Moon over Canal

 

Sitting in the nice warm couch this evening it occurred to me that I had to ride down to the Lachine Canal and make some paintings. It was approaching zero with mild drizzle, but I have plenty of warm clothes to wear in bad weather. I don't know why I complain about the weather in my blog since I will go paint in virtually any condition like heavy rain, extreme cold, and blizzards. Instead of trying to fit the moon into the painting, I approached the canal near the foot bridge that goes to St Patrick and Senkus, and looked down at the moon reflecting in the dark water. I was nearly out of blue paint so had to use carbon black and a combination of blue-green (PG7) and magenta (PV19) that ends up looking like indigo. The footbridge was simplified and abstracted a bit since it is not possible to paint too much light detail on a black background. The moon reflection was tricky, it had to go right the first try because that is the white paper showing through the dark water.

Moon reflection in Canal, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, October 2023 (No. 3632)

To capture this scene I rode about a kilometer down the path and set up near the Gantry crane on the other side of the canal. Looking up and through the iron work I could see the moon prominently against the indigo sky. My head lamp was illuminating the fall-colour foliage in the foreground. I had to let the dark blue sky dry before applying the iron work which is a combo of red ochre (PR102) and carbon black (PBk6). The moon is the paper showing through, with a touch of neutral yellow ochre (PY43) to depict the textural effect on the moon. The painting was pretty moist and I didn't have the drying rack with me, so I set it up in my bike pack so that it could dry without getting smeared. The smears on the left side are from my gloved hand. My clothes held up well enough but the cold was starting to get to me.

Moon through Gantry Crane, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2023 (No. 3580)