Montreal Skyline at Night

Last night I took a bike ride out to the new Glen Hospital which has a steep embankment running along its south side with great views of downtown Montreal and surrounding areas. The terrain has a narrow footpath where I set up my bike-studio. This time I brought along a portable battery-powered light, one that is meant for illuminating sheets of music on music stands. It easily clipped onto the back of my bike pack, so I could paint this scene without the need for any street lamp. You can see the eerie blue glow at the bottom right of the painting where I signed, that is the light from my portable lamp. The rest of the scene was a dramatic mix of shapes and colours. The trees were nearly jet black with a hint of reddish yellow, while downtown was a kaleidoscope of amber lamps and car headlights on a highway overpass. On the horizon line was the jigsaw puzzle of office towers and condos. Obviously the subject matter was overly ambitious for a 5 x 7" painted at night, but in the end it really does capture the mood. The composition is a classic of Hiroshige's style, filled with triangles and overlapping elements.
 

Montreal Skyline at Night, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2021 (No. 2805)

Lachine Park Rain Glow

I got out for a bike ride today in between light rain, although this painting did get sprayed a little! Believe it or not, this is very close to where I painted the famous winter scene earlier this year, just here I am looking more southwest up the St. Lawrence river, the shore line to the left eventually becomes the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory. The sky was cloudy and overcast, with a warm amber glow. In the foreground were some intense green vines on the left and some form of bamboo-like grass on the right. I controlled the shoreline hue, value and chroma by varying the proportions of perylene green (PBk31), indo blue (PB60), cobalt blue (PB28), and the right amount of water. For the darker portions I dabbed in some perylene maroon (PR179) and touches of yellow paint. I wrote more about the challenging technique where I make a gradation of three factors (hue, value and chroma) in a recent blog from my Sutton trip. It was used here on the shoreline.

Lachine Park Rain Glow,  watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2021 (No. 2804)

Atwater Market at Night

 

On the way back from visiting Cilei in Verdun I rode through the famous Atwater Market as the sun went down. This painting shows the foot bridge crossing the Lachine Canal with down town Montreal in the background. The blue sky was just visible on the horizon behind a cloudy, overcast sky. The bridge had lights along it, and there was a strong amber street lamp behind me. By the time I finished this painting it was nearly dark, you could see the lights turning on in the apartment building windows.

Atwater Market Bridge at Dusk, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2021 (No. 2800)

 

When I painted Pizza Welat at night last year I discovered the combination of indothrene blue (PB60) and pyrol orange (PO73) which creates the most incredible lilacs and mauves. By varying the proportions you can create all manner of dusk and twilight sky colours. In this painting I used the combo to create the glow of sunset, which faded into a deep grape-juice colour the higher into the sky. To get the inky blue I added a touch of perylene maroon (PR179). The rest of the painting was a mixture of transparent iron oxide (PR101) an incredible earth colour I recently picked up by Schmincke, it is capable of making complex mixes without the mud of the raw umber I had been using. The illuminated window with interior lighting was something I pulled off earlier this year if you look in the background of the second painting of the Cote St. Cathrine metro blog.

Atwater Market Clock Tower at Twilight, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2021 (No. 2801)

 

 This scene really had it all, a fantastic sky, dark almost black trees, an intense blue awning from the market, some artificially lit market booths, and that eerie under-lit facade of the main building. I had a good LED streetlamp to stand under which allowed me to judge the colours and values. There are hundreds of hanging lamps around Atwater, you see a few of them to the right. I didn't think I could paint them effectively but it worked. Maybe I can go back some time and try to paint here again.

Atwater Market at Nightfall, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2021 (No. 2802)

 

Across the street is a little park sitting area right beside the highway with these trees that look like the cyprus treest from Van Gogh's paintings of southern France. I almost rode past this scene, but then I thought, if he was still alive he would paint this scene! It was the hardest of the evening as the light was poor, and there wasn't much form to work with. It turned out okay after all, the eerie glow and dramatic texturing is evident.

