Flowering Shrub in Mile End

 

It was slightly cooler today and I got out to Mile End for an errand, then made a quick painting on the corner of Fairmount and Clarke street. The building on the left is where the famous Wilensky deli is located although I left it out of the painting this time. On the street corners in the Mile End there are elaborate flowers and shrubs growing in the garden areas. Montreal has been converting street corners into mini green space all over, even including NDG. Our local corner is mostly just construction fill and weeds now, but its better than nothing. Earlier this year I did a painting of a flowering shrub and tulips next to the Cavendish underpass, which unlocked a new way to paint flowering shrubs which are very difficult in watercolour because you can not paint the white or colourful flowers over top of the dark green foliage. It involves a lot of daubing with the brush and carefully filling in the flower colours towards the end. For the dark rich greens I mix perylene green (PBk31) with hansa yellow medium (PY97), and touches of green (PG36). For the really dark greens I even add some carbon black (PBk6).

Flowering Shrub in Mile End, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2023 (No. 3495a)