Spring Scenes Downtown in the City

Riding east today was a literal breeze, that is, a strong west wind pushed me the whole way. Passing Concordia's downtown campus I reached a point on de Maisonneuve with a good view of the different coloured buildings. Its a claustrophobic scene, the thin sliver of blue sky being sandwiched between towering sky scrapers. I was testing some home made convenience mixes today. To use up some paint I combined a french yellow ochre (PY43) from Daniel Smith with a raw umber (PBr7) from M Graham...one dries too hard, the other dries too soft but when I mix them they dry just right! It produced a warm beige that is perfect for Montreal scenes. 

View east along Maisonneuve Spring, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3723b)

 

 During the 68 Stations of the Montreal Metro series, McGill Station was totally covered in construction barriers. They are finally nearly finished and I could approach one of the facades. The views were still pretty bland and I could not find any natural elements to include in the scene which is usually a prerequisite element even in the urban scenery. The only natural element I could spy was me! It gives you the sense of how I paint too... bike in front, hunched over the paper brush going a mile a minute. This is a close to a self portrait as it comes.

Reflection McGill Metro Station, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3725a)

 

It was such a sunny warm day, I stopped in square Victoria to enjoy the sun and cool breeze. It seemed daunting to take on this scene again so I made a closeup of the entrance to show how the metro doors appear at the bottom of the stairs. If I pulled up the central part of the composition about an inch I think this would have been perfect. Anyways, a lot of tourists were here already taking pictures and going up and down the stairs as I painted.

Square Victoria Metropolitan, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3726a)

 

Finally, to close our March, I headed down to the large platform in Old Port where the Cirque du Soleil usually sets up their massive tents each summer. I could ride my bike around at full speed in great circles which was quite liberating. Deciding to take on the fateful ferris wheel again (it rarely works out), I went for a close up this time and tried to create an action painting. I like how the curve of the ferris wheel augments the skyline, you see Bonsecours market in the background. The blue paint splashed for some reason, it can happen when painting on windy days like this.

Ferris Wheel Cars, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3862b)

 

 

Saturday Scenes in NDG, Blue Sky

With nothing but blue skies this afternoon it seemed like a great day for painting, however, a cold and bitter wind made it more challenging. This scene is looking north along the Decarie, I am standing on Isabella street that crosses over the highway. In the background there is an old factory/warehouse partly converted into retail space, while in the foreground there is a common gas station chain although I changed the symbol to a smiley face. Considering that most of the scene was backlit, it was important to make a strong composition and create shadowed areas that were really glowing. Knowing my way around grey shades was something that developed during the Montreal Metro series. It came to my attention that grey has as many hues as there are colours. If you look at the support posts under the gas station roof for example, their left side is a cool greenish grey, their right side is a warm orange grey. The purple grey of the background building provides the perfect complement to the dark yellow features on the station.

Gas Station at Decarie and Isabella, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3847b)

In this hectic scene, there were an endless stream of cars going along the road, which has an interesting S shape as it recedes upwards into the distance. Boxy condos line the street, and soaring white and beige high-rises adorn the background. Getting the cars right is always tricky since they are moving, I am starting to get better at it, you see here the cars have various perspectives and tilts. I have a mild disdain for the traffic especially on the weekends, so the cars are painted in a grotesque kind of way on purpose.

Cote st Luc road looking East, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3622b)

Scenes around Decarie

With a holiday weekend upon us and plenty of sunny weather ahead I am looking forward to a good weekend with a little painting too. For a warm up I rode over to the Decarie and painted a few typical scenes. The other day I tried to paint a blue pine tree and the colour didn't quite work out, so when I saw this one I decided to give it another go. This time I used dark blue (PB60) with yellow ochre (PY43), but it was too neutral so I added some phthalo gren blue shade (PG7). The yelow ochre was a different one than I normally use, it is from Daniel Smith company and I brought along the tube on location. The colour of the tree worked out well at least.

Blue Pine near Decarie, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3720b)

On the Notre Dame de Grasse street overpass there is a wide community garden suspended over the Decarie. There is a good view of the river, the st Jacques bridge and some of the highway signs beyond the gardens. I was just glad to paint a blue bin! Soon enough things will be growing here.

Community Gardens over the Decarie, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3723a)

Looking down onto the Decarie there was a car accident, some kind of serious fender bender. There were police cars, tow trucks, city trucks, an ambulance and a fire truck working on the scene. By the time I barely started the painting the vehicles started leaving and a tow truck whisked off the damaged vehicle. It seemed wrong to make a painting of a car accident, it takes rubber-necking to a hole new level. Nobody seemed to be injured from what I could see.

