World Inspired Landscapes: Colombia, Rainbow River

In Colombia they have a remarkable river called Caño Cristales or Rainbow River where the interesting mosses, clays, and reflections create natural abstract art. You can look it up on the internet and see plenty of touristy photos. In the world inspired landscapes I try to avoid the cliches, but after some thought, this river just seemed like the right design for Colombia. Colourful and a little surprising. It is very hard to get to, deep in the south, so not that many tourists have ever laid eyes on it. The small waterfalls are almost blood red with moss, and the depths of the crystal clear water contain fluorescent yellows and greens. I did another Colombia painting, which was neat but the new version seems to capture a bit more of the obvious verve of the country. When I did the library research on Colombia I also read a Colombia cooking book, it was full of recipes, wine suggestions, and music lists. Clearly Colombians like to entertain!

World Inspired Landscapes: Colombia, Rainbow River, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2022 (No. 3055b)

Windy Winter With Snow Drifts

The new hiking path has been open since for quite some time now, people are using it for walking, snow shoeing, skiing, and for at least one person, biking and painting! This was done from the vantage point of a bridge that goes over the train tracks, the bridge also has a bike path. The colours in the train dried a bit faded due to the high salt content in the water. There was a stiff wind blowing straight down the valley into my face. I had to paint fast so as not to freeze.

Train in Winter, watercolour 5 x 7" hot press, January 2022 (No. 3056b)

 

This is one of the many benches they installed along the path. Today it was partly buried in the snow drift. The front of the drift was very bright since the sun was at my back. As you can see the paint was freezing a bit and very difficult to control, at one point the wind caught the painting and it fell into the deep snow. I bring a lot of rags with me these days, actually old T shirts that are cut up. So I brushed the painting off the best I could so the snow wouldn't ruin it. Just in case you wanted to know, the rags are mostly there to catch spills in my paint bag, blot my brushes off to keep the water clean, and in the winter I even have one for my runny nose.

Bench in Snow Drift, watercolour 5 x 7" hot press, January 2022 (No. 3057a)

Sunset Reflection CLSC

On the way back from the library I stopped to  make this quick painting of a sunset reflecting in the windows of the CLSC health building. The rest of the sky was overcast, it was a pastel blue with slight hints of sunset orange and yellow. The big pine tree on the right is part of the Benny park and sports complex where I often paint pictures. The key to painting the sunset reflection was actually the bricks that are over and under it. To mix the dark brick orange I used earth red (PR102) with a touch of carbon black (PBk6). The rest of the painting was done in a middle value, so that the highlight on the windows really pops. Today I cut the salt concentration a bit, so the paint was freezing on my palette. Luckily I could get the painting finished before everything froze solid! 

Sunset Reflection CLSC, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2022 (No. 3058b)

What Gives the Earth

 A golden vine twists and turns its way into sunlight. Small red and purple flowers bloom. To create the atmospheric effect I surrounded the object with a mix of purple magenta (PV19) and indo blue (PB60) and streaks of maroon (PR179). Over the top I put the tree line which blended with the sky colour. For the ground I applied burnt ochre (PR102) with brush strokes of dark green (PB31) and magenta (PR122). The colour codes specify what the pigment was in the paint. This information helps because paint names are not very informative all the time. The name name of paint can have different pigments depending on the company. It is something I started to pay more attention to starting around 2017 and then in 2020 I redid my whole palette to have mostly single pigment paints.

What Gives the Earth, watercolour 4.5 x 12" cold press, January 2022 (No. 2969b)

Snow Field, Sunny Day

 The sun was shining on a snowy field just outside of the building where my research laboratory is located. I stopped to make this painting real quick, just a simple field with one set of brave footprints crossing the deep snow. To create the appearance of glowing snow I made a three tone wash with pale yellow, yellow-orange, and blue. The footprints were added when the paint was still slightly wet. To provide the contrast, I included the gymnasium building in silhouette using a potent mix of red ochre (PR102), carbon black (PBk6) and some indo blue (PB60). Some of my students walked past on their way to the lab but they didn't notice that I was making a painting! 