Trees Under Lamp, near Atwater Market, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2021 (No. 2803)

 

 

 

Night Lights

 The bus stop was actually slightly crooked like that, its not a mistake. I got out for some painting last night after it cooled off a bit, and did this painting of the bus stop in front of our condo. I waited for the light to turn green over and over again to get the colours right. Do I need to make one called Red Light? Yellow will be even more difficult. Other light sources include the street lamp, the lights from the condo, and some eerie glow of a mostly full moon.
 

Walkley Bus Stop Green Light, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2021 (No. 2798)

After the previous night effort I reconsidered some of the approaches to painting at night under an amber light source which is quite common. It was a matter of trusting the mixes. For example, when I was painting this, all of the green foliage at the bottom appeared to be grey, and the cool blue nuances were absent to my vision. Also the yellow appeared to be lower chroma than it appears in the painting. For the most part, the finished painting looks close to what I saw, but the colours in real life were lower chroma and with less contrast overall. There is over 1 million times more light during the day than at night, so your eyes are in different state of adaptation. By understanding it better I may be able to paint decent night scenes. I am all the more impressed with van Gogh who painted night scenes instinctively. Of course this was a tribute, considering the sun flower theme. A community garden group plants them in the boxes every year (except last year due to covid).

Sunflower at Night, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2021 (No. 2799)

Eerie Night Scenes

Painting at night on location is rather difficult, one needs to understand where their paints are because they can all look the same on the palette! In this painting, the scene, my paper, and my palette were all illuminated with a strong amber light from the Metro grocery store. In the parking lot they have these flower boxes full of sunflowers and marigolds. In the background was a street lamp and an apartment building. The appearance of this painting was quite different when I was doing it, there was no blue visible in the sky, and the greens all looked olive or even brownish. The yellows also seemed to be more yellow. Next time I will attempt to counter this by controlling the amount of blue in the mixes and tempering the green. I basically have to paint with the brain not the eyes.

Sunflowers and Marigolds at Night, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2021 (No. 2796)

 

This painting was done under a strong white light, a powerful LED also part of the metro but along the front. I am looking across the street at the pharmacy. Under this lighting I could better match the colours. To get the sky to be inky black, I mixed indo blue, magenta, some perylene maroon, and black. Probably just the indo blue and black would have done the job, but I wanted it to really dry black. The moon was full or close to full, and clouds were creating interesting shadow effects. The building in the front had five light sources, one the green sign, two the yellow sign, three the front doors, four the moonlight, and five the light from the Metro that was illuminating my painting efforts. I like how I got a few stars into the sky, although it was mostly accident, next time I will try to make the star effects with more intention. By the way, painting at night really makes a mess of the palette I may need to set up one just for this purpose.

Pharmacy at Night, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2021 (No. 2797)

Hot Day Painting

Last summer we had incredible heat and I painted about a dozen large paintings that day including Feeling Cool, which was the visual equivalent of a jump in the pool. Today was nearly as hot or perhaps even more so, well over 40℃ with the humidity factored in. The blue droplets in the painting were meant to be little refreshing splashes of water across a sun baked landscape. Most of the painting uses red-yellow-violet, which sets up the stark blue/orange contrast of the splash areas. The painting did not help me feel cool though, for that I stuck my head under the garden hose!

This looks like one of the many palette cleansers that I have done over the years, but it is actually using the Van Gogh paint set I bought recently. It contains very bright and easy to use paints in pan format, with a few extras I added such as warm sienna from Stone ground paint, and some tube paint including indo blue (PB60) and dark magenta (PV19) squeezed into tiny pans.

Palette Cleanser: Hot Day Painting, 9 x 12" watercolour paper, watercolour, August 2021 (No. 2889a)

Green and Gold Fragments

 After quite a bit of painting lately my palette was due for a good cleaning. You see the abundant earth colours, I am carrying six of them now ranging from ochre to sienna to umber. The greens in the background display a hue shift from a low chroma turquoise in the top right to a fairly intense green, almost chartreuse in the bottom left. Colour designations are rather arbitrary, many colours could be called green or blue for example, there is no set criteria. As an artist, you still need to have a concept in mind, and an understanding of how the retina works. Computer monitors simplify things a lot, they produce only 3 primary colours including red green and blue light which can mix almost any hue. As a painter I use many more primary colours than a monitor, up to about 7 are in my palette. I define primary colour as a high chroma (rainbow) colour that can not be easily mixed from other colours. The ones I use are yellow, orange, red, magenta, blue, cyan, green. I also have a few intermediates, and of course, the earth colours which are low chroma, and some darks.