Car Accident on Decarie, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3724)

Spring Trenholme Park Paths

 

Perhaps its time to start a series called 'painting while waiting for the LUFA vegetable delivery' which is usually just in front of Trenholme park on Sherbrooke west. I have done a lot under those circumstances including some chilly night paintings. Almost the moment I finished this painting the truck arrived and I could go put the veggies in my bike pack and ride home before the sun went down completely. The scene had an interesting X pattern in the asphalt paths, and hints of green were appearing on the yellowish grass. It may not be the most spectacular painting I have done, but it does carry the gloomy overcast feel that was present on location. Painting overcast is actually one of the harder things to do because the visual system makes adaptations in low light. Human eyes have a dynamic range of over 10,000 which means vision is dramatically different in conditions even though we don't notice it too much. For example, walking from a dark room into a sunny outdoor results in overwhelming brightness until the eyes and the mind adjust. Light adaptation is a combination of the retinal pigments, the cell signalling pathways in the optic nerve, and the visual processing center of the central nervous system. On McEvoy's handprint.com he made a detailed description of all these things which I attempted to read. Over time, I am able to paint based on how it will look when dried and viewed under indoor light, rather than how it looks at the moment on location. But that takes a lot of experience to know about. For many years I would only paint on location if it was a bright and sunny day, which is arguably the easiest condition to paint in. Painting in poor, or interesting rather, conditions was something I only pushed on starting four years ago.

Spring Trenholme Park Paths, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3722a)

World Inspired Landscapes: Mexico

 

Mexico needs no introduction, especially for those of us living in North America which consists of Canada, USA and Mexico. Many Canadians, including myself at one time, travel down to Mexico usually to visit a beach-side resort, although I know of some people who have direct ties to the country by way of family. Historically the land was part of the Inca or Mayan empire until it was displaced by Spanish followed by Americans who were eventually repelled to where the border was drawn. There seems to be troubles and violence in and around the southern border due to various factors, yet there still remains a strong bond between the three countries of North America. When researching the landscape of Mexico I found a great variety including steep mountain passes, vast deserts, river valleys, forests, beaches, underground grottoes and much more. The thing that grabbed my attention the most were the purple cacti. They appeared to be a patchwork of magenta and green, occasionally with bright yellow flowers. Other shapes and sizes of cacti were also seen throughout the landscape. Some cactus are even edible. I remember one day I bought a strange fruit at the market, and got all kinds of pricks upon cutting it, unbeknownst to me it was part of a cactus! Inside they are kind of like melons but a bit more firm like a potato. The rest of the ground in Mexico was a mix of raw sienna (warm beige) with red ochre. In the painting I did the magenta with PR122 and PV19, the ground is with yellow ochre (PY43) and red ochre (PR101), and the greens and yellows are with PG36 and PY154. I also made the distant mountain a purple colour to mesh with all the cool water colours.

World Inspired Landscapes: Mexico, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3847a)

World Inspired Landscapes: Mauritius

 

The World Inspired Landscape Series has travelled in geographical space and explored the boundaries of what it means to be a landscape painting, however, it has not yet travelled in time per say. In this painting you probably wouldn't recognize the island nation at first glance, but you could recognize the birds running around the beachfront. These are artistic renderings of the Dodo bird which went extinct hundreds of years ago due to humans, invasive species and habitat loss on the islands of Mauritius. Mauritius is located in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Madagascar and near the French island of Reunion. In fact, our plane landed briefly in Mauritius on the way back from the Seychelles on route to Reunion, but I was stuck in the airport the whole time before getting a connecting flight. In history, Mauritius was not inhabited until Arab traders, followed by Portuguese, Dutch, French and British powers tried to rule the island group. The people are thus a mix of cultures most closely matched to India. 

To do the painting, I found some drawings by Joris Laerle from a ship called the Gelderland according to Wikipedia. Thus, the painting is done from drawings that another artist might have made 550 years ago which is kind of neat. I embellished the colours of the Dodos and why not, how can anyone be sure what colour they were exactly? Some of the historical accounts of the Dodo talked how they may have tasted, to which you would guess chicken. On the contrary they tasted quite unpleasant and were hard to cook. The main trees in the background are Ebony trees, which were once abundant on the island and quite valuable which lead to their demise. I liked the fact that the roots of the trees echoed the gnarled talons of the bird claws. 