Snow Field, Sunny Day, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2022 (No. 3062b)

World Inspired Landscapes: Croatia

 

Located on the Adriatic sea opposite to Italy, Croatia is a mountainous coastal country with a large inland region. Beaches run up and down the sea side interspersed by rocky cliffs and steep rocky hills dotted with trees. Where possible, villages have been built near the water and around the old fortifications. Croatia historically has been conquered many times which lead to a very diverse people and culture. In recent decades it grew to be a prosperous and unified country partly due to the effort to create a common 'Croatian' language that all their people could speak together. 

The painting was all about colour, value and composition. The rocky hills were a neutral red made with pyrol red (PR254), carbon black (PBk6), and just enough water to bring it to a warm neutral gray. The trees were a very dark olive green I made with perylene green (PBk31), a touch of indo yellow (PY110) and a touch of carbon black (PBk6). The beach-to-sea transition was made with a raw sienna for the sand (PY43 and PR102), greenish yellow ochre (PY43 and a touch of PG36), emerald green (PG36 some PBk31), then turquoise (PB60, PG36, PB28), and navy blue (PB60, PV19, PB28). I painted the sea colours fast so they blended together, but still maintained some clear depth lines, and a slight sparkle-effect near the top where the sun might be reflecting. 

With respect to composition, the painting is based on a meandering line that bisects the painting into land/sea. In the preliminary sketches I included a sky, but felt the composition was stronger if the whole picture area was just land and sea, as if you were flying over the scene looking down. The paper is 9 x 12", however the painting itself is confined to a 7.5 x 9.5" area since I am planning to put this one in an 8 x 10" mat opening. I am sharing a lot of technical details today, just to document my notes on the format and in case I want to repeat the neat sea colours (or if any other water painters want to try!).

World Inspired Landscapes: Croatia, watercolour 9 x 12" cold press, January 2022 (No. 2985)

Granulation Infatuation

 

Granulation is one of the properties unique to watercolour paints. It means that the pigments will form small clumps resulting in a textured appearance. Using rough press or cold press paper accentuates the effect due to the undulating surface of the paper. In the painting, you can see the granulation clearly in the sky and some of the shadowed-areas due to the use of cerulean blue. Water-painters tend to be infatuated with granulation due its magical appearance during the painting process. By the way, I am calling the act of painting with watercolour paints, 'water painting' as part of my effort to rebrand the name. Thus, a painter who uses watercolour paint, is a water-painter. I am sure this will catch on eventually! If there is oil painting, and acrylic painting, then it stands to reason there should be water painting.

Flying Kites, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, 2017 (No. 1499a)

 

This was on the back of the other painting. It is a totemic collage of doodles with a cool colour scheme. This painting contains many pigments that I recently stopped using including phthalo blue shade (PG7) french ultramarine (PB29), cerulean blue (PB35), and alizarin crimson (PR83). It is a window into somewhere.

Hilt Structure and Baloon, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, 2017 (No. 1499b)

Abstract Compositions

When composing an abstract painting there are no limits to what can be achieved. In this example, I established a textured-outline with black ink, and coloured it in with watercolours. The composition features a prominent tree occupying about half of the painting surface, a lush field of grass, and a city-scape on the horizon line. A silhouette of a cat is perched upon a branch. The cat is positioned at approximately the upper-middle quadrant of the picture, which is one of the traditional location to put a focal point.
 

Country Cat, Night, watercolour and ink, 5 x 7" cold press, 2008 (No. 1465)

In this small study, the focal point is located centrally which draws the eye into the glowing pink stained-glass. To break the symmetry, there is an off-center window in the background, and two differently-sized stone structures in the foreground. A purely symmetrical composition is usually considered bad form. Ideally the view will easily look at all parts of the painting, not just one part.

A Mind Glowing Time, watercolour 3 x 4.5" cold press, 2003 (No. 1467)

 

Here, I employed a traditional Chinese composition, where the painting contains a large open space. The elements are connected by your imagination. Obviously the bird is leaping off a branch, perhaps heading down to the ground. I got the idea from a painting by a master painter called Shec Von Luc which employed this technique. More recently I have been following some ideas from Japanese compositions which differ from Chinese in that they liked to fill all the space, and make prolific use of triangles and overlapping.

