Saturday Bike Ride and Painting

The Lachine canal was built in the 19^th century and it was expanded several times to accommodate larger vessels. Now it is only used for recreation and small boats to bypass the main river. The entrance to the canal has been mostly filled in with grass to create a small picnic area. In the painting, you see a narrow passage in the middle ground, with the curving stone wall that once marked the main central entrance point. In the foreground is the grassy field that would have once been water. In the background is Lachine, they demolished more of the old factories and warehouses probably to make more condos.

Lachine Canal Entrance, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2021 (No. 2825)

 

Following the bike path through Ranger park and along the waterfront of La Salle, I reached the Honoré Mercier Bridge which has two halves to it, as seen in the painting. There is a gravel parking area for utility vehicles that was empty, so I had a good vantage point to paint from. The sun was going down rapidly, that shadow you see on the grass was moving across the scene the whole time. Getting the perspective correct was important, I held the paper up to the scene and marked a few spots on the paper for accurate angles.

Between Bridges, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, September 2021 (No. 2906)

 

The timing was about right to catch a good sunset in the Turcot valley. I arrived a bit early so had a coffee there from a thermos I brought along. When the sun hit the horizon I noticed that one of the lamps was overlapping the sun perfectly, making it look like the sunset was emanating from the street lamp. As usual there was plenty of graffiti, and I changed it to resemble my signature for this year, PJD 21. The trick with this painting was getting the values correct. You can't mess around or lose time, so the first application of paint has to be the right value. Luckily it worked out, and you really get the illusion of a brilliant sunset on NDG.

Sunset on NDG, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2021 (No. 2826)

 

On the way back I noticed a shimmering full moon and knew exactly where I could paint it! There is an embankment at Trenholme Park, I painted a scene there last year. The lighting was from amber lights around the soccer pitch, so I had to adjust the colouration accordingly. Blue and green looks grey and yellows look pale when painting under amber lights, something I learned recently painting sunflowers on Somerled Avenue. None-the-less I was not sure it worked until I saw it at home under white light... the colours and values are almost identical to what I remember seeing. The night clouds were more of a shimmering greyish tone, but that would have been difficult to achieve along with the dark cyan sky. Next time I will try to get it all.

Moon over Warehouse, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2021 (No. 2827)