doing the doodleism style for so long, I started to make doodles specifically for future paintings. So I make lots of doodles of landscape elements and things that may fit together. It was not dated so I can only guess on the date, but the style looks like after the 2010 solution, when I changed the style to be more light and bright. The sky is pretty cool here, it is kind of a secondary landscape that doubles as a background. 

15 x 22" cold press, watercolour, 2010-2014?

Alhambra, Granda, Spain

Today Spain announced that the Alhambra is opening to tourists again after being closed for a long time due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That is good news for them, and for tourists in the area, I hope everyone enjoys and stays safe. This is a kind of open air museum/historical site once built by the Moors who ruled southern Spain for some time in antiquity. I spent most of the day there in 1998 in the midst of my European backpacking trip. This scene was backlit, I must have liked the way the door frame made a picture frame, and how the grass was growing on top. 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, 1998

Getting into the main complex, I found this scene in a tight courtyard with a reflecting pond and a duck. It was nerve racking because many tourists were walking around and I had to sit in my little camping chair in a corner while the security guard looked on. I didn't want to make a mess but I remember there being a little watercolour paint on the pristine white wall behind me when I left. Don't worry, it washes off! 5 x 7" hot press, watercolour, 1998

In the last painting I did on location here I found a nice view of the mountains and some of the structures. I even squeezed in some of the houses in the distance with remarkable detailing. As I look back I am impressed with how many earth tones I could get with what was a very limited palette. I also forgot how many kinds of papers I used on the trip. Before leaving I cut about 100 pieces of cold press, hot press, and this one, which is cold press but the denser grade. I actually ran out shortly after this location and had to buy some in Spain which was difficult. The paper I bought in Spain has since yellowed considerably it was probably 100 years old already.
5.5 x 9" cold press (300lbs), watercolour, 1998
 
These were not the only paintings I did here, two other I posted already, a Moorish door frame, and the curved amphitheater. There is one more of snow capped mountains in the distance but it is temporarily lost in my box of paintings.

Trenholm park, NDG rainy day

Could have been worse, I went out late in the afternoon and found a comfortable spot to sit under a tree to avoid the bad weather. This is the same park  where I painted the train tracks awhile ago. This view is at the front of the park which borders on Sherbrooke street and de Maisonneuve. It started spitting rain as I painted but generally held off, and then turned sunny all of a sudden. Part of the painting was done overcast, then I popped in a few shadows on the building when it was sunny. They used that garish orange on the window paneling which I can simulate using benzimida orange paint from DaVinci Company. The yellow flowers on the left were done with bismuth vanadate yellow another new colour I got this year, from Schmincke company. Painting in hot humid weather like this is extra challenging, nothing dries and the paint gets soft and gooey on the palette. Oh, and it poured rain on the way home, luckily I found a spot to wait it out.

5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, June 2020

Lemon Sunset, study #7

By the time I got home from picking mushrooms, the lemon sunset had already set. I guess dinner would have to wait, eating cold salad with mushrooms wasn't the end of the world. I stopped and made a painting of the apartment building that was on the way. Seeing though the glass of my breathing bubble made it hard to judge the colours so I took it off and set in down in front of me. The air was thin here but still breathable, it was the ultraviolet light reflected by mars that was the real problem. Painting fast I captured the spirit of the scene, and even included my breathing bubble in the picture. Hey it wasn't my best work but at least I would be home in time for dinner.

9 x 11 " watercolour paper, watercolour, June 2030

Halifax Harbour

On a conference in Halifax I managed to grind out one painting in the cold weather on the harbour. There was a wooden walkway that went all around, providing great views of the boats and water. All the algae, rust, and worn out wood really caught my attention, with a vast array of earth colours and textures to capture. This painting was a challenge due to the cold, its remarkable how much detail got packed in. Currently I am buying a lot of new paints to use, many of which are earth colours. It is interesting to look at this painting because all I had was burnt sienna by way of earth colour, yet I can see many examples of umbers, ochres, and sienas. By mixing aureolin yellow and other pigments I was able to simulate all the various earth colours without even knowing it. It makes me think, maybe I don't need to buy so many paints! My plan this year was to expand the number of paints, make the most of them, then decide which one were really good. I prefer to have a limited palette, maybe 12 paints max. 7.5 x 6" cold press, watercolour 2010.

