Its a Fake Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

 

Riding around the neighborhood after work there were some children with their parents getting an early start on the trick-or-treating. Halloween is a uniquely North American invention where kids dress up and go door-to-door for candy. Some people make elaborate decorations for their property consisting of ghosts, spiders, dead people, tombstones, witches, and spooky looking pumpkins. This pumpkin was an inflatable one, it was accompanied by some scary fences and a witch. It was kind of fun to capture the artificial orange colour, I used benzi orange (PO62) and the incredible pyrol orange (PO73).  The owners of the house and some neighbors were around and took a look at the painting, they seemed to get a kick out of the idea that an artist had stopped to paint the decoration.

Its a Fake Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2022 (No. 3278)

World Inspired Landscapes: Germany

 

Flipping through a travel guide for Germany revealed a lot of castles, medieval-style towns, and lush forests. One of the most famous forests is the Black Forest, known for its tall pine trees and beaming rays of sun penetrating the mist. Unfortunately, Germany is also known for clear cutting forests in order to strip-mine for bauxite and other ores in the earth. Its sad to think of the thousands of years of history wrapped up in a forest that gets converted into a desolate open-pit mine in a matter of months. I contemplated making this painting a single, long brown brushstroke to symbolize the razed earth, but then decided instead to try and show what the beauty of nature can be by showing the trees and the undergrowth. To do the painting, I put down a graded wash to create the background glow, then applied the trees using a mix of indo blue (PB60) and burnt yellow ochre (PR102), with some carbon black (PBk6) in the foreground trees. Dabs of yellow and olive green completed the effect.

World Inspired Landscapes: Germany, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, October 2022 (No. 3204a)

Ride around Rue Cabot

The Lachine canal has an intriguing mix of old and new industrial areas, with plenty of condos and hipster shops mixed in. Not far from the pink house, seen up in the background, is the Ambrose brewery. I also saw a spirits distillery in the neighborhood which seemed to have a restaurant inside, and some neat houses around the Cabot street area. This underpass goes under the canal. After doing the painting I rode along the sidewalk and emerged back on the other side. 
 

Rue St. Remi Underpass, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2022 (No. 3276a)

 

An old train bridge remains over the canal, now it is just for pedestrians and bicycles, no more train tracks. The painting just shows a sliver of the bridge, and a steep incline beside it. On the other side is a refurbished building that used to be a electrical station.

View under old Train Bridge, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2022 (No. 3274b)

 

This building used to be an electrical power station, but now it is a deluxe hotel for pets, otherwise known as a doggy day care or kennel. If that isn't a shining example of gentrification then nothing is!

Refurbished Electrical Station, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2022 (No. 3277a)

 

This is view along Cabot street, the graffiti artists had a lot of space to work with on the industrial sized walls and sides of buildings. I liked the contrast in yellows. It was a real challenge to get the Bart character correct, the graffiti artists got it exactly right, but in my painting Bart looks a little too tall. Anyways it was a fun painting to do, unlike anything I have painted before.

Free Bart, watercolour 8 x 10" Strathmore Series 400, October 2022 (No. 3337)

 

Moon over Sunset

Today there was a crescent moon hanging over the Science Pavilion building where my office is located. The sun was also setting, which created an interesting effect. The sky was a pale orange which transitioned to a magenta hue, then blue at the top. It was cool and dark out already so the paint was not drying well. This is the view from where I locked my bike up, in the quad area where I have made many painting before. It only took around 5 minutes to do this painting, mostly because it was quite cold, and the darkness was falling. Then someone turned off a light in one of the nearby offices and I lost my light source. At any rate, it worked out well enough, the colours are neat.
 

Moon over Sunset, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2022 (No. 3277b)

Train Tracks and Graffiti

 On the way back from picking up some lunch at Snowdown Bakery, I stopped in Coffee park and made a painting looking back across the train tracks. A maintenance shed had some prominent graffiti on it which I converted to my initials. Most of the leaves are off the trees by now, but a few gold and orange trees remained. The trick behind painting the graffiti is to maintain value contrast. A yellow or white spray paint looks light on a dark background, but the fill colours, usually black or blue are much darker. Who knew that making paintings of graffiti could be such an art form in itself.

Train Tracks and Graffiti, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2022 (No. 3276b)

Radiant Divide

At first glance a painting may seem to be flat, like a stained-glass window. Then the composition reveals an illusion of space. In this painting, there are several overlapping elements that give a sense of depth and rhythm. The great Japanese print designer Hiroshige used this technique a lot, albeit in much more realistic scenes. I was just cleaning my palette after quite a few fall paintings over the last week. 