World Inspired Landscapes: Mauritius, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, March 2024 (No. 3828a)

City View from Summit Lookout

The summit lookout has been open for awhile now, you can see in the link when I painted it during the pandemic. I didn't return to summit woods or the lookout last year at all, but I plan to go back again this summer when the trees have leaves again. This scene, done today, is looking to the south east at the main down town core with all of its multi-coloured, multi-layered buildings. The taller buildings are all modern, made of steel and glass with green, blue and black tints, while the lower buildings were the older constructions made of concrete, brick, and smaller windows. Its not exactly what it looked like, but I did follow the buildings closely and just arranged them in a neat way, kind of like when I painted Quebec City last year. In the background you can just make out the river and the south shore with the rolling blue mountains off in the distance. The sky was done with a glow-effect, it started with a chartreuse on the horizon, and sharply blended to blue towards the corner, with a daub of dark blue (PB60) in the upper left. It's how the Japanese print makers often did the sky in the 19th century woodblock prints, and it gives a decorative framing effect.

City View from Summit Lookout, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3721)

Views Around Summit Woods

Summit woods sits atop of the south part of Mount Royal, separated by a valley the two mountains are still none the less part of the same range. To access the woods, I rode my bike along The Boulevard and then wound my way up through the mansions until I got to the top. A road called summit circle goes around the woods, but I walked my bike through (no riding is allowed) and stopped to make a few paintings. There were a lot of people there enjoying the moderate weather and walking their dogs. It was mild enough out of the wind that I could just wear a plaid shirt, no jacket. To do the painting I established the sky with the usual dilute phthalo green blue shade (PG7) and gradual addition of phthalo blue red shade (PB15). Importantly the phthalo blue has to be made by Holbein, all the other ones I tries were too active and would not blend with such delicacy. I put a description of the technique in the how to paint skies page. Somehow that page has over 100 views which is neat.

Summit Woods Last Snow? watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3719)

The view from summit woods at this time of year is spectacular because you can see through the trees, down to the city at large, and as far as the river, south shore, and blue mountains on the horizon. To paint such a daunting scene, I worked up the background first keeping the sky modest and emphasizing the turquoise/blue river. Getting the south shore right was tricky, I had to get the paint moisture just right. The city was daubed in with an almost abstract style, then the woods painted over top. The painting already looked good without the trees, so it was kind of nerve racking to add them. The pine tree on the left was modeled after Van Gogh's Starry Night tree that is prominent in the lower left. Since I studied every brush stroke of Starry Night very carefully, I was able to replicate the same colours and general technique here.

View of River and City, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3720a)

Yellow bin, commuter train

If you follow my blog you know that I like to paint pictures of rubbish bins. On the way back from the Snowdon Bakery on Harley street the commuter train went by which caused the barriers to come down and the bells to ring. I took the opportunity to do a quick painting, and midway through another train went by and I managed to get some of the details. In the background are the apartments up on Sherbrooke west. The dumpster was a cool yellow, that is, yellow leaning towards chartreuse. To make that colour you paint out yellow (PY154) and daub in the tiniest amount of green that you can (PG36). It works best if your yellow paint is clean on the palette. If its mucky, then it will not be possible to make that bright yellow. By contrast, you see the sliver of grass on the hill at the left, that is yellow ochre with touches of orange and green, which created a dull neutral yellow. Knowing my way around yellow was something that came about more recently, since I redid my palette and read a ton of info in 2020 for a few years.

Yellow bin, commuter train, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3718)

World Inspired Landscapes: Mauritania

 

Mauritania is on the tip of West Africa south of Morocco and north of Senegal. It is among the largest countries in the world by area although 90% of it is uninhabitable Sahara desert and the people live in the temperate south country along a series of rivers. Historically and to this day Mauritania has a mixture of cultures such Bidhan also known as white Moors, Haratin also known as black moors, and West Africans. The Moors are culturally descended from Arabs and Berbers. The word moor is the origin of the name, Mauritania (Moor-itania). Politically it has been ruled by a series of military dictatorships until a relatively recent democratic election occurred. The painting is an abstract interpretation of sand and sandstone mixing together, symbolizing a mix of Arab and West African cultures. When I investigated the landscape, it was a very flat desert with dunes and the occasional oasis of greenery. In every scene there were smooth sandstone rocks with sand blowing over them which created an interesting contrast. The sand itself is derived from rocks eroding, and yet the two substances (rock and sand) could not be more different. Wind takes centuries to erode the rocks, but it can blow around the sand in a matter of seconds.

