Winter paintings along the Maisonneuve bike path

With the path clear I could easily ride my bike along the Maisonneuve bike path and make a few paintings along the way. The first one shows a few of the trees at Westmount park with the shadows cascading over the snow. In the background is mount royal.

Snow shadows, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024

In front of the bicycle shop there is an old car, probably a Volvo, on stilts and in disrepair. With strong wind coming across from the east, it was a good challenge to stay warm and make a painting. Everything held up but my toes were a little cold throughout the trip. At least the hands and fingers were fine.

Ccar on stilts, watercolour 5 x 7.5" cold press, December 2024

This is about where Maisonneuve turns south and Ontario street carries on. Initially, I wanted to paint more of the snow on the grass in the foreground, but the background buildings were very tall to fit onto the paper. I will try to figure out how to get bigger paper on location in the winter.

Maisonneuve/Ontario street, watercolour 5 x 7.5" cold press, December 2024

These chimneys had great silver plumes, likely condensed water from laundry outlets rather than smoke. Burning wood is illegal in and around Montreal. With the sun coming from behind, the plumes were illuminated. I really pushed the limits of when you can do in the winter with this one, and like the last painting, a bigger piece of paper would have allowed more of the components to fit in. After painting 6 x 7.5 and 8 x 10 all summer, its an adjustment going back to the 5 x 7. Actually I cut them 5 x 7.5 to use the whole sheet.

Chimneys cold day, watercolour 5 x 7.5" cold press, December 2024

Cold windy day paintings by bike

On a day like today with solid -20℃ windchill the best place in town is standing right next to the st Lawrence river where the wind chill is probably double that. The water was not fully frozen, but slushy chunks of ice were floating around and washing up on the small rocky beach. In the background is the south canal seaway wall which has a bike path and is surrounded by trees. On the other side would be Kahnawà:ke. I could not quite do justice to the ice effect, but it was good enough just to hold on to my paintbrush and paper under the fierce wind.

Ice on rocky beach, watercolour 5 x 7.5" cold press, December 2024

 On the way back I did a painting of the last barn in Lachine, it sits amidst new condo developments, and one feels that it may not be there forever given its dilapidated state. In the foreground is the Lachine canal partly frozen and covered in snow. When painting outdoors in winter one has to simplify the scenes a little, over the years I developed a different style in the winter than how I paint in the summer.

Last barn in Lachine, watercolour 5 x 7.5" cold press, December 2024

Looking back to the west, the sun was going down behind the elevated highway over the canal. It created interesting blue shadows on the frozen water. The neat thing about the blurred-effect on the highway is that it draws more attention to the shadows, and gives the sense of a sun almost melting the environment. I kind of like this painting, maybe I can fit it into the Lachine Canal painting book I am working on.

Sundown over elevated highway, watercolour 5 x 7.5" cold press, December 2024

 

Carwash snowy evening

Yesterday just as the sun was going down I stopped on the Maisonneuve bike path and painted one of the two car washes that is still there. Many of the small shops have been plowed over for new condo developments. Keeping the highlights in was the key, the signs and windows were illuminated while everything else was grey brown and blue. With extra salt in the water it dries slower and creates blurred effects here and there. I went on to do a bunch more paintings that night as seen in the previous couple of blogs.

Carwash snowy evening, watercolour 5 x 7.5" cold press, December 2024

Skating rink in cyan on a snowy night

The last painting of the day was this scene down in the Old Port where a lot of people were skating on this ring under multi-coloured lights. I had to pick a colour for the painting since it was moving between the whole rainbow of options every minute or two. Since I did a magenta skating rink last time, I went with cyan this time, thinking it would look good against the purple sky, black buildings, and yellow windows. It was snowing by now, and you can see the actual snow that landed on the wet painting turned into whitish marks that resemble snow. The cyan section was too moist so the snow just turned to water and made everything blur together. I thought about touching it up at home, even my initials are illegible, but then I kind of liked the blurred effect, it gave the feeling of movement and skating in the snow on a cold Montreal night. Tomorrow is officially Winter, so let go!

