Park Extension Day Two

 

Today's goal was to go to Anatol bulk store in little Italy but it turns out they are closed on Sundays during the summer. Instead I headed back to Park Extension which is not far at all from Little Italy, they are only separated by Park Jarry. In this painting, I tried a new type of horizontal composition with one third of a building, a strong background element, and the rows of cars. The rows of cars are the hardest part but I am getting better at doing it! At least you get the feel of the neighborhood here.

Ogilvy Street, view West, Park Extension, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2022 (No. 3185)

 

This colourful storefront is up on Liege street, it is an Islamic-themed grocer that sells Halal meat and other products. Next door to it, there was a vegetarian grocer probably aimed at the Hindu market. It was interesting to see two such stores side-by-side, in fact the whole neigborhood had a mix of Islam and Hindu with backgrounds of India and Pakistan. To paint the store front I sketched out the shapes with watercolour paint and a small #4 brush (I never use pencil), and then proceeded to fill in the details. I could only stand on the diagonal corner so that the actual scene had a strong perspective that had to be squared out in the painting. Several people stopped to look and seemed to enjoy it.

Marche Macca, Park Extension, watercolour 8 x 10" Strathmore Gemini 400, July 2022 (No. 3052)

On the main drag, Jean Talon street, there are numerous stores and restaurants. These two stores provided another interesting contrast, on the left was a traditional Indian dress store with a chandelier, on the right was a Greek souvlaki restaurant. I was standing in the popular Athena park looking directly across the street. Aside from the subject matter, the two storefronts had contrasting bricks, shapes, and colours. To get the intricate, shimmering dress texture I applied a layer of golden yellow, which is a slightly neutral yellow-orange, applied red texturing with a number 4 brush using perylene maroon and pyrol red (PR179, PR254), then applied some neutral red shadowing. 

Indian Store, Greek Store (Neighbors) Park Extension, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2022 9No. 3186)