World Inspired Landscapes: Mauritania, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, March 2024 (No. 3836a)

Dagwood's Wind Chilly

Dagwood's is one of a few restaurants in the area, it specializes in submarine sandwiches and what else I don't know since I've only been there once a long time ago. The building is a yellow ochre colour, made from some aluminum siding or vinyl cladding perhaps, with green awnings. The surrounding buildings are typical brick colours ranging from a dark umber, raw sienna, and burnt sienna. Its a scene I have painted a few times already, in this instance I was standing on the sidewalk across from where Sherbrooke merges with Monkland on a sharp angle. The wind was very chilly today, which was a surprise given the nice blue sky and sunny day. Without salt in the water the paint was sluggish, a little like using crayons in a way. Luckily it turned out okay, I quite like the effect overall.

Dagwood's Wind Chilly, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3717)

March 2024 Palette

 

Since the massive paint exploration of 2020 and 2021, the palette has mostly settled into a comfortable routine by now. Some of the paints have a couple options that I use, mostly because I over-bought paints and need to try and use them all! The frequently used ones like yellow, I buy a fresh tube every year or so. Here are some details on the paints.

1. Yellow Ochre (PY43) by Da Vinci. It was not until this paint that I realized the full power of yellow ochre. Importantly, it is a very yellowish, almost with a green cast, which differs from most other yellow ochres that have an orange cast. 

2. Umber (PBr7) by ShinHan. There are dozens of paints called umber, this one is the colour of tea with milk. It appears to be similar to green umber. For location painting in Montreal this colour is essential because half of the city it dull beige, the colour of worn out concrete!

3. Burnt Umber (PBr7) by Schmincke. 'Burning' a pigment is a chemical process where it is heated in a giant furnace. When this is done to umber it gets darker and redder, like roasted coffee. In truth, the pigment is probably a blend but the manufacturer only has to list PBr7. 

4. Red Ochre (PY43, PBr7 and/or PR101). This one is the colour of rust, quite literally brick red since the same pigment is used in bricks. I have many tubes of this, and either use the Burnt Yellow Ochre from Daniel Smith, or a blend of Red Brown from Sennelier with Antique Red Ochre from Holbein. They all look exactly the same. 

5. Perylene Maroon (PR179) by Holbein or Deep Scarlet (PR175) by Daniel Smith. When wet they look just like blood, but dry with a brownish cast. The two paints look identical, but the Holbein formula activates better and the colour is a bit darker red. 

6. Quinacridone Violet (PV19) by Schmincke or Quinacridone purple (PV55) from Daniel Smith. The former is like red wine, the latter like grape juice. They are both dark red-magenta colours that can be used interchangeably, although I prefer the purple variant. 

7. Indothrone blue (PB60) from Daniel Smith. After dropping Ultramarine Blue due to its instability in acids, I found the perfect replacement with indo blue. Its a real workhorse, I use it in many mixtures. 

8. Phthalo green blue shade (PG7) by Holbien. Its one of the original paints I had many years (decades) ago when I started painting. A vital paint to have, I was sad when it ran out and got a big tube to replace it. Its almost identical to the old viridian pigment but much stronger. 

9. Perylene green (PBk31) by Daniel Smith. One of the biggest finds of my paint exploration, I use this all the time for foliage and tree shadows among other things. 

10. Phthalo green yellow shade (PG36) by Daniel Smith. The phthalo green paints have chemical differences, in this case it is lighter and slightly more greenish than the blue shade variation. The company almost doesn't matter, all brands have these and they are quite similar. 

11. Yellow (PY154, PY97). I had so many yellows over the years I lost track, currently its PY154 by Da Vinci and Holbein, and PY97 by Daniel smith. They are all the same really, too bad I could not get the 37mL size from Da Vinci. 

12. indo yellow (PY110) by Daniel Smith. This one is the colour of a school bus or lines on the road. I use it to make olive greens or tanned darkish yellows. 

13. Yellow, the same as position 11, but I use it for making warms. You need two blobs of yellow one for mixing greens, and one for mixing warms. If you have just one blob of yellow it gets mucky, and yellow mixes are finicky. 

14. benzi orange (PO62) by Schmincke. Its a bright pleasant orange, great for warm highlights and orange objects.... like pylons. 

15. Pyrol orange (PO73) by Winsor and Newton. One of the few Winsor and Newton paints I have, they are too expensive, but this pigment is superb from them. I use it for night skies, or for painting traffic pylons which is another essential Montreal colour. I want to call this Montreal orange. 

16. Pyrol red (PR254) by Holbein. Occasionally I use the slightly warmer pyrol vermillion (PR255). Pretty much just for red highlights. It mixes poorly with other colours, and the paint needs to be clean to have an effect. Its my only middle red on the palette. 

17. quinacridone magenta (PR122) by Schmincke. Its the hot pink you see on a flamingo. When you need this colour you gotta have it on your palette. I try not to mix with it much to keep it clean. 

