This palette cleanser was inspired by the group of seven! Before going out to paint today I flipped through my Group of Seven coffee table book, and saw a snow scene by A.J. Casson and was amazed by the variations in pastel blue and purples, and how it contrasted against the dark sap green, and glowing yellow light. I tried to copy the colours here, using an abstraction of organic shapes.
9 x 12" watercolour paper, watercolour, August 2020
Here is a sketch of the old stone house that I did prior to the painting. The roof line was at the exact half way mark of the height, and the width was one and a half the height. The main window and door was centered, and the flanking ones were halfway from center to the edge. Getting the proportions right is important when doing buildings, the rest of the details just have to be the right size, colour, value, and texture. No problem. 8 x 11" sketch book, pencil, August 2020
I have a plan to try and recreate the Robertson landscape, so I did a side view looking east. It is more colourful and filled with light, and of course there is no river embankment. Next chance I get I'll do a river embankment scene, then combine it with this scene. I used a simpler technique on this one as compared to the first one, I put down the warm beige of the wall completely, let it dry, then overlaid the brick. In this way I can not create the lighter tones stones and the coloured stones, but it creates a very similar effect. 5 x 7" hot press, watercolour, August 2020 Verdun 8
As part of the park development in Verdun they opened a beach recently. The foreground here just shows some of the landscaping and a piece of the sidewalk leading to the beach. The beach itself is not visible from this vantage point. Entering the beach required going though a checkpoint where they made sure people were not with COVID before going in, and getting hand sanitizer. In the background is Nun's Island, with a few of the condo buildings. To get that middle green, the cool grey-green across the river, I used diluted perylene green (PBk31) which worked out perfectly. The rest of the greens are mixes of phthalo greens, benzimida yellow, and some burnt sienna. For dark rich greens I mixed phthalo green (PG7) with perylene maroon (PR179). 5 x 7" hot press, watercolour, August 2020 Verdun 9
Violet Robertson was a local artist from Westmount who did landscapes. My mom and dad met her when they bought their dining room set in the 1970's. They also bought 2 other landscapes she did, which now hang in my parent's house. Her mother liked Dad so much that she gave him an Aldridge watercolour of boats in a harbour done using the traditional English method of painting.
This scene shows the stone house in Verdun, it is a historical house built in 1710 called Maison Nivard-De Saint-Dizier. My dad told me that my great grandfather use to row from Pointe St. Charles to the old stone house
to go fishing. In those days, they had no motors. Their first motor, when they went to Heron Island, was a five horse power. He said that it took them forever to get
past the rapids! My Dad also went out there with his kayak and put it in the river just at the end of the rapids. Back then the house actually backed onto the river embankments, but now the whole shoreline has been filled in for about 100 meters and has a park with bike paths. You can really see the natural state of things, and the great shoreline along the St. Lawrence. It looks like an oil painting but has texture like a pastel drawing, I will have to ask about that. Thanks Mom for the photo!
Pastel, ~ 10 x 12 " year: mid 20th century
Here is the 6th endless colour painting done on the hottest day in the universe. I called it Blood Cell Clotting Factor' but there are all kinds of names that may have worked. 'Exploding Rose', 'Spilled the Koolaid', 'Strawberry in the Blender', 'Lipstick Tornado'. The main goal here was to use some paint up, including potter's pink (PR233), quinacridone red (PR209), quinacridone violet (PV19), quinacridone magenta (PR122). Maybe it could be called "Calling Earl on the Quinacridone Phone?". That one is too good to pass up. Edit: Mr. Clarke saw a panda bear in the top left, now I can't un-see it. Cilei noticed a dinosaur in the bottom right, its like a whole animal kingdom hiding!
22 x 30" (B side The Deluge). July 2020
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5 x7" cold press, watercolour, 2010-2014?
Bottom up, top down, who knows. Just the signature makes sense, the roots are going down the branch is up going down. What's in the background, bubblegum scraped off the sidewalk? Those yellow egg shapes are hypnotic. 6 x 7" cold press, watercolour, 2017
Just a relaxing day on the beach on some other planet. The textural work gives a strong sense of a sandy rocky surface. The creatures tail is like the nib of a pen drawing the horizon. It this the poet of paint? I don't know what's in the background it looks curvy. 5 x 8" cold press, watercolour, 2017
In the other direction Humberview highschool can be seen, it is where I attended 7 - 12. These little yellow portables were used at the time, they have now been replaced with a bricks and mortar extension. Looking back on this painting, I wouldn't change a thing! Getting those tonal yellows is tough, and notice how one side of the portable is a slightly grayish yellow signifying shadow. The texture and colour of the grass is right on, and that juicy blue sky with fluffy clouds plays well against the earth tone of the highschool bricks. 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, 2000- 2004?
