Sunflowers and dépanneur at night

Without the chance to paint outside, plus extremely uncomfortable heat, I took to the street after the sun went down to paint some night scenes. It was still hot and muggy but at least the sun was down. These sunflowers are growing outside of the Metro grocery store parking lot. The painting was done by standing right in front of them on the sidewalk, made easier b the relative lack of pedestrians. Getting the yellow correct is always a challenge, I tried a few variations before settling on a mix of yellow (PY97), yellow ochre (PY43) and orange-yellow (PY110). The centers of the flowers were a mix of earth colours and touches of green. 

Sunflowers at Night, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2023 (No. 3542)

For the second painting I sat down on one of the deck chairs they set up on Somerled and decided to paint the dep while I let the other painting dry. Unfortunately the head light went out in the middle of the painting before applying the colours. Going by memory and experience, and with just a weak street lamp to see by, I applied what seemed to be the right colours. The interior came out surprisingly yellow, and the awning green popped more than I thought, but the painting actually turned out pretty amazing. Even without showing the night sky it is apparent that this is a night scene. The sidewalk in the front was key to the illusion, you can tell that the interior is the main source of illumination.

Dépanneur Vrac Plus at night watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2023 (No. 3543)