18. phthalo blue red shade (PB15) by Holbein. The phthalo names are odd, this one sounds like it should be purple but its a true blue. Since I abandoned cobalt blues a long time ago, this is my main blue, I only use it for the sky, and for some blue highlights. From other companies, this paint is a putrid mess due to dispersants in the formula, so I only go with Holbein- their formula is a lot tamer than the other companies.

19. Carbon (lamp) black (PBk6). Also had this from various companies, Daniel Smith and Da Vinci. Not for beginners, you need to understand the power of this pigment before unleashing it on you palette. Its good to paint monochrome with it for a bit to see how it dries. For locations this is great for shadows and detail. It makes a good moody sky on a grey day. In mixes it can reduce value without affecting hue angle of a coloured paint.

Design in Danger

From time to time I clean off the palette which is usually a right mess after doing location painting around Montreal. If I am feeling lazy I will run the palette quickly under the tap with some gentle brushing with the hogs-hair 2 inch round brush, but then a little bit of the paint goes down the sink. The way that I use watercolours is to squeeze them onto the palette and let them dry firmly before use. They can stay that way almost indefinitely without any issues. It is quite different than oil or acrylic paints which are not usable after they dry. Gum arabic, or a synthetic equivalent, is a water soluble adhesive substance used in watercolour paint to keep them soluble, this gives the paint its unique characteristic. Pigments are largely the same between the various paint medias, its just the formula that differs.

Design in Danger, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, March 2024 (No. 3837b)

World Inspired Landscapes: Marshall Islands

 

Continuing with the virtual tour of the world, part one was completed, and part two is underway, we reach deep into the Pacific Ocean and arrive at Marshall Islands. Marshall Islands is a volcanic archipelago consisting of coral atolls and five main islands. An atoll is a volcanic remnant that appears as a ring in the ocean, the caldera full of water becomes a lagoon full of coral and sea life. Indigenous people lived there as early as 1000 BC or earlier which is a testament to the seafaring abilities of ancient people of the region. Due to the remoteness, the harsh waters, and the hostile people who lived there, Marshall Islands resisted any significant colonization until the Germans, Japanese and then Americans occupied parts of it for shipping and military purposes. Unfortunately the Americans decided to test almost seventy nuclear bombs on the atolls, especially the Bikini atoll (namesake of the bikini bathing suit) where they detonated all manner of nukes including one that went out of control and spewed radioactive waste on everything including the military personnel and the locals who had been moved to an island on the other side of the country. To this day Bikini atoll has a massive crater in it from a nuke, like a bite out of a slice of bread that filled in with water afterwards. 

For the painting, I had been wanting to do a black and white painting for a while, and this seemed to be the right moment. Composing a night scene, I left the full moon hanging at the top, with an inky black sky in bone black (PBk9). Bone black is a warmish, granular black paint that settles in with a decent textural effect. The atoll and palm trees were bone black with additional dark red (PR179), dark green (PBk31) and dark blue (PB60). I wasn't sure of the over painting would be darker than the background, but luckily it dried to the correct value that I was looking for. The moon reflections on the water are the paper showing through. The painting turned out to be a lot more powerful than I anticipated, it has a sombre appearance, but also carries a kind of desolate loneliness of the middle of the Pacific on an abandoned atoll.

World Inspired Landscapes: Marshall Islands, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, March 2024 (No. 3837a)

Sci Fi or Montreal?

This looks more like one of my palette cleansers or doodle paintings that an actual scene from Montreal. I saw this scene on my way back home on the bike path, down across from Peel Basin. Its some sort of industrial appendage attached to a row of tall storage silos. Maybe its were they keep the tachyon energy to power the time machine. Who knows, is this scene science fiction or Montreal?

To paint the sky this way, I circled the shape of the sun behind the clouds with a peachy orange, than fanned it out with warm grey and salmon hues at the horizon. While still wet I applied the purplish clouds with mixtures of indo blue (PB60) magenta (PV19) and red (PV175). The idea was to keep everything loose and hazy, with a dream-like quality. 

Sci Fi or Montreal? watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3716b)

Wont be there Forever

Across the street from the shipping containers there is a large empty lot for sale, perhaps destined to be an office building or retail store. It is likely zoned industrial/commercial due to its proximity to the highway so I doubt that there will ever be a condo here. The field was an interesting mix of neutral browns, reds, and purples, with a soft textural effect. Factories were spray painted with graffiti, as usual PJD 24 had some graffiti on the top of the wall, and the city of Montreal could be seen in the background. It was a thoroughly pleasant place to paint despite the racket from the cars and trains. 
 