Skating rink cyan, watercolour 5 x 7.5" cold press, December 2024

Warming up in Vendome station

When it got dark I turned into Vendome station and warmed up a bit, then got the lights attached to my bike. Before heading out again I made this painting looking west towards the main front entrance. The staircase on the left provided the compositional anchor, its where everyone walks down to get to the metro platforms. Searching for good scenes in the stations is tricky, the main thing is to find some good contrast and a strong light effect to cut through all the grey. Over 2021 - 2022 I made a tour of all the 68 Metro stations in Montreal, the vast majority of the series was done from the outside although there were a few interior scenes like De Castelnau, and Bonadventure. If I paint in Montreal more this winter, I will need to find a place to warm up every now and then.

Warming up Vendome station, watercolour 5 x 7.5" cold press, December 2024

On a cold and windy night

Heading down the Maisonneuve bike path on a cold and windy night with full bike lights I found a couple of scenes to paint including this one looking back west at a bike detour sign. This part of the path has been blocked off for more than 5 years now due to the Peel station renovations. Keeping the colours clean is tricky, especially the bright orange. I have a clean salty water, and the waste container with dirty salt water and I use both to paint. If its the dark sky I use dirty water, if its the clear colours I use the clean water. 

Bike detour, watercolour 5 x 7.5" cold press, December 2024

This dépanneur does not appear to have a name, even on google maps it was not listed. But its there, I swear. The wind comes down Maisonneuve pretty strong here, the massive Alexis Nihon mall and all the towers, with the mountain not too far to the north creates a wind tunnel. Fun times with the minus umpty-ump wind chill factor.

Dépanneur Maisonneuve x Fort watercolour 5 x 7.5" cold press, December 2024

Taking a detour down into the Place des Arts metro with my bike to warm up and sort my gear out, I made this painting of the famous mural reflecting off the topaz-coloured floor. For simplicity I did not try to paint all the people. A lot of homeless people warm up in the station and often talk to me, one person went on and on but was also standing in the way at the beginning. The art depicted is part of the long display done by Frédéric Back called the History of Music in Montreal.

Place des Arts warming up, watercolour 5 x 7.5" cold press, December 2024

Sunset through trees, park Trenholme

At the center of Trenholme park in NDG there is an old stone structure with white plaster and orange trim, likely a 1960's era construction. Inside there is a small volleyball court and during elections it is a voting station. I made this painting while waiting for the Thursday Lufa Farm vegetable delivery at park Trenholme. We click on the options on the web site and a truck brings it in a plastic bin for pickup each week. The weather was surprisingly nasty, with close to -20℃ windchill, but it did not deter my efforts. In the midst of doing a painting like this, I sometimes stop feeling the physical cold momentarily. Its all in your head really, although it could end up in frostbite if one is not careful. Hopefully the weekend is amenable for painting, it was a bit of a slow art week with the lousy weather and me being tired. Looking forward to the week off next week.

Sunset through trees, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024

Sun down in NDG another chilly day

As the sun went down in NDG, I rode westward and caught this view of several squirrel nests in a tree over rue st Jacques. The sky was done first using concentric rings of yellow, orange, red-orange and blue. After completing most of the bottom elements the sky had dried sufficiently to paint over the tree and nests. The wood rack that holds the paper down must have slipped because all the branches stop short of the top of the sky, something I might have to touch up. I also added the initials to all these paintings at home because they were far too moist to do it on location.

Squirrel nests over rue st Jacques, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024

On location I had the feeling that this was the worst of the lot, most of the edges bled, meaning they blurred together with the adjacent elements. However, when I saw the scan, the pastel sky turned out fantastic and the whole composition really came together better than I thought. There were several little white chunks of paper that I decided to leave in, and now they look like gleaming highway signs and really add to the effect. There was a time when I would not even attempt to paint a sky like this, and indeed it takes careful control over the paint moisture and the colour varieties. The first painting I remember doing with the yellow-sun ring technique was the blue house with icicles in 2021. This year I did the outrageous sunset on Girouard scene, and the very technical piece setting sun through tree.