This is nowhere near the schools but I thought I'd throw it in the blog, it was done up around the community center on the south hill, looking north across the valley. It was a really early painting I did, not long after the ones I did at the art show. The initial is quite strange, I used this for awhile, at least it contains the date! 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, 1996
On the back of the previous painting I started a painting but was clearly disappointed with the result. It says Antwerp dries mud... along with an expletive that I covered up in the scan although you can still see what it says through the paper. I had antwerp blue paint based on the recommendation made in a book by Zoltan Szabo, who liked to use it in all kinds of mixes. Antwerp blue is a fugitive (fades in light) phthalo blue variation that looks very bright blue when wet, but looses chroma and intensity when it dries. So I didn't use it much, favoring french ultramarine until 2020 when I stopped using that too. 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, 1996
Another scene from the Guelph University campus, this is a barn they use for teaching. Yes, they have a teaching barn, those professor cows sure know how to lecture. Actually Guelph University specializes in agriculture. 5x8" cold press, watercolour, 1997?
I've no idea what this building is, perhaps a museum? It was on the campus too, and the shape of the roof was cool. 5x7" cold press, watercolour, 1997?
It may have been the last one I did that day, I have a memory of being really hungry when I painted this. It was a bright sunny day and the sun was beating down, creating some stark light and shadow effects. The difficulty level of this painting was high, and I was in the habit of not using outlines. I like the metallic effect on the sign. It is the famous Albion Hotel. 5x7" cold press, watercolour, 1997?
I also painted the famous cannon on campus (it is even listed on google maps as a tourist attraction), the students paint it different colours every week. It was Canada Day. Here is the link of the canon painting, I updated that blog post because I found another version of the canon painting. It was a different day because it was raining that day.
Landscapes fare poorly versus bulldozers, as you can see in the painting. The bulldozer was not actually moving, but I composed the scene to look like the landscape was being scooped up. 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour
Gale force winds joined with stormy clouds on the construction site. The lot would soon become a suburb of copy paste houses (they all look the same). It is a rare opportunity to paint a scene like this without it being rainy- half the sky is sun, the other half purple clouds. 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour
Happy days arrived, the suburb was complete! This is actually a different suburb but in the same North hill neighborhood. Those that live across the street from this scene will recognize it, from some time ago though when it was better maintained and the bricks were naturally coloured. This completes the cycle of the vanishing landscapes. Instead, this series can be called emerging suburbs? 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour. These paintings were done on various dates ranging from 1997 - 2004 ?
In case you are wondering why some of the paintings are 8" instead of 7", its because when I cut up a 22x30", you get 18 pieces that are 5" wide on the short axis, but on the long axis you get 7" + 7" + 8" = 22". So when I painted a tall or wide subject I used the 8" pieces. Now I make them all about 7.5" instead.
It was productive there, here are a few more. These geese were quite active, and you can see two little yellow chicks in the grass. 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, May 2001
Here is an amazing tree in the park near the river, neutral browns and lots of texture.5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, May 2001
And I painted a row of buildings from the town, the spire is part of the town hall. 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, May 2001
As we sat around during lock-down, I pored over the Handprint web site by MacEvoy, and found it interesting that paper had a slightly fatty chemical added called sizing that prevents the paint from moving too much once it is on the paper. In contrast, rice paper has no sizing, and paint will diffuse all over it making it hard to produce detail. By wetting and rubbing the paper with a lint free rag, you can remove some of the sizing. In the example, I wetted and scrubbed the paper different number of times from zero (no wetting on the left), to intense (3 cycles, on the right). Then I let it all dry, and applied test strips of paint, including the shimmering silver paint from Daniel Smith company. As a result- the paint looked exactly the same no matter what. It was good to know this, since I always pre-soak my paper before using it to paint, now I know the sizing is still on it even with intense scrubbing.
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And the real action, eating. I was inspired by the arrangement of the marker cone, bananas, oranges, and the line markers. The Kanata fields are built upon an old sod farm, so the grass was luxurious and perfectly flat. Ideal for ultimate. This is a good example of using a neutral (olive greenish) background to enhance the bright colours of the objects. 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, 2000-2002?
This one was done at a different tournament I went to in Rochester NY, called the Zodiac tournament. It is a pickup tournament where the teams are formed based on zodiac sign, so the teams are basically people who have never played together as a team. We did quite well, and had a lot of fun. I tackled this scene with my brush, you see the person with their hand up was about to pull (throw the disk to the other team). We were on a break between games, waiting for our turn to play. I got the port-o-lets in there too! I think I remember the date because I bought two disks with the date on them, one my Dad still has, the other I used so much it fell apart.
