Before doing a bit of shopping at the mall I walked around Cabot Square, a small park near the Atwater Metro station. Dozens of colourful balloons, kind of like tye-dye beach balls, adorned the trees. They stood out against the dreary backdrop of the black, grey and brown.There was no blue in the scene until a bus parked in the middle-ground and I quickly sketched it in. The tree trunk was nearly black, and had streaks of dark olive green and rusty oranges. The ground was partly thawed creating puddle and heaps of dirt-encrusted snow. It was a technical painting, the background had to be painted entirely between the tree branches and beach balls. I threw a few walnuts to the squirrels.
Cabot Square, Colourful Decorations, watercolour 5 x 7" hot press, March 2022 (No. 3088)
On the way back I spied this scene of the auto mechanic on Maisonneuve, the same one I
painted last year in the snow. This time there was a yellow mustang parked there, although in the painting it looks more like a pinto! The scene was damp, dreary and everything was covered in a layer of silt and dirt from the thaw. The yellow car and red brick really stand out against the muck and mire, kind of like the tree-balls in the earlier painting. I did this on a new block of watercolour paper called Fluid 100, it is a 140lbs cold press, cotton, acid-free, 8 x 10" format with 15 sheets. It handles beautifully and really holds the paint. The modern papers are excellent compared to some of the older fashioned brands.
Maisonneuve Auto Mechanic, Yellow Car, watercolour 6 x 8" cold press, March 2022 (No. 3001a)
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