Radiant Divide, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, October 2022 (No. 3204b)

Lunch for One in a Field

Back in the famous field at the end of Harley street I found the table set up again with the pink chair. Two beers and pack of cigarettes were also adorned the still life scene. Midway through the work, the owner of the beers and smokes showed up and was interested to know why I was painting the scene. He really liked the painting, then took his stuff and sat off to the side. Everything was covered in leaves at this time of year, although the weather was very warm. The next few days it will even be over 20℃ which is unusual for this time of year. When I was a kid it would often snow by now, or at least be very cold in time for Halloween. 

Lunch for One in a Field, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2022 (No. 3274a)

Fall Colours through the Trees

 

Summit Park is one of the few urban forests left in Montreal. it is criss-crossed with walking paths and filled with tall trees. Today the yellows and oranges were brilliant, glowing through the dark tree trunks. When I added the tree trunks, then the composition really came alive and the fall colours started to glow. Recently I started adding textural layers, for example, the leaves and detail elements were all done with a succession of quick brush dabs. Painting in a forest on an overcast day is a real challenge, but in this case it worked out great, the painting really brings the viewer into the scene.

Fall Colours through the Trees, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2022 (No. 3273)

View from Summit Park, Fall

Summit park is in Westmount near the top of the mountain. There is a viewing platform with a view of downtown Montreal and the river which is lined with condo towers. A lot of people were here today taking pictures and enjoying the fantastic weather. In the foreground was a sumac trees and other large trees, which seemed to dissolve into the puzzle-like city and into the background. I started with a red-blue-yellow wash from top to bottom, then started adding the trees while moist. As the painting dried I layered over the building details and foreground. This painting was on the larger format, 9 x 12" cold press, it is a block of paper from Fabriano. 

View from Summit Park, Fall, watercolour 9 x 12" cold press, October 2022 (No. 3205a)

Wildflowers near Aqueduct

Just across from Park Angrignon is the aqueduct and then Verdun, which would be on the right of this scene. Someone had planted a large area with wildflowers, in every colour from magenta to blue to yellow. I almost passed on this one, but after having a snack and enjoying the warm sun I decided to go for it. First, I established the greenery that surrounds the flowers using a shade of green that I developed when painting the Chair in Field of Yellow Buttercups. It is a lime green, yellow chartreuse, but slightly neutralized with indo yellow (PY110). Leaving a lot of white spaces, I then filled in the flower shapes without trying to be too realistic. The main thing was to convey the feeling of the flowers. Its surprising considering we are in the last week of October and still painting wildflowers!
 

Wildflowers near Aqueduct, watercolour 8 x 10" Strathmore Gemini, October 2022 (No. 3340)

Fall Scenes Park Angrignon

The weather was uncharacteristically warm this weekend, it was like spring but with fall leaves. These trees were in Park Angrignon, the ground was almost completely covered in orange and red leaves. Light was illuminating the shadows with an array of coloured tints.
 

Fall Leaves, Backlit Trees, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2022 (No. 3272)

The pond was reflecting the trees, creating a kaleidoscope of blue sky and earth oranges and olives. Painting reflections in water is one of the hardest things, the water casts different highlights, and leaves floating on the surface create more texture. Close to the shore you can see the bottom of the pond through the water.

Pond Fall Reflections, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2022 (No. 3266b)

I painted this strange scene just to see if the composition was any good. The circular window of the Angrignon station was down a steep slop of grass, and a bus was parked on the left. The window of the bus was reflecting the trees, and the sun was backlighting everything.

Metro Angrignon Bus Stop, with Sloping Hill, watercolour 8 x 10" Strathmore Series 400, October 2022 (No. 3341b)

Vegetables Truck Unloading

 

This is how we get our vegetables in Montreal, out of the back of a truck! Actually it is the Lufa Farms truck that delivers vegetables, and a lot of other things, once a week. I had already picked up our order, which comes in a small grey bin, when I stopped to make a quick painting in the spitting rain. To start the painting I made a quick outline in grey paint in order to capture the figures and the truck before any movement. I filled in the red lights and other highlight areas, then moved to the night sky and dark buildings. As usual the sky was done with a mix of pyrol orange (PO73) and indo blue (PB60), with a touch of burnt red ochre (PR102) in the cloudy areas. Finally I added some texturing to the road to simulate rain drops and running water. 