Nest From Above, watercolour 3 x 4.5" cold press, 2017 (No. 1466)

Bike Ride to Park Angrignon

With a slight improvement in the weather, I decided to go out for a bike ride on my little mountain bike. I call it the ab-master because my knees go high with each rotation much like doing the dreaded abdominal-crunches. It was definitely a physical challenge, although I made good time. The snow was compressed on the bike paths but riddled with foot prints and surrounded by deep snow. The original plan was to try to make it out to Lachine along the path, but it was clear that that would require a few more ab-crunches. The route to Park Angrignon involves crossing over the canal on a narrow foot bridge, and following the sidewalk of a road called Senkus through an industrial area, straight to the park. Turning left in the park, I arrived at the Angrignon station, and made this painting standing at the shore line of a frozen pond. The sun was directly behind me, creating an interesting perspective on the tree shadows. The iconic orange arches are seen in the distance.

Frozen Pond with view of Angrignon Station, Green Line, watercolour 5 x 7" hot press, January 2022 (No. 3061a)

 

This scene shows the small creek which flows through the park. The embankments were covered in soft snow and criss-crossed with trees and shadows. As I painted this I was thinking of a Szabo painting exercise I did in 2020, now that painting is with Mom and Dad in a nice frame. It also reminded me of the old days when Dad and I skied cross-country at Albion Hills or Palgrave. There was actually a pair of mallard ducks in the creek, they were strategically located near the bridge, behind me, and were getting a lot of attention,and food from the passer-byes.

Winter Creek, Park Angrignon, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2022 (No. 3062a)

 

Senkus Street has a massive warehouse and truck depot, which is not seen in this painting, but snow was blowing off the top of the warehouse in impressive billows of white powder. There was also an enormous pile of snow, and some condo building under construction in the background. I almost biked past this scene, but was tempted to try and capture the blowing snow effect. You certainly get the feel of an extremely cold day!

Blowing Snow near Warehouse, watercolour 5 x 7" hot press, January 2022 (No. 3061b)

Frosty Trees

 We had a another cold one today, and I'm not talking about a beer. The temperature has been hovering in the minus with a lot of wind chill making for some difficult water painting conditions. I'm calling it water painting because they call the other medias oil painting, and acrylic painting, so why not water painting? Today I cut the salt down slightly because of the issues I had last time, so in fact the water was freezing up a bit this time. The results were good though, the painting dried pretty much as I saw it on location, which was behind the Benny Sports complex. The sun was hanging lazily in the sky behind this group of trees and behind a mostly overcast cloud cover. Warm light was filtering through, creating a glow on the entire scene which I captures with isoindo yellow (PY110) and yellow ochre (PY43). The field was criss-crossed with sky trails and boot prints from all the people who had been out playing and skiing there. A few skiers went by, braving the cold. What drew me to this scene was its proximity to the library, where I picked some more books on countries that start with the letter C, and also, the frosty coating on the pine trees. Most of the painting was near-neutral, done with perylene green (PBk31) and magenta quinacridone (PV19), a combination I used a bit int he last word inspired painting on Congo. Who knew that I could use the same colour from a steamy tropical jungle to paint some frosty Canadian trees.

Frosty Trees, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2022 (No. 3059b)

World Inspired Landscapes: Congo

 

Officially the Republic of the Congo, this country is also known as Congo-Brazzaville, or just the Congo. It is in central Africa towards the west, a small part of the country is on the Atlantic Ocean coast. The main feature is the Congo river that meanders through mountain valleys, farm land and dense jungle. The Congo and surrounding area are one of the last refuges of lowland gorillas and critically endangered mountain gorillas. International conservation efforts have been successful, but poaching and habitat loss are a constant threat to the gorillas and all the other wildlife. Most of the people actually live in the city called Brazzaville which is about the same size as Montreal, just quite a bit hotter. 

