Scenes Over the Tracks

Standing on the Cavendish overpass there is a good view of the grocery store parking lot and some of the other buildings such as a hotel and a bowling alley. Why would I call a painting like this lakeside view? The trees in the background are at the very top of the escarpment that lines the south side of NDG. After some research into the pre-canal history of this area, I realized that this escarpment used to be part of a very large lake. Walking up to the tree line would have brought you to the edge of a lake, teeming with fish. Now if you walked up to that tree line you would see a lot of garbage, and a panorama view of the highway and industrial area through the trees. Too bad, the hotel could charge more if there was a lake there.

Lakeside View, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, February 2024

The last of the sunlight was illuminating the train tracks with a coppery shine. The grey sets off the gold colours of the tracks, and the straight and narrow tracks are contrasted by the wild foliage all around. The background had trees covered in vines, while the foreground was sumac. I used a lot of yellow ochre (PY43) in this painting, even signing in it.Sunlit Train Tracks, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, February 2024