Palette cleanser: Green and Gold Fragments , 9 x 12" watercolour paper, watercolour, August 2021 (No. 3825a)

Scenes from Bolton, Ontario

The Valley in the North hill is a dense forest that I used to play in and explore as a child growing up. Now they have installed an expensive manicured trail that leads through the valley and to the old Bolton Camp now defunct. Cilei and I walked the trail which was a little harder than Mono Cliffs trail, then on the way back we found the old trail that had been there for years. The painting was done up at the entrance, that is Kingsview drive in the background. I featured the interesting seating area they built, albeit in a simplified manner. The trail is just in the middle here, surrounded by flowers and foliage. The composition would have been better focused on the flowers, but I wanted to capture as much of the surroundings as possible.
 

Walking Trail Entrance, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2021 (No. 2793)

 

Mom and Dad have worked a lot on the garden recently, it looks great. This painting was an attempt to capture the flower garden in the back yard, the towering yellow flowers in the back are a kind of bee balm, the pink flowers echinacea, and brown eyed Susan daisies off to the left. A succulent is in the foreground, and if you look hard enough there are black squirrels running on the walnut tree! To paint this I made the flowers first and then carefully filled in the open areas with various greens. Each section got its own colours and brush textures. There is a pine tree and hints of the green valley in the background.

John and Cynthia's Flower Garden, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2021 (No. 2794 not labelled yet, framed)

Mono Cliffs Provincial Park, Ontario

 Mono is a region in the middle of Ontario, it was aboriginal land until European settlers cleared the land for agriculture in the early 19^th century. It only took the settlers 30 years to clear 50% of the land, which goes to show how hard they worked with primitive tools and what must have been difficult winters. The Mono Cliffs area is a provincial park because the land was not suitable for clearing and farming due to rocks, lots of rocks, and rolling Canadian shield terrain. There are some easy hiking trails, well maintained and with lots of parking. Cilei and I walked to the lookout platform and I did a quick painting while we snacked. The rust-coloured strip in the distance is a dried farmers field, it was extremely arid weather at the time. I brought out the colour and contrast to give a good sense of what it looked like, in fact, it was rather overcast and drab. The blue mountains in the distance really give the painting some depth, that is something I have been practicing for a few years now.  

Mono Cliffs Provincial Park, Ontario, View from lookout, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2021 (No. 2792)

La Meunerie Urbane

 

Shops can have short life in Montreal but I have a feeling this one will be around for awhile. It is a traditional bakery that even grinds its own flour from grain. They have a huge selection of bread products made daily. At the busy time there will be a line up all the way around this corner. This afternoon it was quiet there and we picked up some bread for our upcoming trip to Ontario. I might not blog for a few days, but I will be with the people who usually read my blog so they can see the paintings I do in real life.

La Meunerie Urbane, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2021 (No. 2795)

Tetra Cactus

A cactus we have on the back patio grew a extra hear, then doubled it! It seems rather ambitious for such a small plant. The spikes were done in siennas (PBr7/PR101), with the greens in perylene green (PBK31) and touches of yellow. The clay pot was easy, iron oxide red, which is the same pigment they use when making clay pots. I tried to make a portrait of Cilei on her smartphone but it didn't work out, so I did this one on the back. The red flowers are the geraniums. 

Tetra Cactus, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2021 (No. 2791)

Saturday paint trip, Laurier Station, Orange Line Metro

The plan  today was to ride out to Mount Royal Station the next one my list, but the road was closed off for a sidewalk sale and there were too many people around so I headed north to the next station which was Laurier station. This view of the back entrance contained so many tirangles it boggled the mind, not a single right angle in the scene! It made for a great composition. Using triangles was something I learned from Hiroshige, the great Japanese print maker from the 19th century.
 