Vegetables Truck Unloading, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2022 (No. 3271)

Party Over in the Field

Just across the train tracks at the end of Harley street there is a big empty field populated only by disused furniture. Without a park in this neighborhood it is the only place to sit. Today the table was collapsed and chairs over-turned and badly damaged. I guess the party is over. It was a good way to symbolically end summer of 2022, doing a painting depicting a destroyed kitchen set in an open field. The leaves have been turning colours and falling steadily over the past week, leaving a kaleidoscope of earth yellow, orange and red on the ground. To paint the grassy field full of leaves I began with a flat yellow-brown wash, then overlaid small brushstrokes starting with green, yellow, orange and finishing with darker green and red-brown. In the background is an auto shop that does major car repairs. Occasionally the staff see me painting pictures in this field and probably wondering what the heck I am doing!
 

Party Over in the Field, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2022 (No. 3270)

Fall Colours, subtle

 

On my lunch hour I popped out of the office to check on something in the laboratory, and then made a quick painting back in the campus quad. These trees were earthy orange, yellow and green colours, with a similar brick wall colour in the background. The sky was a mix of clouds and overcast which I depicted with thin washes of yellow (PY43) and diluted red-orange (PO73) with grey-purple dropped in while wet (PB60, PR179, PY43). After the intense colour exploration yesterday, I was going for a more subdued fall colour scheme.

Subtle Fall Colours, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2022 (No. 3269b)

Fall colours, intense

 

This painting is a remake of a painting I did on location the same day. The red bricks were almost, but not quite, the same shade as the prominent burning bush shrubbery. A large tree had glowing leaves, and the background had light blue panels and windows showing bookshelves inside. To make red colours I used various mixes of pyrol red (PR254), perylene maroon (PR179), burnt yellow ochre (PY43), and quinacridone magenta (PR122).

Intense Fall colours, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, October 2022 (No. 3202b)

 

 

Here is the original one done on location. The colours were too intense and the shape of the shrub was lost in the details. In the remake, I depicted the red shrub as a focal point, and tones down the saturation. Fall colours tend to be less intense than we might think. It is a matter of the surrounding elements that make the fall colours appear to be intense. Everything is so drab this time of year that any colour will pop out.

Too Intense Fall Colours, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2022 (No. 3269a)

 

 

Soup on Canvas

 

Recently some anti-oil activists threw tomato soup onto a Van Gogh painting and then glued their hands to the wall. Luckily for the painting it was encased in glass and untouched by the soup. Maybe it was Campbell's soup? When thinking up name for this palette-cleaning painting, the story came to mind, and it did look a little like someone threw tomato soup at the canvas.

Soup on Canvas, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, October 2022 (No. 3202a)

Dépanneur Diamond 10, Fall version 5

Besides the nice weather, the main reason for riding to Lachine was to try the Dépanneur Diamond 10 painting once more. In this version, the best ideas from the previous paintings were combined, and some figures added from real life. Today the leaves were blowing, which solved the foreground problem. Instead of thinking too much I just remembered the previous experiences, and kept Van Gogh's The Yellow House in the back of my mind. In this version, I kept the palette harmonious and the details fairly loose. As some people strolled by I captured their likeness with simple outlines. The finishing touches were to apply the leaves, balcony and details on the front door. Finally, I am quite happy with the finished product. It captures the spirit and the atmosphere of the scene, and conveys the building as a character, as part of the community.  

Dépanneur Diamond 10, Fall version 5, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, October 2022 (No. 3203)

Another nice day for a ride to Lachine

 

Down St. Louis street in Lachine there are several shops, restaurants and old architecture. This house had a shop on the ground floor, and a curving aluminum spire gleaming in the sun. Quite a few people stopped to look and had good things to say about the painting.

House with Spire, Lachine, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2022 (No. 3265a)

 

Turning south at any point in Lachine brings you to the canal path and the river. Sun rays were beaming through the clouds in a fan-like shape. The point of land is the water break they added to protect the marina. In the foreground is a sliver of the bike path. To paint the sun beams I applied the sky, let it semi-dry then used a moist brush to lift the beams. When it was totally dry I added a thin layer of orange-yellow to make it glow.

Sun Beams on the River, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2022 (No. 3263b)

 

On the way out of Lachine there are several vacant lots that look like they are being primed for condo development. I set up by bike-studio in the middle of one of them, and painted this view of Boul st Joseph looking east. The old apartment had one of those curvy spires on it. Industrial remnants filled the background.