Mile End, Montreal

Going back to when I lived in mile end, here are a few old paintings. The first one was undated but I think it was done around the same time I did the painting of Fairmount Street with a car. Looking north on Clarke street, you see one of the old industrial factories with a rusty water tower on top. With a limited palette I captured a whole range of earth colours and that dusty pink a triplex. The houses in that area have tons of character, many of them are duplex or triplex with the balconies and staircase on the outside. The posts in the foreground are the bike path markers, in yellow and green. 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, 2008 - 2010?

The second was dated, in fact, it may have been the last painting I did in Mile End before moving to NDG. I seem to remember being in the midst of packing. It is interesting that I was trying to paint the cars in these scenes, and even some hints of people. At the moment I am in the middle of doing the green line metro series (next up, Peel), and contemplating whether I should try to fit more people and cars in the scenes. I think the paper size has to be bigger to fit in the details, and clearly I need to practice drawing a bit more! 5.5 x 7.5" cold press, watercolour, 2014

Clarinet Study (Beyond the Musical Window)

One more memory, this time from 1991 high school art class. Its from the same sketchbook I am using for the green line metro station series, which has the main advantage of being light weight. I remember doing this drawing, and getting a pretty good mark on it. Combining organic elements with straight lines, chaos and structure, was a theme that I first felt in 1981, with my first drawing done at age 5. Believe it or not I remember doing that drawing, using a green triangle stencil to draw the shapes. When it got to the plant, I realized the stencil wasn't going to work so I free handed the spider plant leaves. That was exhilarating, I still remember the amazement I felt when the leaves of the plant suddenly existed on the paper. Fast forward ten years and I did this drawing, which had a similar type of design. Its one of  the reasons I like putting nature in my urban landscapes, the contrast of organic and structured is really cool.

8 x 11, coloured pencil and pencil, sketchbook, 1991

Oh, not to brag but here was the comment, I am not sure if this was written by Mr Clarke, since he is on facebook maybe he can recognize his handwriting. Mr. Philips was the other teacher. Anyways, I really appreciate the art lessons from highschool they really opened my mind up to the possibilities. 

Guy-Concordia Metro Station, green line, borough Ville-Marie

Hot off the press, these paintings and sketch were completed today in before the rain. In fact it was sunny hot and partly cloudy when I got to location. I captured the first scene with a sketch, followed by a painting. Unfortunately the scale of the doors were slightly off making this feel like Alice in wonderland, but the doors were indeed dwarfed by the massive windows and sea of yellow bricks. In this kind of design there is nowhere to hide, every line, every detail, every colour needs to work together. I would have passed on this, but there was a perfect little nook with shade to sit, and I knew that these down-town Montreal Stations were all going to be similar, like, walls with doors. Luckily, the mortar on the brick wall was a dark grey which made it easier, the trick is to do enough brick pattern to give the feel without over doing it.7 x 10" cold press (block), watercolour, June 2020.

Here is the sketch, the doors are better proportioned but a window was missing. If I combined the sketch and the painting it would be perfect. I don't really care about perfect though, the work stands on its own as a journey, an adventure. One day when I leave the city, I will look back on these and think... what the heck was I thinking? 8 x 11"sketch book, pencil, June 2020

Keeping up with my goal of three paintings and one sketch per station, this one is looking northwards towards the mountain, sitting under the overhang of the EV building which is part of Concordia University's down town campus. It was all about perspective here, I started with the outline of the overhang, then got the reflective shadowed wash down. I went for burnt sienna and indothrene blue with a touch of yellow ochre to get the glow (which is the sidewalk reflecting on the underside of the structure). I also painted the mirror-image of everything in the glass windows on the right. The rest of the painting was filled in briefly, I didn't want to spend much time on the bike racks so omitted a lot of bikes, not to mention the throngs of people walking. I was so focused on the technical things I forgot the actual metro sign! With a few blue brush strokes I tried to overlay it, but the background was already green (its at the end of the wall center right). 7 x 10" cold press (block), watercolour, June 2020.

This time I remembered to put the metro sign in, its the same scene as the last painting but sitting on the opposite corner. To avoid boring frontal-views, I was searching for perspectives and angles that were more interesting. I also wanted nature to be present, but that goal is increasingly difficult down town. In this painting, I got the reflection of some trees on the left windows. It was a tricky scene to do, lots of overlapping and integrated elements with rich greys, blacks and earth tones. The orange feature at the top was nearly pure iron oxide red... good choice Concordia University!
6.0 x 7.5 " (cold press 140lb arches, new size*) watercolour, June 2020

*Since I ran out of block paper I am switching over to 22 x30" arches cold press 140lb press, which I cut into 6 pieces of 8x10", and 4 pieces of 6 x 7.5". This way, both sizes have the same aspect ratio of 1.25, and there is no left over wasted paper.