Sundown over highway and condos, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024

Along the relatively new walking and biking path that stretches from west NDG to east NDG along the lake shore*, I attempted a complex scene depicting the path, trains and highway. The curvatures played well off each other, but the moist conditions limited the amount of detail that could be created. I will have to return under more ideal conditions with a bigger piece of paper, or come back when it snows. One of the best paintings I did this year was right here, train winter blast, that one will definitely be on my short list as I prepare the painting year in review blog. 

* I am referring to the area in this view as the lake shore, because that is what it was prior to the creation of the Lachine canal. In old times, this land was part of the st Lawrence river and would have been filled up when the water was high. It must have been a sight to behold, and no doubt the indigenous people would have fished and congregated around this lake.

Path trains and highway, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024

Low sun cool day in Montreal by bicycle

This view is looking west along the Lachine canal right around the Atwater market, you can see the train was going by under a low winter sun. Being entirely backlit, the water sparkled and most of the scene was in monochrome.

Train over canal backlit, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024

Looking west around the same spot, I caught this interesting view of the mostly frozen canal and patches of snow along the embankments with reeds on the left. The ice colours are created with a mixture of dark magenta (PV55) and blue-green (PG7) which creates a metallic bluish grey. To that I daubed in sky blue and various browns and dark greens to give the mottled effect of frozen water reflecting some of the surrounding elements.

Freezing canal with reeds, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024

Here was the warm-up painting, done on the way downtown, I am standing just outside the Alexis Nihon mall looking east along Maisonneuve. Most of Montreal is in shadow especially with the sun being on such a low angle at this time of year. I was even standing in full shadow which makes the paint dry even slower than usual. Some people may wonder why I paint outdoors even in sub-zero temperatures, and so do I wonder why sometimes. The success rate on my paintings, if there is such a thing, is lower in the winter and at night. But I wonder if even that is just another obstacle. I thought about using glycerol to prevent the water from freezing, would it dry faster than the salt water?

Light and shadow along Maisonneuve, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024

Downtown Orange

Along st Catherines there are plenty of restaurants and other late night establishments. This is an A&W hamburger joint, a few people were having some late night junk food. The composition was inspired by Hopper's painting nighthawks, a well known and oft-copied American masterpiece. On this night I was rather hoping to find some snow to reflect all the neat colours but the snow was long gone by now after a few days of rain. To do this painting I had to establish all the middle values, let it mostly dry on location, then over-paint the dark window and door frames with the figures in the shop. It came together pretty well, if I had more space, I could have fit in the dark blue-violet sky. When painting at night its usually best to include the sky, whereas this painting only shows the building. Yet looking at it, there is no doubt this is a night scene. With the sun going down so early, it looks like night scenes will be on tap for the next little while.

Downtown Orange, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024

Montreal Night Colours

Place des Arts downtown had a winter garden festival set up with a lot of food and beverage stands with live music and colourful lights. A nearly full moon hung over the city skyline. With light cover the sky was a dark violet, almost purple. More coloured lights and glowing windows in the background buildings completed the scene.

Downtown colours, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024

 

Looking south on rue Jeanne Mance, there were a lot of cars driving up then turning around because the Place des arts was fenced off for the winter festival. The fancy building with the copper-coloured walls and lit from above is apparently a hotel. With bitter cold the paint dried slowly making the details a bit of a challenge. The main effects were the rows of cars and the copper coloured facade of the hotel. 

Downtown copper, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024

 

This scene depicts the top part of the contemporary art gallery which was illuminated in various shades of yellow. On the top right, there were strong blue lights which contrasted nicely against the dark cyan sky and yellow-brown buildings.

Downtown yellow, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024

 

This entire stretch of rue st Catherine is converted into a pedestrian only zone, and it was illuminated an intense blue from the overhead light installations. A prominent hotel was illuminated green, and there were many other colours to be seen. Hundreds of people were enjoying the cool evening and at least one was painting watercolours!

Downtown blue and green, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024

 

Not far from st Urbain along st Catherine, there was a long and narrow skating rink with plenty of people out enjoying the opportunity. Strong pink lights were illuminating the ice and the people. Keeping the paintings intact was key, since they were very moist and having done six paintings there had to be a way to keep them in the shoulder bag. For the most part the paintings turned out unscathed.

