A Few more Paintings from London Ontario

In this painting you can see the edge of the Alumni Hall building where they held large lectures and events. I would have walked on those paths in the foreground many times over the years that I spent at University of Western Ontario (UWO). I can still remember the day Mom and Dad dropped me off in 1994, it was raining slightly and I was sad to see them go home. It wasn't long until I made friends and partook in the usual first year student shenanigans. This painting was done quite a bit later, in 1998 when I was a graduate student.  The first year I was there, 1994, I didn't have my paints with me, but brought them to the dorm for 1995 onwards.

Lecture Hall with Paths UWO, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 1998 (No. 0620)

 

This one was done towards the end of my time in London Ontario, it shows the new (at the time) arena art installations which included a tree and large red concrete balls. Using google earth I zoomed in on this scene and unfortunately it was not kept up because the tree was gone and most of the balls were missing. I like how some of this painting is very realistic while other parts like in the background are simplified.

Tree and Art Installation at Arena, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 2002 (No. 0623)

 

I am not entirely sure of which year any of these London paintings were done, I made guesses based on vague memories and stylistic tells. In this case, the use of cerulean blue in the mixes means that it was between 98-02, since I stopped using it in mixes after 2002 and only used it in the sky until about 2020. That shade of yellow-grey on the wall is tough to mix, it looks like it contains aureolin yellow. Nowadays I would use yellow ochre (PY43) with a touch of perylene green (PBk31) to get that colour. The yellow ochre I use from Da Vinci company (Via Studio Six Ontario) is like a yellow dijon mustard colour with fantastic handling characteristics. I liked it so much I just ordered and received the jumbo 37mL size, along with their Da Vinci yellow (15mL, PY154) and lamp black (15mL PBk6). Guess that counts as a birthday present since it just arrived today!

New Yorker London Ontario, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 1999 (No. 0621)