View from Vacant Lot 1, watercolour 8 x 10" Strathmore Gemini, October 2022 (No. 3341a)

 

Without much pause I turned to face due south and painted another scene from the vacant lot. The trees and cars made a colourful contrast for the moonscape-like foreground surface. It was completely overcast by now, so I had to really emphasize the colours and the value contrast. If you paint what you see on an overcast day it will turn out bland, so the trick is to exaggerate everything and it will look good under normal lighting at home.

View from Vacant Lot 2, watercolour 8 x 10" Strathmore Gemini, October 2022 (No. 3338b)

Still overcast, I made this painting of the large industrial frames that are still standing in a derelict factory. They seem to be made for moving heavy loads back and forth, maybe it was some kind of truck depot or warehouse in the old days. I know one thing is for sure, it will all be condos soon enough! But for now nature is making the most of it.

Industrial Overgrowth, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2022 (No. 3266a)

Truck Unloading at Marché Fruiterie Cité

Today at lunch hour I rode down to Renaissance to look for something in the store, then headed over to Harley street for a quick painting. A cube truck was unloading crates of fruits and vegetables in front of Marché Fruiterie Cité. The two fellows didn't stick around very long, I made a simple outline and filled in the details from memory. In fact, the truck drive off before finishing the painting. A local stopped and looked, they were amazed that I could just pull up my bike and start painting something! To capture the interior of the van, a version of yellow ochre (PY43) from Daniel Smith company was used. It is the colour of raw pine, or light toffee. Unlike the other yellow ochre from Da Vinci company, the Daniel Smith one has more orange in it. Yellow ochre is not a precise colour concept, it can range from dijon-mustard all the way to toasted marshmallow.

Truck Unloading at Marché Fruiterie Cité , watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2022 (No. 3268)

Renovated path and hillside

Its not that bad after all. A few years ago, I made a painting from what I thought was a secret place. Not so secret anymore, the city plowed it over and gave it a facelift with new landscaping and paths for everyone to enjoy. Today I took a little detour and made this painting of the hillside that was barren but is now growing well with grass, trees and shrubs. The only things missing were the bur plants that populated the area before the renovations. To rectify the situation I picked a handful of burs from our backyard plant and spread them around here.

Renovated Hillside, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2022 (No. 3267a)

Looking up the path I saw this interesting interplay between two fences. The one on the left was a heavy looking aluminum-beam fence sitting upon the train yard retainer wall.  The wooden fence in the upper right was to keep pedestrians from venturing down the hillside. To capture the rich warm grey of the path, which is made of crushed rocks, I mixed indo blue (PB60) with benzi red (PR175) and yellow ochre (PY43). That mix is very flexible, it can be tinted towards purplish or yellowish, and can become very dark if needed. I find that mix does not fade away when it dries, so its much easier to correctly judge the values. In this painting the grey path had to be middle value so that the grass was lighter, but the shadows were darker.

Path and Fences Interplay, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2022 (No. 3267b)

Squash and Pumpkin

Just a quick painting done today of a squash and a pumpkin  out front. In the background you can see Joe and Ralph's Auto shop. The pumpkin has a more yellow-orange but the scanner shifts it towards red. To make the vegetables really glow I surrounded them with middle greys and dark details. For grey I mix indo blue (PB60) with benzi red (PR175) then yellow ochre as needed (PY43). That combination is very flexible and useful for stone, concrete and asphalt.

Squash and Pumpkin,  watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2022 (No. 3262b)

Memorial Bicycle

Throughout Montreal there are white bicycles locked up to white poles. These are memorials to cyclists who died at a particular intersection. Not to worry anyone, but this intersection is considered one of the worst ones in the city, at the corner of St. Patrick and Dollard. There are two highway on/off ramps merging with a busy 4 way intersection, and a popular donut store, Tim Horton's, on one corner. If you are patient the intersection is fine, just follow the symbols, but on occasion I see cyclists taking chances and crossing against the directions. To paint the memorial bicycle which was bathed in shadow, I paid careful attention to the value contrasts. Despite being all white, it appeared to be a middle-grey blue. Against the sun-lit road the bike was darker, but against the shadowed-grass it appeared lighter. 

