On Ile St. Helen is a large park and concert area that used to be used for music and large crowds. They recently renovated the area to be more crowd friendly including stone walkways and an off-white gravely surface. I just enjoyed standing in the middle of it, having that much space around is a rare commodity. Behind the trees, Jacques Cartier bridge could be seen. I used yellow ochre (PY43) in most of the mixes, it was a paint I didn't like at first, but now I know how to use it in delicate washes and tints. At full strength it looks just like dijon mustard.
Concert Space Parc Jean-Drapeau, 8 x 10" cold press, watercolour, April 2021 (No. 2619a)
On the south side of the island is a small channel of the St. Lawrence called chenal le moin, which translates roughly into the smallest channel. The water takes on an emerald green and all sorts of turquoise tints. A large tree was hanging over the embankment, it had an orange dot meaning that it would be cut down soon. I felt that this tree had stood there watching over the river for perhaps a hundred years, but now its time had come to an end. That's why I composed the tree prominently on the left, and contrasted the direction of the tree bark with the direction of the river flow, which both have a similar texture. To finish I overlaid the branches, twigs, and spring buds. The chartreuse and greens of the buds made nice contrast against the emerald and turquoise of the river. I wanted to paint this scene last year but either the light wasn't right or it was too cold, but today the conditions were perfect for a moment.
Chenal le Moin, Parc Jean-Drapeau, 8 x 10" cold press, watercolour, April 2021 (No. 2619b)
The island has several built in ponds including the so-named swan lake which only had ducks and geese in it today. The weather turned cold and overcast making it a difficult finish. You can see 'islands bridge' in the background, it connects Point St. Charles to Ile-St. Helen and holds the bike path I used to get here. I would like to come back to this scene in the future, the willow tree and reeds were a real challenge. Maybe there will even be swans next time.
Swan Lake, Parc Jean-Drapeau 4 x 6" cold press, watercolour, April 2021 (No. 2620a)
On the way back the sun came out again and I found a spot away from the path looking across the train tracks to some new condos they built in Ville St. Henri. The condos are built with red iron oxide bricks, umber bricks, and some fire engine red paneling. In the foreground I noticed little yellow flowers growing in the rocky embankment next to the tracks. In addition to the bright colours, I included several shades of grey, not 50 but quite a few. The clouds have 'Homer's grey' a mix of prussian blue (PB27) and venetian red (PR101), the gravel has grey ochre (PBk11), and the tracks and other accents have neutral tint (PBk6, PG7, PV19). I had abandoned neutral tint for awhile but found myself just having to make it every time, so it was easier to use this one from the convenience mix.
Tracks and Condos, Ville St. Henri 4 x 6" cold press, watercolour, April 2021 (No. 2620b)
You may notice paper sizes vary on my blog, the most common landscape size I use is 5 x 7" in fact I have over 1000 paintings on that format. To scale things up I have started to use 8 x 10" which is over double the surface area (35 versus 80 square inches). The 4 x 6" format is only 24 square inches, but it is a standard size. Standard size means American framing standards which are different from European or Asian. Here are the standards,
Standard frame, picture, mat opening:
5 x 7", 4 x 6", 3.5 x 5.5"
11 x 14", 8 x 10", 7.5 x 9.5"
16 x 20", 11 x 14", 10.5 x 13.5"
20 x 24", 16 x 20", 15.5 x 19.5"
30 x 40", 22 x 32", 21.5 x 31.5"
For example, if I paint on a paper that is 8 x 10" then I have to leave a
half inch border so it fits in a standard mat and frame that you can
buy at the store. Any other sizes have to be custom framed which is
more expensive.
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