Remaining Scenes from Toronto Trip

Yes I did attend most of the conference programming, with occasional painting sessions outside! With my newfound urban painting skills, I was better equipped to tackle the difficult task of painting in a dense urban area. In this view I am looking east along one of the cross streets near the hotel maybe Richmond or Adelaide, with a long line of cars and a neat mix of architecture. You see gleaming glass sky scrapers reaching up into the sky right next to old brick structures from over a hundred years ago. 

Sky Scraper Sky, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2023 (No. 3671)

 

With a bit of time to spare before departing on the GO train I made this painting in front of the station and tried to capture the traffic, people with suitcases, and even a pigeon. Most of the facade is a warm orange yellow, like raw sienna, and it was reflecting tinted light on the surroundings.

People at Union Station, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2023 (No. 3672a)

 

Searching for colours, I found this scene of a gleaming salmon-coloured glass building with the sun shining on it. In the foreground is one of the clock towers of the provincial parliament building, and the horizontal concrete in the foreground is the top of the skating rink enclosure. To make the salmon colour I used pyrol orange (PO73) with dabs of orange (PO62) and red (PR254).

Colourful Building, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2023 (No. 3673a)

I tackled this scene because of the history of the graphics arts building, seen in the left foreground. Members of the group of seven had day jobs as graphic designers, and this was one of the building they worked in. They illustrated posters and media images at a time when photography was just taking off. Seeing the lights on made me imagine that the group of seven were sitting up there working late on a project back in early 20th century. The view essentially contained a wall of windows from three different buildings. If you look at the very top, there were little people walking on the floors of a glass-walled office tower, which was pretty neat. I also tried to capture the track lighting that you can see inside of the office towers, which adds perspective and contrast. Of course, the snow was gently falling which created a mottled effect. Now a days the building is a condominium, which at least means that the structure has been carefully conserved.

Graphics Arts Building, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2023 (No. 3920a)