Park Jean Drapeau, Foliage

 Park Jean Drapeau is on the popular st Helen's Island, teeming with tourists and locals. The main attraction is the theme park, and a large concert area that was built up with tents today. Seeking solace and cool shade, I found this spot in the adjacent forest where the trees seemed to be dancing in the light and shadow. Instead of going for accuracy, I tried to capture the colour, value and energy of the scene. Loud music played in the background, so the theme of dancing trees seemed fitting. The way to get the greens to glow is to avoid using blue... a common error among amateurs and something I used to do . Now I use just a few colours to make variations of green (PBk31, PG36, PY110, yellow, and sometimes PG7).

Dancing Trees, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2023 (No. 3498a)

Keeping to the shady side of the island I found a spot and decided to take on this complex scene of a segment of Cartier bridge behind the trees. The initial painting of the background went well, so it took some courage to paint over it with the foreground trees. I composed the bridge a bit lower than it actually is, to give the sky and foliage more space. Catching the light highlights takes some planning. I used the blue sky to outline the shapes of the bridge, then added pale orange to get that glow. The shadows were kept blue in this case. Very pale surfaces will reflect blue in their shadows.

Bridge seen through Trees, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2023 (No. 3499a)