Walk around Westhaven Neighborhood

A walk around the Westhaven neighborhood, centered on Harley street south of the train tracks, yielded several interesting scenes to paint. This scene shows the front of the strip mall which contains a cultural center focused on activities of the west indies such as dominoes. I tried to capture the bright reflections underneath the shadowed facade. The pale orange brick colour was with yellow ochre (PY43) and red ochre (PR101), water, and some neutralization with purple (PB60 + PV19). 

Harley Street Mall, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2023 (No. 3505a)

Here is the view across the street, a condemned building with a bit of graffiti and wild flowers in the overgrown lawn. Painting fire escapes is especially tough, in this case it was a metallic grey against a pale yellow brick. The main thing was to get the four levels properly connected. The flowers provided a good contrast against all the earthy brick buildings. Some fellow walked by and said 'cool'. 

Fire Escape, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2023 (No. 3506a)

A forested area next to the train tracks has been ransacked by tree-worms leading to the loss of many of the trees. This one is destined to be cut down based on the orange spray paint across its trunk. One of its massive branches was already cut off revealing its worm-riddled interior. Painting the tree was a test of brown, beige, pale yellow and black mixes. Midway through a squirrel showed up expectantly but left soon after it realized I had no peanuts.

Tree Demolished, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2023 (No. 3507a)