The painting depicts a dense jungle with the proverbial gorillas in the mist. I wanted the composition to camouflage the gorillas such that they blended in with their surroundings at first glance. I made a page full of sketches of gorillas in order to get the silhouettes looking plausible enough. The colour scheme was intended to be near neutral with green, yellow, blue and magenta accents.  Most of the painting was done with a combination of phthalo green (PG36) and quin violet (PV19) which create a range of greens, bluish greys, and pale red. Yellow (PY154) and blue (PB15) were used in the water and sky. The last step was to apply some texturing and contrast with perylene green (PBk31). It is the dark olive colour in the jungle.

World Inspired Landscapes: Congo, watercolour 4.5 x 12" cold press, January 2022 (No. 2970)

Subject Matters

This painting was more or less a palette cleanser, since my paints were a right mess after doing some night paintings and using plenty of salt in the water. I was also exploring the idea of why the subject matters when doing art. Recently I developed several new themes such as the 68 stations of the Montreal Metro, the world inspired landscapes, and the abstract palette cleansers. It helps to have several themes in mind because it keeps things feeling fresh and always provides a new challenge. The location paintings demand an exacting standard of realism and faithfulness to the subject. The world inspired landscapes have a greater degree of freedom in colour and composition, but still have to deliver a concept. Abstract painting dispels all need for realism and concept, giving total freedom in colour and composition choice.  I found over the years that the different styles reinforce one another. Through abstract painting I gain ideas and experiences that translate into location paintings, and quite often my abstracts incorporate elements of realism. Every artist is on their own journey! I am glad there are still a few people interested in reading about my artistic journey. Subject Matters, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, January 2022 (No. 2968a)

World Inspired Landscapes: Comoros

 

Comoros is a small group of islands in the Indian Ocean, located off the coast of Madagascar. They are volcanic islands with pristine beaches and rolling, forested mountains. For the most part, Comoros is inhabited by people who migrated from Africa and Madagascar since antiquity, although it was at one time a part of the French colonial rule. One of their islands is still under dispute with France. What impressed me the most about Comoros was its remoteness, and the beauty of the sunsets as seen on Google earth. I also had a travel book on the island nations of the Indian ocean, but only a few pages were dedicated to Comoros. After painting scenes from a bird's-eye perspective such as Chile, I thought it would be neat to compose this painting from the ground up, literally. From a crab's-eye perspective!

As the viewer, you are crawling around amongst the land crabs that are common to the African coast and surrounding islands. Called a brown crab, or a coconut crab, these land crabs have adapted to life out of water. They seem to be vegetarians. I found a research article that talked about where the young land crabs live, because they are seldom seen. It turns out that the crabs dig deep nests that go below the water line, and the bottom of the nest fills up with watery sand. The scientists found the baby crabs living in the bottom of the nest submerged in the water. This is because crabs are actually underwater creatures, and land crabs have been slowly evolving to breath air. The adults can breath air, but the babies have to grow up in the watery environment first. The painting shows some of the adult land crabs, enjoying the Comoros sunset. They have eight legs and two claws for a total of ten, and their colours vary from sandy beige to deep earth-reds and browns.

World Inspired Landscapes: Comoros, watercolour 4.5 x 12" cold press, January 2022 (No. 2969a)

Gas Station on a Snowy Night

 With warmer temperatures, only -10℃ , it was possible to make a quick painting tonight in the neighborhood. The scene shows a local gas station illuminating a snow covered ground. The sky was an eerie mauve colour with streaks of indigo. Those colours tend to happen when it is overcast and the sun has gone below the horizon, they can be replicated with pyrol orange (PO73) and indo blue (PB60) and some touches of yellow (PY154). To get the snow-effect, you basically allow the snow to fall on the painting! It never looked this good though, just luck that the snow was small and granular. Too much snow will destroy the painting, but today I was lucky indeed. If you paint indoors, you can get a similar effect by tossing a bit of salt on the wash as it dries. Honestly I did not think this painting had much of a chance to work, but it really turned out well. One big help was the head light that Cilei gave me, it allowed me to see what I was doing and better judge the colours. To complete the experience, try to imagine giant snow plows and snow trucks rumbling by, interspersed with long moments of pure silence.

