Tuesday, November 7, 2023

Summer Paintings from Bolton

As I updated the catalogue I found several Bolton paintings done earlier this year that did not make it to the blog yet. This one shows the walking path down by the Humber river, with a variety of flowers growing in bunches. Painting the flowers required negative space that was filled in with yellow or magenta. The brown eyed Susans also got a dot of burnt umber in the center.

Various Flowers next to Path, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2023 (No. 3522a)

 

Recently the city finished renovating the storm pond so that it looks exactly the same as it did before. I was standing up on the walking path looking down across thousands of Queen Anne Lace flowers. It was another difficult painting, these kind of flowers were invented to give watercolour painters a headache. In oils you would paint the green background and then paint on the white flowers, but in watercolours you paint around the shape of the flowers. I've done it enough times to get good at it, but still these Queen Anne Lace flowers were the big challenge of the trip.

Pond and Flowers, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2023 (No. 3522b)

 

More flowers in the background, with a complex pile of rocks and a storm drain in the bottom half foreground. This one took a long time because there were several layers of paint applied but it was drying well so I could pull it off. When winter comes I have to adjust the style because paintings like this are not possible.

Flowers and Storm Drain, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2023 (No. 3521b)

 

I couldn't help making a painting of the exterior of the old highschool I attended. The colourful windows at the bottom left are the windows of the art classroom where I learned lots of great stuff from the teachers. The colours were embellished, so as to give the scene a bit more life.

Highschool Art Classroom, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2023 (No. 3523a)

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