Skating rink magenta, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024

 

 

A strange trip and grateful art

Here are a couple of abstract paintings I made with the 'everything palette' which contains among other interest paints, carbazole violet (PV23) a rich dark purple. I had a greatest hits of the Grateful Dead playing in the background which inspired the artwork and the titles, including 'strange trip' which is part of a lyric from Truckin'  : "What a long, strange trip its been." and Grateful Art which is just a play on their band name. The first painting is an organic trippy play on a landscape with a variety of colours and brushwork technique, the second painting is done more in the doodleism style although not from lab notes this time just from my imagination.

Strange Trip, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, December 2024

In Grateful Art I also used some of the things I learned from painting crescent moons at night... the colour transition, technique, and the particular shade of green that pine trees have at night which is nearly black. The flowers and tye-dye motifs are definitely hippy things.

Grateful Art, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, December 2024

31 piece puzzle

I've always been a fan of puzzles and lately my parents have had one going at their house. When I visit I finish the hard parts of the puzzle, although one puzzle, which depicted Monet's painting of the Japanese bridge proved to be too difficult once. Here I have a puzzle app called puzzle king on my smart phone which scratches the puzzle itch and takes up a lot less space than a real puzzle. In the painting, I fitted together about 31 'pieces' of colours. It started off with a palette cleaning of my location palettes, then I switched to my 'everything palette' which has a sample of most of my paints. Since 2020 I went on a paint buying spree and ended up with more tubes that needed. Certain colours run out more than others, especially yellow. Van Gogh used to run out of yellow and blue all the time since he was doing a lot of paintings of hay fields and blue skies. To get more paint he would write a letter to his brother, who would go to the paint maker in Paris and have the tubes and brushes shipped down to him in southern France. Most of Van Gogh's letters that he wrote to his brother and a few other correspondents still exist, I found an on-line archive of the letters and read through them. One interesting tidbit was that he worried that his painting Starry Night, the famous one, was too abstract. In fact he was mostly a realist painter, or impressionist painter, so the Starry Night was a one-off surrealism painting he did from memory in the midst of his last hospitalization.

31 piece puzzle, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, December 2024

Melting snow local parks

With warm temperatures and steady drizzle, the snow was rapidly melting today. On the way home I took a detour around a few local parks and was lucky enough to find some overhangs to stand under and make a few paintings. For this one I was standing under the entrance of the new utility building they completed in Coffee park, looking west. The tree had a neat colour scheme of dark yellow and black. The entire walking path was a mess of snow and water that reflected the image of the trees.

Melting snow Coffee park, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024

 

At Trenholme park there was a similar kind of mess, the thick layer of snow was melting into the grassy field creating a pattern of white, blue and green. You can see in the foreground where the water was inundating the painting. I've said it before, that water is the enemy of a watercolour painting, which is ironic. The blurring and soupy textures in the foreground really capture the effect. You can see my initials even blurred out.

Melting snow Trenholme park, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024

Melting snow evening scenes in the neighborhood

 

Standing under the Metro grocer over-hang provided cover from the drizzle, and strong white light to paint under. Its a matter of convenience as this scene is just across the street, the much-painted Joe and Ralph's auto shop. The hardest part was getting the winter clothes on and slogging outside with my paint kit, it had been a few days since I last painted and needed to do a few after another rotten day on campus. It worked though, I felt much better after completing these paintings in the relative silence of an evening in the neighborhood. To capture the effect of melting snow with all its reflections, I daubed on several layers of moist painting while retaining a few white highlights, then finishing with some textural and detail elements like the gas pump and carport door. 

Joe and Ralph's auto shop melting snow, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024

 

Here I tackled the difficult effect of a traffic light reflecting off the moist road. I did a similar painting back in February called pharmacy on a wet night, which is probably one of the better paintings I did all year. As the end of 2024 approaches, I will be preparing my painting, year in review blog which covers the best paintings of the year, at least in my opinion and taking into account the number of views and feedback. This painting turned out okay, I like how the green pops off the otherwise dour background elements. It is extremely difficult to paint in these circumstances, being at night and moist with misty rain. But no excuses. I once painted during a rainstorm, the second one from that blog showed car headlights on a rainy night to great effect. With more rain in the forecast, it will be a messy couple of days in Montreal.