Atwater Metro Station, green line, borough Ville-Marie

Into Ville-Marie the downtown core of Montreal I go! It's a location I have painted before, Cabot Square, a multi ethnic community hangout that boasts every culture on one corner. I hope it stays that way, they have nearly completed 3 or 4 giant condo-apartment buildings and the whole neighborhood is slowly gentrifying which means glass buildings and coffee shops. Montreal in general does a poor job protecting the neighborhoods from this effect, people who have lived in an area their whole life can get evicted, and shop owners cleared out and replaced with high rent types of businesses. Parc-Extension, Griffon town, Verdun, are all transforming, even my neighborhood of NDG has soaring property values and less accessible housing. Our mayor Valorie Plante has recognized this and is pushing to have affordable family housing, and affordable rent, as part of all development projects. The developers prefer small units to pack as many in, and to sell at highest price.

I didn't mean to write another opinionated blog, but painting in the city puts the social issues front and center. You wouldn't get the same impression working from photographs or google earth. Turns out I wasn't the only one with the idea to use google earth to make paintings, Liz Steel who is a professional watercolour artist and blogger, recently did a virtual painting trip to Italy and apparently had students 'with' her. I abandoned the idea after reading the google earth copyright section, they encourage using their resource for making artwork, but remind the artist that all materials are copyrighted by google or the person who uploaded it.

Okay... the painting in this blog shows one of the entrances to Atwater station, but the entrance is sealed shut! I saw half a dozen people try to get in while I was doing the painting. It was overcast, nearly raining, and the whole scene was pretty much monochrome except for the tree, flowers and a few other details. The tree ended up looking like Dream Tree, which was not intended, but pretty cool. For now I am trying to paint what I see, but at some stage I plan to use more interpretive styles as I get used to the new paints and mixes. 7 x 10" cold press, watercolour, June 2020

Going towards the corner (Atwater x Sherbrooke) this scene is looking westwards with the metro sign prominent, and the metro building just catching the left part of the design. I wanted to show the station 'buried' in the city. A bus is making its turn. I got the outline of the bus done while the light was red, then filled in the colours later by looking at another bus that was parked nearby. I omit most people from these paintings, here I just suggested a few on the sidewalk across the street. I may try putting more people in, but it plays havoc on a small painting like this. 7 x 10" cold press, watercolour, June 2020

The last painting on the location was the entrance on de Maisonneuve Boulevard which is integrated with Dawson College. The sign and station building which is separate from the college can be seen behind the construction barriers and tangle of construction signs. It was ironic that the metro sign pointed down, but the direction sign pointed right. Using artistic license I made the other signs point in all directions, and signed off in a rare orange PJD, bottom left. One of the passer-by's laughed and said I should put more orange in the painting. 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, June 2020

The next day, I returned to the location to make a sketch. There were a few elements from the second painting that I left out for simplicity, and wanted to capture. Also, I forgot my pencil on the first day. Pencil in hand, I sketched out the same scene minus the bus, getting in the fancy lamp post, more of the station, and better perspective on the background elements. I also took a digital photo of the scene. 8 x 10" pencil, sketchbook, June 2020

 

In August I returned to Atwater because on my many trips past it, I had noticed another entrance to the station that was quite different then the main entrances, it was in large Westmount office towers. The sign is reflected in the glass walls. I am sitting right next to a staircase going down into underground shopping and a metro entrance, not depicted. 6.5 x 7" cold press, watercolour. August 2020 

Palette Cleanser #6

I couldn't help doing on more post for the day just to break my May blogging record of 42 blogs. I never thought I could do so many, 42 in one month beats several years put together in the past. You could say I really hit the target! I used to think blogs had to be high quality and important but now I know better. Quantity over quality is basically the motto for the internet. Just kidding, I really do try to make these blogs well written, somewhat humorous, and packed with art tips. In some cases I am taking notes for myself so I remember particular aspects when I read the old posts. Like, I totally forgot that I used to use burnt sienna to make greens. This painting used a lot of iron oxide earth pigments including burnt sienna and some phthalo blue. It just needs James Bond pointing a gun in the middle of the circles.

