Sunday Painting Trip, Winter Blues

 

Sunday brought the promised sunny day, what a coincidence. It was still -15℃ with additional windchill but I was dressed for the occasion with 4 layers on bottom, 6 layers on top, and my new Anfibio boots with thick socks. I adjusted the salt a bit higher, to the theoretical maximum of 30g of salt for 100g of water. I walked through the back streets of Ville St. Pierre, and came upon a neat side view of the blue house. It was still just as blue as ever, but the bright, low sun was reflecting off the wall creating a blue-grey with hints of yellow. The icicles were very long, and glistening with the bright sun. The bottom portion of the icicles were in shadow. With my polarized sun glasses it made things more bearable, and my double tuke was also reducing the direct sun in my eyes. In the background is the tangle highway overpasses and ramps.

 The Blue House with Icicles, Ville St. Pierre 5 x 7.5" cold press, watercolour, January 2021 (No. 2541b)

 

Arriving at the Lachine canal I was feeling pretty good- sunny day, warm, perfectly dressed for the climate. After doing so many paintings of the canal, it was surprising to see it with a fresh layer of snow on top of ice. It was a bit of an uninteresting scene but the canal cut a nice angle, and the tone of the snow was mysterious. Painting snow has been a challenge, but I am slowly learning how to see the various tints, however subtle they are. Unfortunately, the temperature was dropping, the sun was going down, and the layers of paint stubbornly would not dry. I studied the scene carefully, committing the remaining details to memory, and then packed up and marched home. This time, I had a thick piece of cardboard to protect the surface of the drying painting which worked great. When I got home, the salt had crystalized creating a sandy texture over the whole scene. I finished the painting at home by adding the railing, tree, buildings, upper portion of the canal wall on the opposite side, the shadow on the snow along with some other details including PJD 21. All of the blues are done with phthalo blues (PB15:0, PB15:3) and indothrene blue (PB60). The little footprints in the canal snow, I believe were made by a running cat, you can see them in the bottom right.

Snow Covered Lachine Canal 5 x 7.5" cold press, watercolour, January 2021 (No. 2543b)