Green reflection on Somerled, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024

Remains of the snow before the rain comes

The Lachine canal was partially frozen, which created some really neat shapes. To capture the effect I applied a greyish violet outline of the snow piles, then daubed in a neutral cyan, followed by a blackish wash. I've tried to do this before and it failed, but this time it worked perfectly. The trick is to get the colours right, and the moisture right, then it all blends together softly. The black pock marks were holes where people had tossed snowballs across.

Partially frozen canal, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, December 2024

Near the new st Jacques bridge, there are great views of the recently completed Turcot interchange. The cars turning here would be merging with autoroute 15/Decarie towards NDG, while the cars going to the left are headed downtown. In the background you are seeing ville st Henri, and way off in the distance in the middle is the Jacques Cartier bridge.  All of the white highlights are the paper showing, since there is no white paint used. That means you have to leave spots for everything such as the cars and the snow covered railings and apartments.

View over Turcot, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024

The road was shimmering with moisture since the temperature on Sunday was close to zero Celsius which is the melting/freezing point. The wind on the other hand was fierce and cold. There were piles of snow with a neutral blue-violet next to the road which was a darker violet, and the glare shimmered in yellow and orange. The rest of the painting turned out all right, I like the tree, it had little red seeds on it, probably frozen for the winter. I also tried to get in the snow-covered spiral staircases.

Glare on road, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024

First snow, views around the Old Port

Once again it was time for me to be a tourist in my own town. Every time I go down to the Old Port and Old Montreal I feel that way. And the other tourists really get a kick out of seeing me paint pictures around here. For this scene, I was standing on the large platform where the circus sets up their tents in the summer, looking across the river. In the middle ground at right is Dieppe park which was made around the time of expo 67 when they put in the confederation bridge to ile st Helen. I know the water here, it moves fast on the south side and creates whirls and eddys as it carries on to the east. On the north side it is very calm, so I painted the water smooth in the front, and more turbulent in the back.

View across river, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024

Standing in full shadow the paint was not drying fast enough to capture all the details, but I managed to hold onto this painting. A lot of tourists looked, talked to me and one made a video. Next time I will make sure to have my Instagram logo visible.

Bonsecours dome, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024

These tracks are not very active, I think in the summer there is a tourist trolley that goes by. In the old days, this track would have brought malt to the brewery, but now I think they do it by boat or more likely truck. The sun was setting, which created a pinkish sky and interesting colour reflections on the snow. I added the tree branch details after I got home because the painting was very moist on location.

Tracks and snow old port, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024

The old buildings along the main drag near the water are made of large stone bricks, or the old fashioned stone-and-mortar. The lights were just turning on, which created an amber glow on the wall. It was a tricky effect to reproduce considering how moist everything was on the paper. A couple of construction signs made for a good place to put my initials and year. When the sun finally went down on Saturday, I completed the trip with crescent moon over downtown, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite paintings of the year.

Lamps at dusk, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024

Crescent moon over downtown Montreal on a chilly evening

Yesterday I got out a little later in the afternoon, after painting for a few hours I made one last one with the moon over downtown. It was barely 5pm but the atmosphere was like night time. To do this painting I outlined most of the buildings and checked the perspective and proportions before filling in the colour blocks. It took patience and experience to know when the paint was dry enough to overlay the window elements and details. Because I was painting under orange light, I had to adjust the colours accordingly. Under orange lights I tend to paint the sky too green, and make the yellow too bright. Knowing this, I added more magenta into the blue, and tried to tone down the yellow. As seen under an orange light, the sky looked practically grey, and the yellow/oranges looked whiteish. Of course these considerations only matter when on location... at home in a studio one can have the ideal white light. However, to get a painting with this much character and authenticity one really has to be on location. Somebody walked by and said they liked the fact that I was painting on such a chilly evening.

Crescent moon chilly evening, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024

Evening snow scenes around NDG after work

 Its getting darker earlier and earlier, with the shortest day of the year soon to arrive at the solstice. There was a strong crescent moon shining through the thin clouds on a cold and humid evening. The entire painting was moist the whole time but the freezing temperatures and salt in the water seemed to hold everything in place. A person walking by took a look at said I was brave to be out painting. Foolish would be a better word. But photography would never work. Notice the colour transitions in the sky, those are only visible to the eye. 