Laurier Station, Orange Line Metro, Triangles, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2021 (No. 2788)

 

The main structure was punctuated by cobalt-blue columns and plenty of concrete. In the background was a dance school with a large poster on the front. I liked how all the trees fit in to this scene, and there was a good bench to sit on with some shade. The wind was gusting a lot, so I really had to hold on to the palette otherwise I would be wearing the paint.

Laurier Station, Orange Line Metro, Blue Posts, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2021 (No. 2789)

 

The landscaped foliage was looking rugged, it reminded me of some of the scenes I did recently in Sutton. It was not much of a scene to look at, but the contrasting angles and interesting rhythm of the central tree made it visually interesting. I liked how the metro sign was just popping up over the tree. Since I brought raw sienna back on the palette, I am really enjoying it, it is the toasty yellow colour you see in the dry grass. The tree branches were almost pure perylene maroon, the earthy red made a good contrast against the greens. Those branches were the concept that tied this whole design together, so they had to pop.

Laurier Station, Orange Line Metro, Rugged Nature, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2021 (No. 2790)

Earth Heat

 Painted on one of the hottest days in the summer, this small abstract shows a calamity of shapes and earth colours swirling around a baked potato horizon. Last summer I did a series of large paintings in the extreme heat, albeit in much hotter conditions than this year. The world is practically the hottest it has ever been due to oil and gas being overused by people. Let us hope some kind of solution is on the way. 

Another reason for doing this painting was to try out the new transparent umber I got recently, made by Schmincke and sold by Deserres. It has a pigment code of PR101 and the transparent label, indicating that this pigment is normally used in wood and leather stains. Leather is not actually brown, it comes out pale grey without some kind of pigment. The transparent umber had a warm cherry-chocolate appearance when wet, then it dried slightly duller and without the orange tint. In the end it looked just like the burnt umber I had bought previously. It handles different though, making cleaner mixes with indo blue (PB60), so I will start using this instead of the raw umber (PBr7).

Earth Heat, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2021

Sunday Paint Trip, Sherbrooke Station Orange Line Metro

 

The Sherbrooke station is seemingly in the middle of town, just north of UQAM and at the southern most limits of what we may call the Plateau. The station itself is in a giant pastel green boxy building with a yellow under-hang and charcoal black accents. With the neutral blue sky and all the beige, this was really a pastel colour exploration. I worked up a fairly detailed sketch using paint first, then filled in the shapes, in other words, a paint-by-numbers approach! The pastel green was PG36 with a touch of carbon black, diluted with water.

Sherbrooke Station Orange Line Metro, Pastels, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2021 (No. 2786)

 

Going with the paint-by-numbers approach I tried this even more complex scene showing the railings along Berri which goes down steeply into downtown Montreal, and one of the station entrances hidden away. There is a large, pale green apartment building sitting atop the station entrance. Painting on these small pieces makes the detail work troublesome, I will try a larger piece next time! On my way back I stopped at the Deserres and picked up some more paper pads, and a tube of transparent umber by Schmincke, on sale !

Sherbrooke Station Orange Line Metro, Off the Rails, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2021 (No. 2787)

Saturday Paint Trip: Turcot project

The bike path connection from St. Jacques to the Canal is finally open, unfortunately NDG did nothing to make it easier to get on the bike path, you have to ride around on the sidewalks by Canadian Tire to get close. The rest of it works well at least and they planted a lot of shrubs and plants as you see in the painting. I am looking north towards NDG from just across the highway, standing just next to the canal path. The sumac was done with red ochre (PR101) and perylene maroon (PR179) and a touch of pyrole red (PR255).
 

Turcot Landscaping, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2021 (No. 2926)

 I followed a fork in the bike path for awhile and it led to... nowhere. There are vast expanses of gravel where parts of the highway must have been. I have no idea what they plan to do with the space, I rather hope they plant a forest here. The Montreal skyline was visible on the horizon. To make the glow happen on the open area, I applies a neutralized isoindo yellow (PY110 with a bit of PB60 and PR179). Then the foreground was done in a more neutral grey. Apparently warms are supposed to be in the front, but you can also put them in the middle of the composition to draw attention and give interest to an otherwise dull element. Painting large gravel areas seldom works, but in this case the triangular patch of grass and interesting light/shadow made for visual interest.

