Saturday Journey, portrait of good old bike

 Finishing a tough week, I was delighted to go and spend the morning and afternoon freely painting. There were not too many people out and about, but I wore my face mask for most of the trip anyways. This is the 'old' Vendome station of the orange line Metro, I painted Vendome once before from another angle back in 2017. They have nearly completed the new Vendome station which is to the left of this one, not visible, which may open soon. In the background, instead of sky, you see the monolithic Glen Mega-hospital. I used a lot of different grey mixtures in this painting. The base was PV19 quinacridone magenta (an amazing version by Shmincke) with PG7 phthalo green. Then I added either raw sienna (PBr7) or indothrene blue depending on the shade. I also added black to get the darker greys. 8 x10" cold press, watercolour, September 2020

I headed East down the Maisonneuve bike path, stopping in Westmount park to make a quick painting of the curving bike path. The style was deliberately loose and fun, I wanted the painting to feel like you were having fun riding your bike. There was a dog park to the left, but the animal I painted there looks like a pig! A soccer game was going on the the upper right. Brown-eyed-susans were growing near the path.  6 x 7.5" cold press, watercolour, September 2020

 

 

After buying a new bike, I locked up the old one and took the new one out to a nearby location in Ville St. Henry. There is this very long row of condos in what used to be some kind of factory that backs onto the train tracks. I visualized the angles by holding out my paintbrush in front of me, then holding it over the painting. In this way I could get the angles a bit better. The brick was surprisingly red, I used venetian red but it dried too pale, so I did a wash with ferrari red (PR254) and benzimida orange (PO36). A train went by when I was painting it, and I painted the lines in synchrony with the click clack of the train going by. 5 x 7" hot press, watercolour, September 2020

 

On my way back I had to walk with two bikes in hand, it was a little tricky. I stopped at Benny park and set up my old bike against a tree, then sat on a rock and painted a portrait. It was included in a previous painting done at the end of March with the Mayflies, but only the handlebars. The candy-apple red was created using PV19 quinacridone rose, PV19 quinacridone magenta, and PR254 ferrari red. The photo of the painting makes it look a little duller than the actual painting which is a sparkling ruby red just like the bike! I got the saddlebags and blue water bottle in there too. For fun, I included an out of proportion blue garbage pail in the top left, just like the good old days. This bike took me thousands of kilometers over about 10 years, to many ultimate frisbee games, to work and back even in the winter, and all over Montreal to make paintings. The frame was Rocky Mountain, most of the parts were Shimano, and I had kevlar tires to keep the flat tires away. At the end of the day I rode the old bike out to the Renaissance donation shop and they were happy to receive it. I hope somebody can tune it up and get a few more kilometers out of it. 8 x 10" cold press watercolour, September 12^th 2020