9 x 11" watercolour paper, watercolour, June 2020

Parliament Buildings and Lilac trees, Ottawa

Looking back through the old paintings brings back some memories. This is a trip I took with Cilei, her sister Cilene and her partner Fritz. We toured around and I took the opportunity to make a few paintings. For some reason it was hard to find a good angle and there were a lot of toutists there, of course we are talking 4 years ago so no social distancing required!

The design idea here was to feature the lilacs and keep the parliament buildings in the background, but the foreground ended up being a little lost. I chickened out, there were actually dozens of people sitting and walking around that I may have included in the painting. The painting does a good job of capturing the memory, and the heat of the late Spring. I know it was spring because lilacs only blossom for a few weeks usually in May.

8 x 10" cold press, watercolour, 2016

Palette Cleanser #5

One more blog for the night, I've been working two jobs lately, professor and landscape painter. It is a little tiring at least the pay is good for one of them. I had a lot of phthalo green (PG7) left over from two companies Holbein and Windsor Newton, and have been trying to use it all. You see it in the snaking shape in the 'circuit board'. I was thinking of 'Inner Workings' when I did this which included an abstract circuit board. The rest of the colours are benzimida orange and various earth pigments. I have a bunch more of these, they are what Bruce MacEvoy called 'play paintings' on his website Handprint.com.

9 x 12" watercolour paper, watercolour, June 2020

Oscar Peterson Metro Station, green line, south west borough, Saint-Henri, Montreal

Oscar Peterson was a great Canadian pianist who was born in Montreal and helped define Jazz, and what it meant to be a black Jazz musician for a generation. He is a real unsung hero of Montreal and yet only a few memorials are present in the city, including the Oscar Peterson Hall on Concordia University's west campus (where I work!). For those of you who know which station lies between Charlevoix and Atwater, you know it is not called the Oscar Peterson Station. I've been reading about some of the controversy surrounding the actual namesake, and the move to change the name which goes back to the mid nineties and had had renewed calls for action. There is an article in the CBC today written by Sidhartha Banerjee talking about the issues, and a petition to call the station Oscar Peterson Station. Using the powers of my artistic license I call these paintings the Oscar Peterson station.

The first painting was of a bone-dry large area of grass, only the weeds and some little yellow flowers could survive and stay green. A now familiar grey port-o-let was situated prominently in the design of the picture. To the right is a side view of the station, and the construction barrier surrounding it. I left out the fence and the wood and other signs of construction, not wanting to repeat the construction barrier I painted at Jolicoeur. 8 x10" cold press, watercolour, June 2020

Sitting in one of the few places I could sit, I got this view of the same side of the station seen in the first painting but on a front angle. The rest of the station including the huge park I saw on google map satellite was completely blocked off for renovations. Gee, I picked the wrong summer to do a '27 stations of the green line metro' series. Like Robin Williams joked in 2006, 'you have a beautiful city here in Montreal...when its finished.' There were a lot of folks hanging out at this station, one fellow was singing Bob Marley songs and it sounded just like him. The musical legacy of Oscar Peterson belongs here. 
8 x10" cold press, watercolour, June 2020

To complete the trifecta I found one last nook to sit in, under a tree and between two converging sidewalks, and immediately saw this scene of a bunch of seagulls stalking around the rooftop of the station. They wouldn't stay still for a second so I tried my best to get their likeness. I have a feeling its not the last I will see of them. The concrete dried darker than I thought, it should be half a value step higher. A person was curious about what I was doing and asked me in French and I tried my best to give an answer in French. Even in English I'd have trouble explaining what I'm doing. 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, June 2020

Finally, a sketch I did, actually it was the first thing I did on location. In the painting I omitted the random poles that were in the lawn, and the seagulls which wouldn't stay still. They were all staring at me waiting to see if I had any food for them. The nearest one looked pretty angry. For the most part the first painting follows this drawing. 9 x 11" pencil, Sketchbook, June 2020

Charlevoix Metro Station, green line, Southwest borough, Verdun Day 2

A few things came together today to make these paintings possible, the weather finally cooled off and it was mostly overcast all afternoon, and I finally got through a 'mini mountain' of work related to graduate students and my research laboratory at the University. We are slowly opening up activity with abundant safety precautions and even more abundant paperwork. It occurred to me that my whole life has involved paper- writing papers, earning degrees (printed on paper), toilette paper, wrapping paper, paper airplanes, painting on paper! Did you know that real artists call paper and canvases, etc. 'surfaces'. Yeah you don't go into an art store and ask for paper, you ask for surfaces. Can I have a watercolour surface please? How about buy 3 get 1 free surfaces? I'm going to call my paints coulored-surface-coatings from now on and see what people think.

I wanted to go back to Charlevoix station for the charm and ambiance I found on Day 1, but also to paint the flowers and interesting plants. The yellow ones were some kind of brown-eyed susan, I used warm and middle-yellows for the petals and a variety of earth paints for the middle. The pale minty leaves of the plants were a highly neutralized and diluted turquoise, and the pink flowers were painted with pink. Magenta actually. It was a tricky painting to execute, after making an outline in paint, I filled in most of the dirt with raw umber, then worked through the coloured plants and grey neutral surrounding sidewalk and window. I learned my lesson at Angrignon station, put the dark neutrals first, put the bright colours last. The striped thing in the top right was the mailbox seen in the Day 1 painting. 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, June 2020

Here is the sketch from the location made just before the painting. The purpose of the sketch was to get all the lines and shapes of the flowers and plants correct, I also threw in my knee, sketchbook, hand, and pencil along with a drawing of my sketch book page. Like, a picture in picture! When I did the painting I left out these details and mostly tried to get the colours and values correct. 9 x 11" pencil, sketchbook, June 2020

I went on to the next station after this, will post soon. 

Palette cleanser #3

One more palette cleanser, I do these paintings for fun and to make good use of the new colours I got recently. Yes I am up to 35 tubes of paint. It's also important to be creative since the latest projects I took on, the World Inspired Landscapes, and the The 27 stations of the green line metro, both require a lot of planning and adhering to the subject matter. Although world inspired gives me a bit more leeway. I kind of enjoy the results of these paintings, although I ripped one up the other day (sorry Mom). They are on a decent watercolour paper, at least acid free and good manufacturer Fabriano. The oranges are not really this bright, for some reason the scanner interprets orange and burnt sienna (a kind of orange) as being very intense. I may have to dial it down a bit just to be more internet friendly. It's funny, but I am learning about which of my watercolours are good for the internet, and which are not so good. Modern information for the modern painter.

9 x 12" watercolour paper, watercolour, June 2020

Charlevoix Metro Station, green line, Southwest borough, Verdun Day 1

I had just completed the work at Lasalle Station, and I had to decide if I would go for the next station with the humidex soaring. (I'm not the kind of person who was built for heat!) I had checked google satellite map and saw the overhead of Charlevoix station it looked small with two little parks next to it. One park was private, the other one, you see in the painting is part of the station. The station as it is, looks a little like a prison block surrounded by a tall barbed fence so I emphasized the path, the tree, and the nice garden to the right to create an otherwise pleasant scene. People there were looking on with curiosity, and one fellow using his phone on the path shouted over and asked if he was in my way! Like, he was offering to move if he was in my way. Sometime when I was doing this painting it occurred to me that this whole project was right. Since a few times I wondered why I was hauling my bike all over Verdun at 6AM but since the beginning I wanted people to see an artist painting their neighborhood. As I write this blog, it also occurred to me that one day I would like to show these paintings in the neighborhood I think that would be cool. Like the Greatful Dead sang in Ripple, 'Let there be songs to fill the air'. 8 x10" cold press, watercolour, June 2020

There wasn't much to pick from on this location so I went for a side view where I could sit in the shade, I was tucked in away from the sidewalk in front of a store that was closed due to the lockdown, I could just see the scene between a taxi and a minivan. (That was a sentence I never thought I would write before). In a painting like this, that relies mostly on architecture, I wanted to pull out a few feature elements, mostly the nice flowers in the garden box which were a mix of brown eyed susans, some kind of magenta flowers, and some white-leaved plants that I wasn't able to capture very well. The rest of the elements complete the scene, and the reflection in the large windows gives it some depth. At this point I waved the flag and headed home, it was pushing 10AM with humidex up around 35. I might swing by this location one more time for a third painting and a sketch, I would like to try getting the interesting plants. Indeed, I went back and posted a day 2 Charlevoix blog in this link.

8 x10" cold press, watercolour, June 2020    

Lasalle Metro Station, green line, Southwest borough, Verdun

Next stop, Lasalle! Well not exactly, the Lasalle metro station is confusingly located in Verdun because of the street called Lasalle. He was a popular explorer who had many things named after him, I suppose that makes this painting called the Lasalle Latrine? The port-o-lets are there for people who stay outside a lot of the day and need to go somewhere. Only a few metro stations have actual toilette inside, and those that do put them behind the turnstile. I am noticing these port-o-lets as a feature of several stations. Another common feature is orange, here it provides the colour of a major architectural element that separates the two entrances (even though the two entrances go into the same room). This was done very early, I got to location by about 6:15 AM and the sun was just barely over the tree line, a halo of light was shining down on the port-o-let and creating an interesting orange highlight on the building. The metro sign and most of the other elements except for the bus were in shadow.