Empty Lot near Containers, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3715b)

 

This was a small car wash situated under the elevated train in the shadows of the shipping containers. I marked it study because this would be a good one to go back to with a larger piece of paper in the future. Its another one of those things that wont be there forever.

Lave Auto study, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3716a)

Shipping Containers

Believe it or not, people try to build houses out of shipping containers, although not these ones which are in the container lot at the end of Ville st Henri near the elevated train. The trains kept zipping by but there was enough going on with this scene to leave them out. I used indo blue (PB60) for the blue colour, slightly washed out to give the appearance of a matte finish.

Elevated Train Blue Containers, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3715a)

Looking to the right down the beginnings of Wellington street, there was a good view of all the colourful containers with the prophetic sign Victoria Bridge Blocked in french. I didn't try to be accurate with the train cars, instead I created a more abstract interpretation focusing on a jigsaw of shapes and colours. The cars were just daubed in for effect.

Containers and Bridge Blocked Sign, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3709b)

Pine trees confederation park

Confederation park is just down the street on Somerled avenue, I took a long detour while riding home to find something to paint before the sun started to go down. There is a group of pine trees around the running track that were casting interesting shadows on the olive green and brown grass. I painted the entire background first, then painted the trees over top once the background was mostly dry. In real life the pine trees are more of a blue-pine colour, which is pretty hard to achieve so I went for a more traditional green just to make sure the painting worked out. Next time I see a blue pine tree I will give it a proper go. 

Pine trees confederation park, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3714)

Symphony of Brown, study

For over a decade now I have rode my bike along the Maisonneuve bike path, making many painting along the way of the various warehouses and scenes of the train tracks. This scene has always struck me and today I stopped to make a quick painting on the way to work. I knew right away the title had to be 'symphony of brown' and I added the study tag in case I would make a larger version when the weather improves a bit more. What struck me was how many shades of brown there were in one scene, at least a dozen or so on the bricks, sidings, facades, ground, and even the curtains in the window which were a dusty purplish colour very close to brown. The only other colours were blue in the sky and a few sprigs of green in the weeds starting to emerge. To get the full impact the scene needs to be painted on a larger piece of paper, which I may be able to do this summer if the opportunity arises. 

Symphony of Brown Study, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3713)

Trenholme park Melt

Today the heavy snow that we got over the weekend started to melt, leaving greenish-brown patches showing through at Trenholme park on Sherbrooke. This painting was one of opportunity, I had my bike and found a nice spot to stand in front of the recreational building at the center of the park and the sun was shining on me from left to right. It was not much of a landscape per say, but I liked the pattern than the melted snow was making on the grass. To paint this one, I applied the sky first, let it dry, and applied the pale wash of the snow across the bottom two thirds of the paper. While it was still wet, I brushed in the green mixture (PG36 + PY43 +PBr7) and some streaks of brown (PBr7). With the warm sun, the rest of the painting dried well and I could do the tree overlays and some grass detailing on location.

Trenholme park Melt, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3708b)

Sleet and Wind on River

Contrasting pastel colours made for a compelling scene at the end of the peninsula. The breakwater rocks in the foreground were covered in fresh snow, with red and yellow branches from the shrubbery poking through. The sky was a complex mix of blue (PB60), magenta (PV55) and red ochre (PR101), while the water was similar but with yellow ochre added to give it s greenish cast. The washes dried really smooth, I guess I managed to control the moisture levels perfectly despite the strong wet wind that was hammering me the whole time. You can see little flecks of sleet that hit the painting. This can be a hard location due to the strong wind coming down the river. The land on the horizon would be Lachine, Dorval and beyond. I adjusted the horizon trees slightly with some phthalo blue red shade (PB15) to give some more atmosphere. 

Sleet and Wind on River, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3712b)

Pastel Sky and Water

 

The bike path was slushy but ride-able today, although I was the only one out there. This train bridge has been the subject matter for many paintings, in this one I depicted the slushy bike path and the snow covered canal. The bridge has iron oxide paint (PR101), yellow ochre (PY43) and some orange (PO62) to punch up the hue. Luckily the canal dried fast enough to allow for the black fence to be painted over and I could finish the whole painting on location.

Train Bridge Snow on Canal, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3711)

The willow trees that line the boat harbour take on a yellowish cast in the winter. I offset the yellow with a pastel sky and greenish water that was mostly frozen. The trees in the distance were done with perylene green (PBk31) and blue (PB60), but it dried a little darker than I thought it would.