5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, 2001
Another scene painted on the same trip- on the left is the old embassy building, the background Parliament again, and a traffic light featured prominently. Even without the signature I would know it's my painting, traffic signals (and pylons) often show up. I was using that cerulean blue, rose madder aureolin yellow, mix for the grey, which was rather heavy and muddy at times. Now I use phthalo green (PG7) and quinacridone violet (PV19) with a touch of burnt sienna (PR101), it is lighter and airier. 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, 2000
I was on a roll, this scene is in the Ottawa restaurant district featuring provincial flags of Quebec and Ontario in unison, and a colourful awning. Most of the scene including the pole in the foreground is back lit creating a lot of heavy shadows. 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, 2000
This is the war memorial, with the tomb of the unknown soldiers which had been just added in the year 2000. There are quite a few mistakes here on the perspective and the green blob on top that looks like Godzilla, maybe I did one too many paintings this day. I never had fear on a location, no matter how complex the subject appeared to be, I plopped down my chair and went at the scene with aplomb. In retrospect, a scene like this requires a careful drawing, and a bigger piece of paper. I'll have to go back once they ease off on the travel advisories between provinces and give it another go. 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, 2000
The next scene is closer to home, literally, it is a view underneath the large balcony in my parent's backyard. You can see their red fiberglass canoe, wheelbarrow, potted flowers, and patio furniture. I like the little slice of light on the end of the canoe. There is no garden here, which puts the date way back, it was done around the same era as the other painting or maybe a little later. 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, 2002 - 2006?
Here is a cool car that was for sale, it was on the corner of Mount Hope road (8th line) and Castlederg side road. I posted this before, but the picture was lousy, you can read more thoughts about it there. It was a little earlier than the others, I can only put ranges on the dates. 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, 1997 - 2001?
9 x 12" watercolour paper, watercolour, 2020
15 x 22" cold press, watercolour, August 2020
By the way, I painted it on the back of one that I never properly finished...I know somebody will love this painting...
Near Crawford Street in George O'Reilly Park there is a historical house built in 1710 called Maison Nivard-De Saint-Dizier, it is now a museum and archeological site with tourism visits available. It was closed when I was there today though, maybe due to COVID 19 restrictions. The stones are all different shades of brown, grey and even pink, while the doors, windows, and roof are earth colours. I was going to pass on this today because I only had 5 x 7" (post card sized) paper with me due to being almost out of paper, but I found a good angle to get a sliver of the building, and some of the park land around it including the bixi bike stand and some of Lasalle Street. The only things that were here in the old days were the house and Lasalle street. The park, tree, and bixi stands were added a lot later. My Dad was saying how he would put his Kayak into the water from right here, around where I was sitting! They filled in the river side with landfill and turned it into a park. 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, August 2020
The big attraction around here is the Lachine rapids, many people were relaxing and taking in the view. I found a spot to sit away from people and in the shade. There were hundreds of seagulls standing on the rocks in the river, which I barely manged to depict in the painting. The water was broken with froth and foam all over the place, with a smooth flow of lilac/blue water reflecting the sky and showing some of the green brown from underneath. In fact, the water was even darker and richer than shown in the painting. I would like to come back and do the historical house and the rapids a few more times. 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, August 2020
Going all the way down the bike path brought me to the end of Verdun... or did it? Verdun merged with Nun's Island awhile ago, and it remains part of the same borough. Sure enough, after crossing the Nun's Island bridge on the bike path to the island, I ran into yet another Verdun sign the same style as the other two, minus the landscaped flower garden. Maybe they ran out of money or something, it was just a mound of grass and pebbles strewn about. The whole bridge and bike path was under renovation so it may just be a limitation this year, that they didn't do the flowers due to construction. The sun was going down, and it was partly cloudy, which made the lighting conditions unpredictable. It was all in shade when suddenly I got hit with full blast sunlight. The ugly apartment building in the background seemed part of the welcome sign. Welcome to Nun's island and sky scraper apartments. Since I ran out of cold press, I had to use my last piece which happened to be hot press. Time for a visit to the art store! 5 x 7" hot press, watercolour, August 2020
Perhaps this was done on another visit, I do remember going there at least twice to paint. The weather is obviously better than the other two paintings, here it is partly cloudy with bright sun. The perspective on this painting is pretty neat, it was always one of my favorites from this era. The name of the team was Guelph Griffons. I have more paintings from this area of the University campus. 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, 1997-2001?