Reflections are tough to paint, lately I have been really trying to get them in there. The reflection is a warped, darkened, tinted, and transparent version of the real thing, which merges with whatever is behind the glass. In this example, the metro sign and port-o-let were visible on an angle in the reflection of the door and glass over the door. Another big challenge was getting that orange right- it seemed to change every time I looked at it, maybe as the sun was rising the tint was changing. It was orange, but had an almost purple or magenta shimmer to it. I can 'feel colours' rather than see them, so I know what the feeling was but can neither describe it, or accurately capture it with paint. This is closer that I got to the correct orange though, it gives the impression of that 1970's orange sensibility. 8 x 10" cold press, watercolour, June 2020

As I was writing this blog I forgot there were three more things to share! Guess it will be a long one. I've been editing a PhD thesis all day so my brain is rotten and boiled by 40 humidex and no air conditioner. I'm also still adjusting to the early rising. This painting was one of those 'gut check' paintings, I knew the design elements would be strong but the values had to be bang on for it to work. I must have got about 3/4 finished and it looked bad- the tree was not there yet and the concrete looked off. I knew it would work though and once the yellow-black-green was in, and the detail lines went on the brick and interlocking bricks, the whole thing came together. You can see the orange triangle in front of the bus, it is the other side of the element in the first painting. 8 x 10" cold press, watercolour, June 2020

I shifted over to the back of the station hoping to find another gem like the 'pigeon castle'  at de l'Eglise, but the scene was rather less interesting. I liked the shadow colour, a lilac shade on top of the toasty warm concrete. I completed the scene with an orange brick wall and the yellow posts. 5 x7" cold press, watercolour, June 2020

Another view, from the front, shows the strange shape of this station, like a cereal box held up by an orange triangle. I like how the grooves in the concrete run perpendicular to the architectural lines. The day before at de l'Eglise I was not totally satisfied with the quality of the paintings because I rushed them out to beat the heat. This time, I got up earlier, and took my time to get it right. I was pleased with the different angles and shapes created by the Lasalle station. This is right next to Cilei's sister's apartment too, if they got up earlier they may have seen me!
8 x10" pencil, sketch book, June 2020

De l'Eglise Metro Station, green line, Southwest borough , Verdun

Last weekend I got up early Saturday and Sunday to complete my tour of the Southwest borough's metro stations in Lasalle and Verdun. Considering how early it was there was a surprising amount of noise, starting with a sidewalk cleaning truck that had the decibel level of a helicopter, then a street washing truck, then a construction project. I brought earplugs as usual when I'm out in the city but it still created a lot of anxiety. The station is very narrow due to problems they had during construction from the unstable ground underneath, so the architect stacked up the elements like stools under a table. This view gives the appearance of a castle, my notes said 'concrete castle'. The shadow from the sign really grabbed my attention, and the morning shadows on the sidewalk. 8 x10" cold press (block) watercolour, June 2020

The next paining was a frontal view, in fact, the seating options were limited on this dense corner on Wellington Street so I settled for a more conventional angle here. Superimposing the tree and the cylinder (which had the name of the station and some adverts or COVID-19 information) was a challenge against the jigsaw puzzle of a background. The concrete colour was tricky too, in the changing light its tone was getting warmer, so I did a thin wash of isoindolone yellow, as seen in the recent palette clean #2 blog where that colour was used at near full strength.8 x10" cold press (block) watercolour, June 2020

Hoping to find a interesting angle, I investigated the back of the station which was a wide laneway, and found this interesting scene of the backlit walls and a metal structure meant to keep people from climbing onto the roof. The morning sun was striking the background tree and building. At the last moment a pigeon showed up, if you look carefully you will find it! By the now the sun was almost completely up and I was sitting in full frontal sunlight. It was time to go home! Maybe I can call this one 'pigeon's concrete castle' 5 x7" cold press, watercolour, June 2020

After the first painting I also did a pencil sketch of the main architectural elements. There are about 5 pieces as seen from the side view. I liked how the two metro signs (with the down arrow in a circle) were visible at different angles. I just noticed the sketch says Charlevoix in the title, but it was definitely de l'Eglise. Guess my brain was not working so well at 6 AM! 8 x 10" pencil, sketchbook.