Willow trees harbour, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3710b)

 

Paintings long escarpment, gloomy day

With the threat of rain or snow, I got out on the bike relatively early today and stayed up on the Plateau along st Jacques street. This is a prominent radio tower that is close to the train tracks, with a community garden area in the foreground between two busy roads. I picked up some new tubes of Holbein watercolour paint the other day including indo yellow (PY154), phthalo blue red shade (PB15) and perylene maroon (PR179) at Avenue des Arts, and decided to grab a new round #6 brush also Holbein. The new brush of course has a great point which allowed the fine details of the radio tower and leafless tree branches. 

Radio Tower, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3710a)

At this point, the escarpment falls off into the Turcot interchange which leaves the bridge heavily exposed to wind. Now I understand the shape of the bridge, you can't see it from the painting, but the outer shell of this bridge bows out almost like the wind of an airplane which must cut the wind. The cars were zipping by and I captured them with some simple white, black, green and red marks. For colour contrast I also played the yellowish glow off of the darker purples and earth colours. 

Light traffic st Jacques bridge, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3712a)

View down Dorchester

Once I saw an old map of Montreal from the 1970's and Rene Levesque street was called Dorchester Boulevard. As politics changed so did the name of the street, with Dorchester being some colonial era British hero and Rene Levesque being a separatist politician. So when I was in this part of NDG and found Dorchester I guess it is the beginning of the road before it was renamed. I liked the variety of the building shapes and how the road was curved, along with the stark contrast of the new condo on the horizon which looks like some alien monolith by comparison. Somehow the grass colour came out exactly as it was, as did the shadowed side of the houses. I used deep yellow (PY110) with a touch of yellow ochre (PY43) and green (PG36) and a bit of grit, that is, greyish muck from the palette to cut down the chroma. The cars in the distance are neat too, I find my view drawn to them. 

View down Dorchester, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3709a)

Trenhome Shuffleboard

Here is a quick after work painting made just before the sun went down. Trenholme park is full of very large trees, and in the middle they have a games area with a croquet pitch and several shuffleboard areas. You can see the end of one in the bottom center, with triangles and numbers painted onto a slab of concrete. When the sun is low, shadows get long, and the light/shadow boundaries appear to have more contrast. The grass is still dark yellow and olive green since it has not had the chance to grow much. On my palette, the green paint usually lasts all winter and then some, but during spring and summer I will refill the green paint several times.  

Trenhome Shuffleboard, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3708a)

World Inspired Landscapes: Malta

When the world around you is not so inspiring, like on a rainy day, then maybe the imaginary world at large is more interesting. The world inspired landscape series is just that, a chance to virtually visit countries all over the world and learn a little about their history. Malta is a small island in the Mediterranean close to the tip of Italy, it has been inhabited for as long as archeological records can exist, that is, pottery shards from seven thousand years ago. Over its long course of human habitation, Malta had a revolving door of conquerors and occupiers, culminating with the British Empire acting as a protectorate. Protectorate is a kind of vassal state, that is, a cooperate or else kind of politics. With their independence, Malta has grown into a thriving tourist hub and important Mediterranean stopover. Like a lot of arid and isolated countries, it has little fresh water to draw from, and its habitat is affected by climate change and human activity. Even in ancient history, the island had a number animals like the giant swan, that went extinct shortly after the arrival of humans. 

You would have to be a botany expert to guess what kind of tree this is. Its trunk and roots look a lot like a banyan tree, but in fact this painting represents a carob tree. Carob is known as a chocolate alternative, it is used in recipes because it has a natural non-sugar sweetener and a consistency, flavor and colour similar to chocolate. Its seed pods start off like very large green beans, maybe a foot long, then turn dark reddish-brown when they dry. The seed pods are then harvested and sold as is, or powdered. To paint the surrounding sea I used phthalo green (PG7) and phthalo blue (PB15). The sea really pops due to the contrast with all the warm earthy colours of the tree and ground, and the dark reddish-brown seed pods (PBk6 + PR175 + PBr7). The colour of the pods as you see it was a composite of black and dark red, but it is essentially the exact same shade as burnt umber which I also dabbed in.
 

