Sunday, June 25, 2023

Gloomy Weather in NDG

After sporadic rain I got out for a walk down Somerled avenue and made this painting of the insistent tree with a red traffic light. The tree starting growing in a crack between the old Royal Bank building and the sidewalk. After a few years it was several meters tall, now it is approaching the top of the building in height. The sky was stormy looking with hints of blue. As I finished this painting the light came on on the lamp post but it was too late in the process to try and capture the effect.

Insistent Tree with Red Light, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2023 (No. 3478a)

 

This was an attempt to capture a beam of light on the side of a building that has pale yellow bricks. One adjustment I made on the palette was to change pyrol orange (PO72) for benzi orange (PO36). They are virtually the identical shade of orange, but the pyrol version has much higher chroma than the benzi version. What I am calling the benzi version is actually called Benzimida Orange Deep from Da Vinci company. It is very potent and tends to mix as an opaque paint even though it is listed as semi transparent. The main advantage is that it has a better lightfasteness rating from Handprint.com, so it is more stable than the pyrol. I used it in the sign on front of the store, although it bled into the wet surroundings. With the recent hot and humid weather the paints have been soft and gooey on the palette making it more challenging to get the right amount of paint on the brush. That is the opposite to the problem I have in the winter when the paint is literally frozen and difficult to get on the brush.

Light and Shadow on Building, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2023 (No. 3478b)

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