Memorial Bicycle, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2022 (No. 3264)

Paintings around Lachine

Down St. Louis Street there is the Lachine Market that mostly sells flowers, and a pub called Au Coin du Feu (Corner of Fire) painted hot pink. People kept coming out and smoking on the corner, but I left them out of the scene. In the background was a typical house of the area, with plaster wall, art deco trim, and a hefty looking steel balcony and staircase.

Au Coin Du Feu, watercolour 8 x 10" Strathmore Gemini, October 2022 (No. 3333a)

Not shying away from anything, I tackled this difficult scene of yellow poplars against the blue river. Getting the yellow detailing in against a blue and green background can be very difficult in watercolours. The Group of Seven painters did an amazing job of it using oil paints. I'll have to work on it a bit more, but you get the idea.

Yellow Trees and Birdhouse, watercolour 8 x 10" Strathmore Gemini, October 2022 (No. 3334a)

The sun was shining through these tall trees, casting shadows in all directions. I started with the sun and sky using wet-in-wet, just leaving a circle where the sun was. Then I filled in the trees, grass and foot bridge. The bridge used to span a part of the canal, but they filled in this part of it with earth, grass and trees. Finally I painted the trees over top of the whole scene which was a little risky but it worked out pretty well. 

Sun Shining through Trees, watercolour 8 x 10" Strathmore Gemini, October 2022 (No. 3335a)

Dépanneur Diamond 10

Its not often that I return to a location and repeat a scene, let alone three times. One of my favorite paintings of the year, Chair in a Field of Yellow Buttercups, was done one week after the first visit to the field. Yesterday I was down in Lachine doing this scene again, but the composition was not quite right and so I spent this morning sketching out some ideas and studying Van Gogh's 'The Yellow House' which depicts a similar subject matter. He used an unusual perspective, apparently on purpose, where the perspective lines did not quite converge on either side. In Dépanneur Diamond 10, I emulated the odd perspective lines and it seemed to work out quite well. The facade of the store, and the entrance are now the focal point, and the attached apartment unit sits comfortably to its side. To solve the foreground problem I included the cross walks which draw attention to the front door, and installed a parking sign to keep your eye from wandering off. In a nod to The Yellow House, I made the neighbors house pink with a green window. I think this painting is close to what I imagined but I can still see some room for improvement. Maybe another ride down to Lachine? At least it is not far, just about 20 minutes by bike.

Dépanneur Diamond 10, version iv, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, October 2022 (No. 3207a)

Some Fall colours

 

This train bridge over the canal was interesting, it had a rusted patina that echoed the fall colours. Today, the sky was mostly overcast with intermittent bursts of sunlight making it difficult to paint because the lighting on the subject matter kept changing. I went with an overcast look for the train bridge painting.  

Lachine Canal Bridge with Fall Colours, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2022 (No. 3263a)

 

 

Looping around to my favorite bulk food store Anatol, I rode back to NDG via Park Extension. I made a painting of this particular park on my 2 day study of Park Extension, for the blog clock here Park De Lestre, Park Extension. To do this painting I established the path with a dull red, then applied the bluish shadows while moist. Once dry, I applied textures on the path with the hog's hair brush, then overlaid the fallen leaves. There were not really this many leaves, I just started having fun painting the leaves and added a lot of them.

Park De Lestre, Fall Leaves,  watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2022 (No. 3265b)

 

The main location for the day was a return to Dépanneur Diamond 10, where I was last week. The painting didn't turn out the way I hoped and I spent the week thinking about how to fix it. In this version I toned down the reds and got the pale yellows and oranges adjusted. The front door of the Dep is more prominent. It almost worked out but the attached building got cut off awkwardly.

Depanneur Diamond 10 version ii, watercolour 9 x 12" cold press, October 2022

 

I tried shrinking down the size of the building and lopped off some of the attachment. Unfortunately the building is sliding off the left side, and the focal point is not falling on the front door. I may have to think about it and try again. Apparently this building will be torn down, probably next spring. Furthermore, my inspiration is that it looks a lot like Van Gogh's painting called The Yellow House. So far, I solved the colours, values and textures but the composition needs to be fixed. Van Gogh used dramatic perspective lines to fit the scene onto his canvas, and his colour/value contrast was at the extreme. He also daubed in some pedestrians for an added sense of community.

Depanneur Diamond 10 version iii, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, October 2022 (No. 3335b)

Fire Truck Whizzes By

 

Continuing my series of paintings of nearby locations, here is a fire truck whizzing by on Sherbrooke with fall colours in the background. I had to memorize the details quickly and fill it in from memory. Luckily another one went by and I got a better look at it. There must have been a fire somewhere! There are artists out there who can memorize a scene and draw it in great detail from memory, they are literally savants. I'm going to need to practice that some more, things like cars, people, and ducks never seem to sit still for long.