Gas Station on a Snowy Night, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2022 (No. 3060b)

Bike and Paint around Town

 

The weather was slightly warmer today than yesterday, at least there was less wind which enabled me to ride my winter bike. This scene is looking downtown, from the perspective of the St. Jacques over pass ramp. There is a new bike path that leads to the Lachine canal, I was standing on it to make this painting. To simplify things, I brought my leather attache with the art equipment inside. Just one container of salt water, three brushes, rags, and two pieces of paper, with the portable drying rack. It was a struggle to get the colour and contrast correct because the paint was literally freezing even though the water was still liquid. You can see the train tracks going into the distance. This used to be part of a large rail yard and depot, now it is highway, light rail and a nature path.

Train Tracks to Montreal, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2022 (No. 3060a)

 

I made it all the way down to the Ville St. Pierre bridge, luckily the path had been scraped and the snow was hard packed which made for easier riding than last time when the snow was thick. Still though, it was a great effort to peddle the small sized mountain bike that far, it is my ab-master workout! It was a challenge to get the chroma and contrast high enough, it looked okay when wet, but dried quite pale. I think the salt slows the drying time such that the paper absorbs the paint a lot more than usual. It is also hard to get enough colour on your brush when the paint blobs are freezing solid. I adapted some things for this painting, for example I started with the dark trees first, then filled in the lighter elements, which is generally opposite to what you would do in watercolour. It was necessary though, because had I painted the lighter background first, the trees would have been fuzzy. To get the contrast in the snow, you see the shadows coming down an embankment due to the sun in the background, I used indo blue (PB60) with some grey added (PV19 + PG36) and for the warm snow it was mostly dilute isoindo yellow (PY110). The structure in the background is the factory I painted a few years ago in the pandemic-blues series, and you can see one of the many highway overpasses hiding behind the trees to the right. 

Silhouette of Tree Line, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2022 (No. 3059a)

Sunset on Snowy Field

We are still in the midst of a nasty cold snap, the temperature and wind chill were really bitter today. On the way back from the library, where I picked up books on Congo and Croatia for my world inspired landscape series, I stopped to make a painting of the sun setting on a snowy field behind the sports complex. If you zoom in you can see the ice crystal formation. The paint ran on the left, it probably froze and thawed later on at home. These paintings are really organic, a product of their elements; it is a style unto itself! The sun was streaking through the trees which created orange slashes of light across the dark blue snow. The tree line was critical to make the painting work. To achieve the dark olive green I worked up a mix of perylene green (PBk31), burnt ochre (PY43) and some carbon black (PBk6). While the water was not freezing due to the salt, the blobs of paint on my palette were freezing which made it difficult to work up the colours. A strong wind was also coming across the park. You can see the signature I just squeezed in with the last feelings in my hands, I was wearing the moose mitts of course! 
 

Sunset on Snowy Field, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2022 (No. 3058a)

World Inspired Landscapes: Colombia

 

Colombia is located at the very top of South America. Its proximity to central America has made Colombia a major thoroughfare for migrants who are travelling to Mexico and the United States. The geography is mountainous and rich with tropical jungles and rivers. The south part of Colombia contains Amazonian rain forest with small towns dotting the countryside. There is even a river called the rainbow river, you can look it up on the internet, which has all the colours of the rainbow due to red, yellow and green moss, with ochre and umber rocks and blue sky reflections. It was tempting to do a painting of that river, but I decided on a lush jungle interior scene. As the design evolved, I included a tree crossing the river like a make-shift bridge, and a winding path that disappears into the foliage. The rocks are covered with an intense, almost neon-green moss. I added the extra slice of river at the very bottom of the painting, with one rock poking up. It gives you the feeling of immersion. You can almost imagine trying to make it across this river and onward into unknown dangers.

World Inspired Landscapes: Colombia, watercolour 5 x 7" hot press, January 2022 (No. 3057b)

 

I made numerous sketches before settling on a horizontal format with the waterfall flowing from top right to bottom left. In this preliminary sketch I established some of the colour scheme which included an array of yellow and chartreuse, dark raw umber rocks, and a wild river with ochre highlights. The design concept focused mostly on the water effect, with the fallen tree being carried by the water. While looking at this sketch, I closed my eyes and reflected on all that I knew about Colombia and realized that the tree had to be a bridge, and the forest had to have a path. In the final painting, the landscape flows right to left, while the walking path goes from front to back. The walking path represents a hiking path, or an an animal trail, or it represents the journey of a migrant through the dangerous jungle.