Turcot What is Next? watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, August 2021 (No. 2904)

Sutton 2021 last few paintings

 

As evening descended I made a few sunset paintings, it was very hot and hazy which created many pastel tones of blue, red and orange. The Hotel Horizon, set high up from the road was reflecting the sunset in its white plaster walls. That is an umbrella in on the deck. All the colours are infused with copious amounts of isoindo yellow (PY110).

Sutton, Hotel Horizon Sunset, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2021 (No. 2784)

 

As the sun went down I found an interesting scene of wildflowers probably rag weed and other weeds growing tall. The flowers were mostly yellow ochre with some of the isoindo yellow. That sliver of grey on the left is the road leading up to the parking lot of Hotel Horizons.

Sutton Wild flowers near road,  watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2021 (No. 2785)

 

 

The next morning I made a quick painting from the vantage point of my room. You see the wrap-around deck and the breakfast eating area with big picture windows. There were also tables and chairs on the deck which is where I ate breakfast. You can see what a fantastic view they have.

Breakfast View, Hotel Horizon, Sutton watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, August 2021 (No. 2903)

 

 

Sutton 2021 trip day 3

 

On day 3 I brought the bike out of the rental SUV, assembled the front wheel and rode up to the altitude 400 ski chalet. The chalet was a hustle bustle of activity, hikers, mountain bikers, and maintenance people zipping around in noisy four wheelers. On the ride up I stared into the depths of the vast mountain and realized that the hue, chroma and value all change from the bottom to the top of a forested-mountain. You see to the left of the chalet how the trees start out as a dark yellow/chartreuse, and end in a smokey green-blue at the top of the painting which is a more distant point. Seeing is one thing, achieving is another. When you apply blue-green to a painting, it dries a lot lighter than you think, so I applied it much darker than needed. After a lot of trial and error over the years, I may finally have cracked the secret!

Sutton Altitude 400 chalet, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2021 (No. 2779)

 

Next I found the second ski lift off in a quiet part of the park. The occasional mountain biker would zigzag up the slope, but otherwise it was very quiet here. The sun was starting to come through the clouds creating a bright chartreuse effect on the dried grass. On the back of this painting I had first tried to place the lift in the center of the painting, but then decided to move it off center for better composition.

 Sutton Ski lift in summer, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2021 (No. 2780)

There wasn't much else to paint up in the ski cabin area, so I drove down to the town of Sutton which is built up around the main highway. There were very few places to sit, narrow sidewalks, and plenty of cars and trucks roaring by. A little frustrated I decided to just paint it as I saw it...

Beautiful Downtown Sutton, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2021 (No. 2781)

 

The roof line and contrast with the mountain was interesting, not to mention there was a bench to sit on in the shade. The cream colour is dilute yellow ochre for the store fronts. A big SUV parked in front of me blocking most of the ground level view so I had to make it up from memory!

Shops in Sutton, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2021

 

Exhausted by the heat and the previous hiking and biking, I sat on another bench in front of Sutton town hall and studied one of the restaurant fronts (where I had an okay burger for lunch), but then decided on this scene just to my right. It was a circular interlocking brick with decorative flowers and a bench, with the main road in the background. The brick colour was an exact match, I even held the finished painting up to the actual scene and it was the exact hue and value. It was done with a mix of cobalt blue (PB28), magenta (PR122), and yellow ochre (PY43). I have never actually got that colour right the first time, usually I will adjust it with a second wash, so I make a note of it here.