Fire Truck Whizzes By, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2022 (No. 3262a)

See the Idea

 Lately its been paintings on location close to sunset, in and around the campus. NDG tends to be quite grey, green brown and blue. Doing these palette cleansers is fun, just to see all the bright colours on the paper. I also take ideas from the location paintings, for example, the sky here was similar to what I did for sunflowers on a rainy day. The rusty shapes resemble a train bridge.
 

See the Idea, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, October 2022 (No. 3200)

Sunset over Train Tracks

 After work, with the sun going down, I found this scene looking north west into the Cote St. Luc neighborhood. The sun was setting which created an orange glow and a beam of light cutting through the apartment buildings. In the foreground was the train overpass with several sets of tracks. The painting isn't so much about colour but about composition and values. The angle of the tracks plays well off the angle of the road, and the illuminated face of the building stands out against its grey-brown surroundings.

Sunset over Train Tracks, cote st luc watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2022 (No. 3261)

Train Zipping By

 

After work I rode through Trenholme park which is just beside the train tracks. The commuter train zipped by and I tried to memorize its features. When the next one came by I noticed it has two levels of windows, but I painted it as a single level. There are often people visible inside too, which would be cool to try and paint. Other than the train going by it was a very peaceful location and the weather was rather nice.

Train Zipping By,  watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2022 (No. 3260a)

Sunset over Somerled and Walkley

The sun had set over Somerled and Walkley street, as seen near the Metro grocery store. On the horizon the sky was a pastel coral orange, which transitioned into a grey blue into blue. It is a difficult technique to master because blue (PB15) and orange (PO62) are quite different, they both need to be diluted with water, and then blended together seamlessly. I used a carbon black (PBk6)/orange mix in the mid point, then ran the brush over the whole thing with light orange again. The front doors of the grocery store had a lot of contrast from the artificial light, and a pile of pumpkins off to the side.

Sunset over Somerled and Walkley, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2022 (No. 3260b)

Dépanneur Diamond 10

 

Dépanneur Diamond 10 in Lachine has been run run by the same family for 70 years. Lately it was in the news because the owner of the building wants to demolish the whole thing and build condos. Unfortunately the owner had given short notice, and the family was heart broken to hear that thier business was going to be demolished. According to the article I read the city has not approved the permit yet until a satisfactory plan is presented. Let's hope they keep some space for a dépanneur, the area needs it. Just in the time I was painting here about half a dozen people tried to go in the store, but it was locked up.

Dépanneur Diamond 10, front view, watercolour 8 x 10" Strathmore Gemini, October 2022 (No. 3201a)

 

    

 Here is a side view of the dépanneur, with the sun coming from behind. I noticed that my reflection was in the window, so included me in my blue bomber jacket, cap and sunglasses in the window. In shadow, the top was a pale yellow, the bottom a pale red-orange.

Dépanneur Diamond 10, side view with reflection, watercolour 9 x 12" cold press, October 2022 (No. 3334b)

 The previous painting did not quite capture the intricate lattice work on the front porch so I did this smaller version. I adjusted the colour and value contrasts too. If the weather is nice next weekend I might go back and do another one or two before they demolish it.

Dépanneur Diamond 10, side view with lattice, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2022 (No. 3259)

 

Sunday Ride down Lachine Canal to Lachine

On a cool, sunny Sunday I rode down the Lachine canal path and found this scene of the fall colours reflecting in the ripply water. Looming in the background were the elevated highways. To paint the water effect, I started with a fairly dark layer of indo blue (PB60) which dries a lot lighter than it looks when wet. Then I overlaid earthy and green brush strokes.

Canal Reflections with Highways, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2022 (No. 3257)

 

Along the way is the fur trading museum, it is literally filled with furs and information placards. It seems to have been shut down since the pandemic. In the foreground is the side of the canal. The canal near the town of Lachine is very narrow, I think they filled in the main part a long time ago.

Fur Trading Museum with River, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2022 (No. 3258a)

 

This mystery house had a large sign that said ART in gold letters, and seemed to be some type of community gallery. On google maps it was completely blurred out, and no information could be found. Good thing you will never know what it really looks like because I painted this in a very surrealistic style.

Mystery Art House, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2022 (No. 3258b)