Bolton

 

Just a short walk from my parent house is a stretch of road called Columbia way, which is the last line between the sprawling suburbs of Bolton and the rural country side. This excavation was part of a school construction- the school was opened in 2010 but the excavation was there for many years before they filled it in with the school. So this may have been around 2006-2007? 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour

 

The next one was done in the Bolton valley looking southwest across the soccer fields. There was only one house there at the time, I suppose there is a whole suburb up there by now. Around this time I discovered a neat way to paint trees, I put on a yellowish blob and overlaid it with progressively darker colours  to create shadows. Instinctively I knew that these colours were not green but a dark yellow tone. It wouldn't be until 2020 when I became aware of the fact that many trees and grasses are tonal yellows as seen in the pond painting by Angrignon Station. So that explains why I had burnt sienna on my palette next to the green. 5 x 9" cold press, watercolour 2006-2007?

 

The last one here is a classic view I could never forget, it is walking down the trail high above highway 50, looking southwards into the valley with the south hill as a background. The building is part of the community center on the top of the hill. I learned how to do the white highlight trick by painting from photographs for example the Bolton Water tower, although this painting was done on location. I was terrible at dating the paintings, this one feels a bit earlier than the previous two based on the mixtures, the way I did the border, and the skill gap on some of the building details. It may have been 2004? 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour