Scenes from London Ontario

Richmond street is the main drag down the center of London Ontario, it connects the downtown with the campus and shopping area in the north of the city. Mom and Dad and myself walked from the downtown back to campus several times back when I lived there, it was quite a hike. TJ Baxters and MexiCali were our favorite restaurants. The store on the corner in the painting is Blockbuster video where we rented movies, which really dates the painting. Like most of these paintings I am not sure of the exact date painted, I can only approximate give or take a year. The heavy use of cerulean blue in this one puts it between 2001 to 2004 but I recall painting this one on a later visit to the city when I was living in Montreal.

Richmond Street Construction London Ontario, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 2004 (No. 0619)

 

This scene shows the old hospital with its impressive yellow ochre brick and copper roof elements. Considering that I didn't have yellow ochre on my palette at the time, it was an impressive feat to duplicate the colour with a mixture that probably contained aureolin and cerulean both cobalt paints. Now a days, I carry a fantastic yellow ochre (PY43) from Da Vinci company that I bought from Studio Six art supplies in Markham by mail delivery. In fact, Studio Six only delivers, they have not had in store service for decades even before the pandemic they were ahead of the times.

Richmond Street Old Hospital London Ontario, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 1999 (No. 0618)

 

Much earlier than the first two paintings, this one was likely done in 1997, just a year after I had started location painting. It was an ambitious effort and I still remember painting it. I was working on getting the light highlight on the front of the convenience store against the shadowed side. The road slopes down a lot from my vantage point which is conveyed by the perspective on the road. I was showing art at a gallery called Artisan's Alley and an art group at the Garden Market, but for some reason I never showed these paintings. I like the combination of yellow, green, brown and blue.

Grand Avenue London Ontario, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 1997 (No. 0622)