These works are part of
'The 27 stations of the green line metro, Montreal' series. I completed Lasalle and Charlevoix stations on Sunday and will post about them this week.

Palette Cleanser #2

Cleaning the palette keeps things fresh for the next painting. Since I have been painting a lot of landscapes lately the palette has been in need of it, but I didn't want to waste the paint so I use it on the cheap (acid free) watercolour paper pad. The point is to just let the creativity flow. If the next colour doesn't match I start a new sheet, and finish it next time. The main colour here in the background is isoindolone yellow, PY110, a yellow-orange pigment I got from Schmincke company that is very useful as a mixer and a glaze. It tends to et very dirty though, and has a slightly tacky consistency in the heat. It is the higher chroma and value version of the umbers or siennas.
9 x 12" acid free paper, watercolour, 2020

Bolton and London Ontario

Going through the old painting collection I found this Bolton scene of the small valley behind my Parents house on the north hill. The painting was done from a photograph as opposed to on location, which was more common for me to do in the mid nineties. I remember doing this painting because I had been reading Zoltan Szabo's book called 'Watercolour Techniques' and he recommended a few colour combinations. I asked Mom to pick up some of them at the art store and sure enough they had the colours which included burnt sienna, antwerp blue, sepia, and a rose coloured paint. It felt remarkable to use these colours, so bright and powerful. Zoltan Szabo's advice on using french ultramarine with burnt sienna would be something I used for the next 20 years of painting. Antwerp blue, a version of PB27 with poor lightfastness, and sepia a mix of raw umber and carbon black, were not to my liking, very dark and staining so I made less use of them. The rose paint was also very useful, I continued to have rose paints in my palette. 

Bolton Valley  8 x 10" 300lb cold press, watercolour 1993 (No. 0038)

As I was going back and forth to London Ontario for my undergraduate degree at Western University, and making lots of paintings there. This scene was done on location, out in the cold, during the thaw. I made good use of the burnt sienna, along with neutralizing complement french ultramarine. It is a very monochrome painting but still full of light and energy. It was always one of my favorites from that era.The data was written on the back, along with a title 'The break up'. Other paintings of the Thames river include Fall Colours, and a view of University College.

The Breakup, 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour 1997

Azerbaijan, World Inspired Landscapes

Soon people will start travelling more as the Province relaxes the advisories related to the COVID-19 lockdown. We all hope it is gone for good but this type of virus has been around since the beginning of time, and it will be around forever in some capacity hopefully not as bad as this one. I expect that some public behaviours, and the way the health care system responds to infectious diseases will be changed. Infectious diseases used to be the number one cause of death until heart disease, stroke, and cancer overtook it, at least in developed countries. In fact, more people have died of those other causes than COVID-19 infection in the past six months, but we don't talk at all about reducing heart disease, stroke and cancer. It is odd that way, even HIV/AIDS kills far more people, around 20 million per year, and malaria, but they are seldom discussed or worried about in society

Oh yeah, this blog was supposed to be about the latest 'World Inspired Landscape', featuring Azerbaijan a small country in Eurasia on the Caspian sea and surrounded by several countries including Armenia which was recently featured in Armenia, World Inspired Landscape featuring The Stoneground Paint Co. There was a lot of imagery on Azerbaijan available on the internet, I used many sources and finally created this design from memory and impressions, it is totally original. When the library reopens for borrowing, I want to add book sources but for now I had to rely on internet for my research. Azerbaijan is famous for 'mud volcanoes' which are small to large eruptions of mud that create swirls and textures across the flat lands, they dry and crack in the sun. The painting shows a kind of Mars or Moon-scape using a variety of iron oxide paints and some bloodstone genuine. For contrast, I included a lush temparate scene with cool water and rolling hills in the distance which signifies the abrupt transitions in landscape that I observed in the imagery of Azerbaijan.

8 x 10" cold press (cut from Arches 22x30), watercolour, 2020

Benny Sports Complex, NDG, Montreal

As the heat wave continues I am waking up earlier and earlier to take advantage of the slightly cooler weather in the morning. This scene was done yesterday very early morning at the Benny Sports Complex, which is set to open partially on this coming Monday. The brick is a most interesting shade, a dark neutral magenta which can be captured with venetian red, some pink paint (PR122), and a touch of grey (dilute carbon black). The value was so low but I had to keep it looking bright since it was in direct sun. To complete the illusion, the shadows were painted over top which were even darker and gave the main bricks a luminous glow.

