Saturday Bike Ride and few Paintings of Lachine

Today I took a long ride through Ville St. Pierre to the canal and over to 54th avenue Lachine, rode by the old house (it looked the same!), and up 55th to the industrial park. Finally I hit an impassable highway that was also under construction, it was truly the end of Lachine. Actually, there is a way to ride under the highway and get to the outskirts of the airport but that will have to wait for another day. So what does the end of Lachine look like? Orange construction pylons and a stormy sky. I used prussian blue (PB27 Winsor and Newton) and venetian red (PR101) for the stormy cloud shadows, that was the combo that Winslow Homer used, as I learned via Handprint.com (MacEvoy). The industrial park was very quiet and felt abandoned, I may go back one day as there were plenty of sight lines, trees, and pockets of nature.

The End of Lachine? 4 x 6" cold press, watercolour, April 2021 (No. 2425a)

 

On the way back I rode down to Somerlea Park and it as very crowded with nobody wearing masks. So I stood in the middle of an open field by some trees and made this painting at a distance from the river bank. The little island which is likely called Dixie island, had some activity on it, maybe a boat was moored but I left it out. The willow trees were just making their leaves. This view was about in line with 54th or 55th avenue looking due west.

Dixie Island, St. Lawrence River 5 x 8" cold press, watercolour, April 2021 (No. 2623b)

Notes on Spring palette: after setting up my new palette and making some adjustments, I am starting to get used to some aspects of it, but finding a few things less useful. The earth paints are all good although a few of them might be a little redundant with each other. The winsor lemon (PY175) is weak in mixes, I'll probably swap it out for yellow (PY154). The range of greens is great, you can see in the painting what a variety I could create in the spring grass. The blues are working out, although the quinacridone magentas are a little redundant with each other. I like having the yellows, oranges and reds separate on the bottom left, when I need them they really sing. Finally, neutral tint is handy. Overall its working out, but when the wind blows the palette can flap about and spray paint, so that is tricky. At some point I might just go back to a smaller palette when I can figure out which paints are essential. Enjoying the full range of paints for now.