World Inspired Landscapes: Colombia, watercolour, sketchbook, January 2022

Cold Day Brrrr

The main goal for painting today was to prove a point. I don't know what point I was trying to prove. That water with 30% salt wont freeze, that my insulation works, that my Baffin boots are rated to -40℃. At least I managed to get a watercolour painting completed on location in the extreme cold. One challenge was that the sky area would not dry quickly enough, so I had to stand there wafting the sheet for an extra 10 minutes before I could apply the trees. Then to my horror the whole painting dried very pale. So the last touch was to make up some dark black the best I could, and put in the finishing details like the car trim, building segments, and tree textures. For proof of extreme weather, you can see the ice crystal shapes in the sky, and I took a screenshot of the weather report, see below.  

Cold Day Brrrr, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2022 (No. 3056a)

 

Cold Night Past Curfew

Finally I got out to make a quick painting despite the cold, bitter wind, night time, and curfew. All bundled up, I dropped off the compost into our backyard composter, and then squeezed through the front gate which was partly frozen into the ground. Standing on our garden terrace I could see a near perfect half moon on a slight tilt. The wind was strong and I worried that my palette might blow away. Since it was past curfew, I did not want to be running down the street after a palette! Luckily everything stayed put and I managed to get a painting completed from just outside of our condo. The view is across the street, there were a few windows lit up- people smarter than me staying indoors. They had one of those car tents out front. There was also a street light in this scene, and a telephone pole, but there was no way I could include them considering the conditions. The painting was turning to slush as I painted it, you can see bit of ice crystal around the moon. And I had the max amount of salt in the water, which is 300 grams per liter. I also had my new headlight on which really helped out, thanks to a thoughtful gift from Cilei.
 

Cold Night Past Curfew, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2022 (No. 3055a)

World Inspired Landscapes: Chile

Chile has perhaps the most diverse landscape of any country in the world. Stretching for more than 4000km along the west coast of South America, it has desert, forest, jungle, valleys, mountains, beaches, and even ice bergs. Chile also has claim over Easter Island where the famous indigenous statues still stand, Robinson Crusoe island which inspired the story, and a large swath of Antarctica. Many of the countries that I researched for the series were heavily affected by colonialism, and Chile is no different. It was conquered by the Spanish over the Incan empire. In fact the Incan empire had only recently taken over that part of South America when the Spanish arrived. It must have been a difficult time for the people. They also had their share of political strife, but these days Chile is more wealthy, prosperous, and democratic than ever before.

The landscapes that grabbed my attention were in the south, in an area called Patagonia near the border with Argentina. I did a birds-eye view painting of Argentina back in 2020 when the pandemic started. There are several nature reserves in the south of Chile such as  Laguna San Rafael National Park. You can search that on the internet and see amazing views of glaciers and glacial lakes nestled among steep rocky peaks and forested mountainsides. It is a major tourist attraction, people take tour boats on the water to get close to glaciers. For my painting, I wanted to go where the tourist boats can not go, that is, to the top of the glacier. At first you see a river of ice, then you notice the tourist boat at the top of the painting, and the perspective completes the illusion of standing atop a Chilean glacier, looking down on the glacial lake.
World Inspired Landscapes: Chile, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2022 (No. 2966)

 

This is the first version I did, the piece was done to test out a few ideas. The tourists on the boat are looking up at the glacier. I felt that the scene was a little too obvious, one can find pictures like this on the internet. I imagined being atop the glacier looking down, and painted the boat at the top of the painting. It made a fascinating optical illusion. I found myself staring at this painting for a long time, my brain working overtime to figure out what it was! You can simultaneously see both perspectives. It gives the impression that you have climbed up the glacier, and are then looking back down on the boat.

 It was a lot fun to learn more about Chile, maybe another place to visit one day!