This month I have been rethinking how to paint shadows. Some shadows work fine the way I used to do it, like concrete which takes a blue-violet shadow. But the trees, I am using a dark lime yellow, or neutral grey-green which makes it look a lot more authentic and luminous, like here with the tree notice how intense the shadows are. The grass shadow is actually closer to an olive green or brown. The brick shadow is a blackened version of the brick colour. It will take some more practice to learn how to see the correct colour, and then capture the correct colour which are two different things. In the past, I didn't know what colour I was seeing, although I could capture shadows pretty well using instinct. The paintings have reached a whole new level of light and shadow, I really feel the intensity of the landscape in these small studies.

5 x 7" cold press (cut pieces from 22 x 30" arches),  watercolour, June 2020

Cultural Center, NDG, Montreal

I had a long day working from the home office/kitchen today trying to solve a lot of problems related to getting the research laboratory restarted, and potential new graduate students. With the sun setting, I found a spot to sit behind the NDG cultural center, it is almost the same scene as Spring Leaf Buds, or the more centered view of Cultural Center, but I'm sitting on the opposite side. The sun was coming in on a sharp angle, causing yellow light to reflect off the alternating white and red panels. On the shadow side colours were muted and more dark or bluish. The greens of the garden had golden green highlights.

When I looked at this scene before painting it, I was not confident that I could do it because the building is not a simple square, the sidewalk slopes downwards from the road, and the majority of the colours here were complex tones and tints. It was a challenging perspective. I had to paint more so with 'my mind' than 'my heart', that is, I thought a lot about what the colours were supposed to be, not what I though they were. It is hard to describe, but when lighting conditions are strange, your visual system plays tricks on you. I really wanted to get the sparkling highlight, a strong glare that you could hardly look at directly, which was located on the top right of the structure. The last thing I did was a yellow-orange glaze to give the sunset-feel on the side of the building and sidewalk.

7 x 10" rough press (last piece from the block), watercolour, June 2020

Verdun Metro Station, green line, southwest borough, Verdun

Verdun was a working class neighborhood that had a big expansion in the post war era. Since then it has slowly gentrified, that is, more condos, restaurants, new developments. To my eye it seems to be always under construction. At least the metro station was not surrounded by barriers like the previous station Jolicoeur that I painted. The first view was looking eastward along Rue de Verdun with the station framing the left part of the painting, and a depanneur in the background. If you didn't know better you would assume the depanneur was the station! As usual bike racks are tough to paint, but I had confidence from Amsterdam bike racks, a painting done of hundreds of bikes. I did the Verdun set last weekend when I had more time for painting. 7 x 10" cold press, watercolour, June 2020

The next view was looking at the back of the building at a sealed off door that was badly marked up and dirty. I studied the scaffolding design in more detail here, it is a double layered nest of tetrahedrons. Sitting up on a grass embankment, I could see my own reflection in the left window and captured it in the painting, but it wasn't as detailed as this self portrait. Next to me there was a large air vent and I could here the metro cars underneath stopping, starting, and whizzing by. 5 x 6.5" cold press, watercolour, June 2020

Time for one more painting, I wanted something natural, and showing off more of the large park behind the station. The big curved interlocking brick walkway made for interesting shapes and curves in the foreground. An empty fountain provided a splash of blue from its tile-work. I really like the colour register of these three paintings, they are black, blue, green, dusty rose, with splashes of brown. It was neat to compare these three to the previous three paintings from Jolicoeur station which have a totally different vibe- more bright, black purple orange green and contrast. 7 x 10" cold press, watercolour, June 2020

I made two sketches, the first one is looking across Verdun street at the secondary entrance to the station  (most stations have 2, or even up to 4 or more entrances). There were interesting reflections in the dark glass, and great contrasts with the tree and neighboring brick buildings. 8 x 10" pencil, sketch book, June 2020

And this one, which was a preliminary sketch done for the painting. The composition was inspired by a painting I did at Beaver Lake awhile ago. Hiroshige and Vincent Van Gogh used this kind of composition, where the walkway occupies half or more of the design, making the viewer feel like they are walking down the path. It is a very immersive element, you always want the viewer to feel like they belong in the landscape and the visual information will make them feel that way. In pandemic blues series I cut off the visual spaces to create tension of being locked up, in this series, it is important for the viewer to feel like they are walking up to the station enjoying a nice day.

 8 x 10" pencil, sketch book, June 2020