Crescent moon over Loyola park, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024

 

In the corner of the mall parking lot there was a massive pile of snow. As usual there were light sources from all different directions, including the traffic light which was reflecting colours off the snow pile. On the right part of the pile it is pale green, the left is pale yellow, and the top is pale blue. It was probably too ambitious of a scene, its better to keep it simple in the winter when painting, like the first one with the crescent moon, it only had 3 or 4 elements.

Pile of snow mall parking lot, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024

 

You would think that I listen to my own advice, keep it simple. In fact, I thought about just painting the sign off the left which was brilliant against the dark sky, but decided to include the people filling up their cars and the eerie, alien-spaceship like lights of the gas platform. Despite all the fuzzy edges the painting is strangely engaging, like a surreal moment in NDG. Speaking of filling up, just before doing this one I stopped off at Mazzeh which is the quintessential hole-in-the-wall restaurant that looks like nothing from the outside but on the inside it had a wonderful decor and even better Persian food at great prices and friendly staff. I knew it was good because a constant flow of customers were arriving for takeaway food and they were all Iranians. I sure enjoyed it and hope to go back one day.

Evening fill up, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024

First snow evening

It snowed quite a bit today and was cold enough that it stayed around. Painting in the winter at night is tricky, for this scene I stood on the sidewalk and painted from my shoulder bag kit which consisted of a paint palette, paper in a small rack, one brush and salt water. Its best to keep it simple in the winter because wearing gloves makes it hard to mess around with the gear, and time is usually of the essence although today was not too cold really. The salt water and cold temperatures make the paint dry especially slowly which takes some getting used to. For the sky I mixed dark blue (PB60) with red-orange (PO73) and phthalo blue (PB15) at the horizon. Keeping the snow highlights clean meant painting around those areas, leaving the paper blank. I walked around for some time after this one but could not find another good scene to paint.

First snow evening, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024

Water sparkles on an otherwsie overcast day

 

Looking to the west, this view shows the highway 50 bridge in downtown Bolton going over the Humber river. To create the sparkle on the water I do a quick side-drag with a semi-moist brush loaded with the dark colour and let the paper texture do the work. It takes a deft hand especially when wearing giant gauntlet mitts, but I am used to it now. The sky is a relatively easy effect, starting with a yellow circle around the sun, I blend to a greyish cyan, then purple or blue. When it is semi-dry I add the cloud elements with a darker neutral purple. The hardest part is actually getting the sun to be a circle, I usually start it out bigger than needed, then it shrinks as I adjust the circular shape.

Sun over Humber river, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, November 2024

 

Painting in the forest is tricky since everything is grey and brown this time of year. Without snow there is little contrast to work with. I preserved as much sparkle in the creek as possible to keep it visible. Its surprisingly difficult to paint in forests, but very enjoyable. Usually its completely silent but on this day (a weekend) there was a noisy construction crew doing heavy work on the nearby creek tunnel. Even in Bolton you cant escape the construction! At least the region has conserved quite a bit of forest including this one that runs all around the east and south parts of Bolton.

Creek in Bolton Forest, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, November 2024

Last stand trees on hilltop next to Humberlea road

 

Bolton Ontario has a long valley cutting through it which creates rather steep embankments and narrow hills. On top of one of the narrow hills there is a stand of trees, tall pine trees with orange bark and dense undergrowth. Unfortunately with these trees have succumb to the tree worms and every year a few more of them fall over. I composed this scene to show how the remaining trees are making a last stand, almost hugging each other for support.

Last stand trees, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2024

 

While I waited for the background sky element to dry in the last stand painting, I turned and made a quick one of the steep Humberlea road that goes up to the south hill. Its a great way to get a leg workout too if you are walking but most people were driving.

Humberlea road through the trees, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2024

 

Here is the first painting I did on the location. Based on how this went I made some adjustments for the other two paintings. It was very cool and overcast without much sun, and you can see how the washes collapsed in the painting creating a blurred effect. I still like the colours here, the red/green pops against the beige and grey background.

Trees on hilltop, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, November 2024