World Inspired Landscapes: Chile version i, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, January 2022 (No. 2965b)

World Inspired Landscapes: Chad

Chad is located in central Africa adjacent to several other countries including two that I painted recently, Cameroon and Central African Republic. Similar to those countries, Chad was a colonial era country colonized brutally by France. I read a set of graphic novels depicting the violence of the French army and their local militia against the local tribes. This area is rich in resources and land; many countries were trying to establish colonies in the region. Now Chad is a sort of democracy but continues to have troubles with political issues and ethnic violence. Despite all this, Chad seems to be well visited, I found youtube videos and plenty of google images. Part of the country has the Sahara Desert, and in the north they have the Ennedi Plateau which inspired this painting. There are incredible rock formations that look just like they came out of a Wile-e-cote and roadrunner episode. Another neat thing about Africa are the incredible views of the stars and the milky way due to the low amounts of artificial light. In the painting, I embellished a scene of the milky way and a starry-night.
 

World Inspired Landscapes: Chad, watercolour 5 x 7" hot press, January 2022 (No. 3054)

World Inspired Landscapes: Central African Republic

 

Central African Republic is yet another colonial-era country that came to independence followed by turmoil and civil war. The unrest continues to this day. I borrowed a book from the library, it was one of the few available on this country. The book is an excellent graphic novel written in French, by Didier Kassai and Marc Ellison, called a House without Windows. It tells the story of the children who lost their parents and live off the land, mostly in the brutal mining industry. Many are former child soldiers who are being reintroduced into society by world organizations who work in the country to help restore peace. When I google search Central African Republic, one particular type of image kept coming up, it was an elephant watering hole surrounded by enormous, seemingly impossibly tall trees. It was a tiny section of jungle preserved for tourists who could visit there and take pictures of the wildlife from a safe distance. The rest of the country seemed an arid desert interspersed with lush forests and rivers. The composition of the painting juxtaposes a jungle oasis, a hiding place of sorts, against a desolate and unwelcoming background. It sums up a county of paradoxes, a country of potential. 

World Inspired Landscapes: Central African Republic, watercolour 6.5 x 7.5" rough press, January 2022 (No. 2967)

In, Looking Out

 

With the curfew back we are once again inside looking out. At least after 10PM which is not such a big problem. This painting shows some of the locals hiding behind windows, perhaps in a condominium shaped like a chicken. A living-vase searches for meaning. I chose to use fall colours here just to feel warm. Actually, earth colours are prevalent in winter scenes, you see a lot of brick walls, tree trunks, and not much else. The background treeline was based on my memories of the new path they built down by the old rail yard. To get the highlight on top I used isoindo yellow (PY110), with umber (PBr7) in the shadow area.  

In, Looking Out, 9 x 12" watercolour paper, watercolour, January  2022 (No. 2965a)

Dépanneur Gong, Cold Day

After a half day of work in the office I made a quick painting out int he frigid weather. The Dépanneur Gong is a hole in the wall near campus that I go to now and then. It was a tough painting any time of the year, today the paint was freezing a bit making it hard to control, not to mention the hands were feeling it despite my moose mitts. At any rate, the painting turned out okay, you definitely feel the cold and see some evidence of the snow. It dried with a frozen texture and pale appearance which furthers the fridgid feeling.

Dépanneur Gong, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2022 (No. 3053b)

First Snow, and Blog, of Year

 

This is the first snow, painting, and blog of the new year. The painting shows avenue Benny, beside the cultural center where I dropped off a book on Central African Republic today. The cars were heaped with snow, they looked like a row of marshmallows. Obviously most people stayed in today, since these cars had not moved since the snow started this morning. To paint in the winter I use a much simplified bag of gear. For doing one painting, I bring one brush, one paper, one container with salt water, the palette and some rags. The problem there is that the water gets dirty, so if I do more than one painting I bring a container for dirty water, and a small glass jar for a small amount of clear water. Managing the water helps keep the colours look clean, such as the blue glow on the snow. The bag I have been using for over a year now is a Calvin Klein leather attache case I picked up at the second hand store. Gotta paint in style!

First Snow of Year, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2022 (No. 3053a)