Sutton Town Hall , watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2021 (No. 2783)

 

Lake Mohawk, Fallen Birch, Sutton

 

On my hike around Lake Mohawk in Mount Sutton I came across this scene of trees that had fallen into the lake. The trunks and branches were partially submerged creating a toffee-like colour underneath the surface of the water. On top were abundant lily pads with little yellow flowers, and a reflection of the steep tree line and sky. I stared at this scene for quite some time knowing that I wanted to paint it, but was not quite sure how, in fact, it was like doing three paintings in one! It was also an unconventional scene to paint, but in the end I decided to go for it. So this is the 'artist's choice' painting. 

I practiced painting swamps in the East of Montreal island, so I knew that umber was tempting but would be too muddy. Instead I worked with red ochre which is more of a red iron oxide (PR101) and neutralized it with perylene green (PBk31) to create the depths of the swamp. At close range the swamp has that coffee colour, at distant more of a misty green. I left the sky highlight area blank until the end, then covered it in a thin blue wash (PB28 and PB15). The birch tree and other trees were done with various shades of grey and beige, while the green highlights were yellow (PY154/175) and green (PG36). I had to leave the shapes of the lily pads blank too, and make sure some of them were overlapping the trees. This was an intricate painting to complete, more like a jigsaw puzzle than a painting. There were also all manner of insects on me, and some hot humid conditions. When I propped this painting up in the room later on, it seemed almost photographic at the right distance. At least it captured the moment, and anyone who has hiked around lakes before will recognize the authenticity of this scene.

Lake Mohawk, Fallen Birch, Sutton watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2021 (No. 2778)

Sutton trip 2021, Day 2 Lake Mohawk

 Mount Sutton is primarily meant as a ski hill in the winter, but in the summer it is used for mountain biking and hiking. In fact, some hikers literally sprint around the paths apparently in training for adventure racing events. There I was shuffling my way to the top with my leather attache full of paint supplies. This scene shows the beginning of the steep path that veers right and heads into the bush. It was very rugged terrain as shown by the varied brush strokes and textured surfaces.

Sutton Path to Lake Mohawk, watercolour 5 x 7" hot press, August 2021 (No. 2774)

 

The interior of the forest was filled with light and shadow. In the foreground, a rocky segment of the hiking path with a patchwork of light beaming from the canopy. In the background is a plunging valley and tree line sloping to the left. I started with the highlight areas, applying blobs of bright chroma yellows, oranges, and chartreuse. Then I worked up the darker shadow areas with decisive washes, and finished with the texture work. It was important not to have any white paper showing so I filled in all the little spots with yellow or light red.

Sutton Way to Lake Mohawk, watercolour 5 x 7" hot press, August 2021 (No. 2775)

 

Lake Mohawk is a small mountain tarn with murky water and lily pads. It was completely silent when I painted this, at least only sounds of nature like buzzing dragon flies and warbling birds in the background. Silence is golden as they say... last time we were there people were shouting the whole time which really ruined the atmosphere. I noticed a sign that warned of the leeches in the lake, and sure enough I observed a giant one, maybe 10cm long (3.5 inches), you can see the little squiggle in the bottom left near the edge of the painting. I wondered how it could get to be so big in such a lake devoid of too much life, but then later I saw a group of hikers who allowed their dog to romp around the very shore line where I saw the leech! Then another dog showed up, and I started to realize how the leeches were doing so well. Perhaps the pet owners didn't notice the signs.

Sutton Lake Mohawk Rock and Leech, watercolour 5 x 7" hot press, August 2021 (No. 2776 not labelled yet)

 

On the south side of Lake Mohawk the trail rises steeply on broken terrain reaching a priminent dome-shaped rock platform with a spectacular view of the rolling hills. In the distance would be the US border. This was the second try, I added too much neutral and lost the colours, this time I kept the indothrene blue (PB60) and perylene green (PBk31) mostly true, with varying amounts of water. I worked from the light distant mountain downwards into the foreground trees. Since my last trip to Sutton I spent time and effort working out the details of how to paint this type of scene properly, even going up to Mount Royal to practice.

