On my way down to Verdun I stopped at the steep embankment near the new hospital and made a painting of the flowers and stormy-looking sky. Previously it was just dirt and then grass, but this year the hillside was covered in various flowers, yellow, white and purple. The highway in the midground is part of the Turcot intersection, I painted it using dark violet to contrast the light colours in the rest of the painting. The orange in the sky was added for extra drama.
Flowers on Hillside, Stormy Sky, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2023 (No. 3496)
Sitting on the back balcony I made a painting of the plentiful trees and condos (with a dog in the front). There were a lot of colours in the scene, although subtle, such as a lilac balcony privacy screen, pale turquoise siding, bright red bricks, and various shades of chartreuse. When landscape painting step one is to identify the colour, step two is to mix the colour. To make the lilac I mixed phthalo blue (PB15) with quin magenta (PR122) and dabbed in water. Phthalo blue is a tricky colour to work with, most of the brands are a greenish hue and have powerful tinting strength which makes them hard to mix. I discovered that the Holbien version is the best one, phthalo blue red shade (PB15) which is not red at all, but is a light blue-violet on the same hue angle as a typical cobalt blue. Best of all, the formula of the paint is mild enough that I can paint skies and use it in mixtures, and it doesn't stain the plastic palette and synthetic brushes the way that my other phthalo blue (PB15:3) from M. Graham that I bought a few years ago and never use. It takes at least a year of frequent use to fully understand and appreciate a new paint and its characteristics.
Condos and trees in Verdun, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2023 (No. 3497)
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