Saturday, March 20, 2021

Saturday Painting Trip: Point Saint Charles

 

With the weather getting warmer the snow is melting and the people are coming out of hibernation. Since COVID-19 is still going to be a problem I decided to wear a mask for my trip today, at least when I was riding down paths or painting at a spot where people could walk past. That is partly why I chose Point St. Charles, using google map I found several open spots off the beaten track with interesting views. In the painting you see a mountain of shipping containers, they actually go on and on for about 500 meters. It truly was a challenge to do this painting it stretched my ability to do perspective drawing and to create the variety of colours with their respective shadows. Piles of dirty melting snow were in the foreground.

Shipping Containers Melting Snow, 5 x 7.5" cold press, watercolour, March 2021 (No. 2580)

 

There were some fantastic views of downtown in the nooks and crannies of the neighborhood. The middle-ground building is a giant warehouse used to store stuff from the shipping containers. Many of the trucks and containers had flamboyant graffiti scrawled on them, for example the pesky PJD 21 on the back of the truck! Three different greens are featured, a chartreuse on the side of the truck, an apple green on a garbage bin, and an olive green on the newly exposed grass in the foreground.

Three Greens City View, 8 x 10" cold press, watercolour, March 2021 (No. 2593)

 

Park Saint Gabriel is central to Point St. Charles, apparently they had a lot of saints who were naming things. The park was very monochromatic nearly all grey so I infused some bright orange in the background and increased the contrast overall. I also increased the size of the buildings in order to convey a closeness between the park and the community. In general the neighborhood is very dense with wall-to-wall duplex and triplex. One exciting development is the city is developing a bike path network along the river, I managed to get a look at it, it will connect Verdun to Point Saint Charles and beyond.

Bark in the Park Melting Snow 5 x 7.0" cold press, watercolour, March 2021 (No. 2581a)

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