Saturday Painting Trip, Lachine Canal and St. Lawrence River

 

Saturday started out promising, it was a sunny blue sky day with moderate wind but I knew that cloud cover was in the forecast, and that St. Lawrence River can whip up some cold wind. The canal path had not been plowed all winter so it was mostly fresh snow with a narrow trail used by cross country skiers and intrepid hikers like myself. Every now and then my boot would punch through the snow and it would almost up to my knee. I arrived in good time at the open air museum park, a spit of reclaimed land that contains sculptures and trees. This tree was leaning over the shore line, which was mostly frozen. The St Lawrence was moving so fast that the river wasn't frozen save about 10 meters of ice. You could hear the crunching of ice chunks as they careened around the frigid waters. I painted this tree before from the opposite angle. The painting was done entirely on location, I didn't tweak anything at home.

Leaning Tree St. Lawrence River with Ice Flow, 5 x 7 1/4" cold press, watercolour, February 2021

 

I was pretty far out from home, almost 7 km by foot, but decided to get right to the end of the park. As I approached the point (which is marked by the tower with the angled top seen top left) I saw all these kids and adults zooming around the snowy ice on snow boards with colourful mini parachutes. It seemed fun but I noticed the water wasn't completely frozen near the shoreline, as you see in the painting it was a glassy brown-blue under the snow. I liked the contrast of the orange-turquoise parachute against the approaching clouds. In the painting, the colour is a bright neon-orange but in the scan it is a bit brown. RGB computer monitors do not show bright orange or bright blue due to technical limitation. I added the dark blue para-glider at home, I say it on location but the painting was too wet to add this detail.

Snow Gliders St. Lawrence River, 4 3/4 x 7 1/2" cold press, watercolour, February 2021 (No. 2549)

 

 

 On the way back I wanted to do one more painting on the Canal, and found my favorite bridge, which was backlit by a cloud-covered sun. There was a warm glow over the sun and frozen canal which I captured with yellow ochre (PY43) and winsor orange red shade (PO73). Just as I packed up my gear, the sun came out of the clouds and the entire scene was illuminated like it was a postcard, had I been 20 minutes later I would have caught the perfect lighting condition. Next time maybe I will be lucky. At home I added the black fence, railing on the bridge and sharpened some details on the wooded areas. I also adjusted the snow shadows to give the ethereal glow. You can see the sun trying to pierce through the clouds.

Hiding Sun Lachine Canal,  4 3/4 x 7 1/2" cold press, watercolour, February 2021 (No. 2550)