Oops, I labelled this Sunday, but it was Saturday. I already lost track of the days!
In a few years from now the Lachine Canal area will be overtaken with condos and cafes. This is an old factory building which appears to be still in use, except for the rusty old watertower. While the watertower may not be functional anymore, it is still technically in use because underneath it (not seen in the painting) there is an outdoor hipster cafe restaurant. Imagine the workers from 100 years ago seeing a bunch of folks dining out in their old factory floors. Other structures are refurbished and turned into condos, or bulldozed for new construction. I had had my eye on this scene for awhile now, and today got the chance to do three paintings along the canal.
Factory and Rusty Watertower, Lachine Canal, 8 x 10", cold press, watercolour, October 2020
Finding places to sit is easy along the canal, and most of the people stick to the paths so I can be away from others (we are still in a red alert pandemic, so I stay away from walkways and paths, and wear a mask). This scene is looking east along the canal, they have rehabilitated parts of the bank to have more natural habitat. On the other side you see the condos and distant buildings. This composition emphasizes the near curves along the water edge, and the great colours and texture of the water itself. The sky was an eerie blue today.
Natural banks, Lachine Canal, 8 x 10", cold press 300lb, watercolour, October 2020
I did another one from the same spot, almost the same angle. The composition emphasizes the condo construction and the crane boom which was in among the clouds. It was quite cold sitting here for so long, the temperature has dropped to around 10 and lots of wind. I just noticed the canal on the right seems to go too high! Oh well, the colours and 'energy' of the painting are about right, I wanted to convey a kind of mayhem and construction, and so I used more carbon black than the previous painting which featured the nature.
Condo Development (City Interrupted), 5 x 7", cold press, watercolour, October 2020
Great job on the sky. It was a lovely Saturday, despite starting being chilly š¬
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