Sutton Lake view from Abenakis rock, watercolour 5 x 7" hot press, August 2021 (No. 2777a)

 

Now for some technical notes...This was the first take, I added carbon black to neutralize the distant blue but it became grey and washed out. The rest of the mountain ridges looked disjointed and I was unable to keep the tree definition in the foreground of the scene. It still looks okay this painting, but it is missing the feeling of blue mountains on the horizon that you see in the second take, A surprisingly challenging effect. The next day I went on a short bike ride and had the chance to really stare into the depths of the mountains, it occurred to me that these distant mountains are actually a combination of hue, saturation and value shifts. A triple threat! From foreground to background the hue shifts from yellow to blue, the value shifts from medium value to one value lighter, and the saturation shifts from fully saturated forest green to a low saturated grey-blue. Managing these three (H-S-V) shifts in one smooth gradient using the paint and brush will take some more practice for sure.

 First take, view from Abenakis rock, watercolour 5 x 7" hot press, August 2021 (No. 2777b)

 

 

Sutton Trip 2021, Day 1

 

The sun was a ball of tangerine blazing through a hazy sky. To paint this scene I did an underpainting with cobalt blue (PB28) and pyrole orange (PO73) with some magenta (PR122) and yellow (PY154). For the sun I used pyrole orange and yellow, fairly dark valued. The trees were done with orangy-green mixes and plenty of perylene green for contrast (PBk31). It did not start out in a Van Gogh style, but with a few curvy brush strokes here and there, and the typical tree he liked to do, voila!

Sutton Sunset Van Gogh Style, watercolour 5 x 7" hot press, August 2021 (No. 2772)

 

Perhaps more Monet style this one, conventional one might say. I refined the colour and value mixes based on the first painting, and included a rooftop of one of the houses along Maple street. The actual value of the sun was much higher (lighter) but one can not match both the hue and the value of a setting sun using paint and paper, so I went for the hue. To create depth and atmosphere, the distant tree line is a bluish grey.

Sutton Sunset Monet Style, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2021 (No. 2773)

Green Canadian

 Green Canadian is the name of a local fruit and vegetable store that we shop at frequently, it is located near Cavendish on Somerled Ave. I made it look a little better than it did, at least with respect to the fruit on display, they have a habit of putting the rotten fruit out front, but I showed some nice looking oranges and bananas using my artistic license. A fellow looked on and said 'Doing a drawing' to which I replied 'Watercolour', then I felt snobby. One reason I did this painting was to chronicle shops that are iconic to the neighborhood, and today, to test out this hot-press paper block. I am nearly out of the other cold press paper block, so I will try to use this one on the trip. I also cut a pile of Winsor and Newton pieces of my favorite cold press.

Green Canadian, watercolour 5 x 7" hot press, August 2021 (No 2771)

Sutton palette, palette cleansers

 In preparation for my hiking/biking/painting trip to Sutton I made some changes to my palette which involved moving a bunch of paint around and refreshing the wells. I used the extra paint to make these small landscapes in quick succession. This one draws upon the style of Van Gogh, who developed the interlocking brush stroke technique with the spinning disk sun.

 Troll Fire, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2021 (No. 2755b)

 

Using a similar technique, but with a forest theme and balanced colour scheme.

Wand Blast Forest, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2021 (No. 2767b)

 

Moving around burnt sienna is always messy, it is a very strong paint. It scans slightly red though, the actual painting is more dark caramel than it appears. 

Tree Be Me, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2021 (No. 2753b)

 

Finally the Sutton palette. The only significant change was to remove caput mortum (PR101) which is a dull, thick, red paint, and replace with a second blob of yellow (PY154). I also moved raw sienna over to the earth area (top left) and shifted the other earths around. The bottom doesn't change. You can practically see the forest already with all those browns and greens!

Sutton Palette

 

Insistent Tree

 The local bank branch shut down a few years ago on the corner of Cavendish and Somerled. Without maintenance, a tree grew from a crack in the sidewalk getting taller each year and now it is taller than the bus stop. I appreciate how nature can take over again if given the chance. At some point this tree will be cut down, so I decided to finally make a painting of it for posterity. It was also fun to paint a garbage bin, one of my favorite themes to indulge in from time to time. It was good to practice the greens because I will be on a hiking trip soon to my favorite haunt, that is mount Sutton.

Insistent Tree, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2021 (No. 2770)