World Inspired Landscapes: Malta, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3846a)

World Inspired Landscapes: Mali

As we move through countries starting with the letter M in the world inspired landscapes series, Mali comes up as one of the west African countries near many other countries such as Algeria and Burkina Faso to name a few. I've painted so many of these by now that the world is filling in like a giant spherical puzzle. Its really boosted my world knowledge and I hope others will find it enlightening. Of course, its not the same thing as visiting every country in the world, which some people have done, but for someone with a full time job and no desire to fly all over the place I am okay with this series! Now to Mali, it was and currently is a region of great instability due to regional conflicts and the after effects of a brief French occupation. Prior to the colonial times, Mali was the center of a great empire ruled at some point by a man named Mansa Musa who is widely accepted to have been the wealthiest person ever to live, and that includes the modern billionaires who's relative wealth would pale in comparison. The Mali empire controlled vast amounts of gold, and was at the nexus of African- to Middle East trade routes. Analogous to Maldives, an Indian Ocean country that became wealthy from sea snail shells that were considered money, Mali became wealthy from supplying the world's insatiable appetite for gold. Just this week gold hit another record high at several thousands of dollars per ounce, so just imagine how much Mansa Musa would be worth now considering that he owned just about all the gold in the world. Its hard to know the truths in some historical accounts, one thing to point out is that despite its historical wealth, Mali now relies on minerals and agriculture for its domestic product. 

Most of Mali is part of the Sahara Desert. Mostly flat, it is punctuated by sand dunes and scrub trees with the occasional oasis. I read an article about star dunes, they are dunes with starfish-like arms going in many directions. Researchers figured out that star dunes could be as much as 13,000 years old, and likely caused by wind erosion. Who knows, maybe Mansa Masu hid his gold under them?

World Inspired Landscapes: Mali, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, March 2024 (No. 3827a)

Tall trees last sun

This scene appears on the ride home from most trips to the south east, its the planned community neighborhood across from the Benny sports complex. I was little despondent from the greyish scenery downtown on Sunday, so when I saw the intense warm colours from the last sun reflecting on the still new brick work of the six story condos it was worth stopping for. The planner put very tall trees in along the walkway which reach up and past the tops of these buildings to catch some sun. It makes for a striking scene. I had to paint the background, let it dry fully at home, and then paint on the trees from memory. The tree in shadow was a very dark yellow, looking like a greenish brown which I mixed with umber (PBr7) and green (PG36) with a touch of blue (PB60) and orange (PO62) to adjust the value and hue. The tops of the trees are mostly yellow ochre (PY43) tinted with orange.

Tall trees last sun, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3707)

Decent day for Ride

The bike riding conditions were decent today, unfortunately a lot of pedestrians also decided to go for a walk on the bike path today and I had to slalom my way to downtown. I was going pretty aimlessly, just enjoying the fact that the path was melted and there was no rain or snow. In the foreground of this painting you see part of a large pond they recently installed for no particular reason down at the old port. I guess you can hide the bodies there. But seriously, the view was pretty drab, so I tried to play up the warm highlight on the dome with the pastels of the surrounding sky and buildings. 

Dome Old Montreal Melt, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3705b)

The idea here was to paint the ferris wheel and its reflection in the muddy melt water. Every year I try and fail to paint a good picture of the ferris wheel. The best effort had to be with the crab apple tree, done on st Armand paper last year.

Ferris Wheel Reflected in Melt, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3846b)

World Inspired Landscapes: Maldives

Located deep in the Indian Ocean somewhere between India and Madagascar, the Maldives is a chain of volcanic islands that sits only 1.5 meters above sea level on average. It was populated by a mix of people from the area of India and Sri Lanka around 2500 years ago, and was also inhabited by Arab traders. The island was under a colonial protectorate, which is a client or vassal state where the leaders are installed by another country, first by the Portuguese, then the Dutch, then the British. The British found it difficult to control the region and it started a process of independence that culminated in the 1950's. The culture therefor is quite mixed. Its main draw nowadays is tourism. The government has increased the tourist industry in order to raise enough money to move the entire country of about 500,000 people. They are looking to buy a large tract of land in India or Sri Lanka to relocated their population over the next decades due to climate change. Estimates vary, but unfortunately Maldives will be under water in the next generation or so at the current rate of sea level rise. 

That was not what inspired the painting though. I tried a few underwater scenes in the series, including Antigua and Barbuda, and Cypress. This time I went for more of a 'screen saver look' with very bright colours and some made-up fish inspired by a puzzle I did with mom and dad about a year ago. In the bottom left among the coral and rocks are some oversized sea snails meant to represent cowrie snails, otherwise known to history as money snails. Their shells were collected en masse and dried out to provide a form of currency in the ancient world. Maldives had such a wealth of these snails that it became a wealthy area much prized by traders. The shells are very shiny, and have a jagged opening across the bottom. Colours vary from brown, caramel, white, often with dots and patterns. 

The sea background was phthalo turquoise (PB16) at the top, ultramarine (PB29) in the middle, and indo blue (PB60) at the bottom. If you look around, you will see my algae eater hidden away.

World Inspired Landscapes: Maldives, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, March 2024 (No. 2664b located near No. 3846)

Restless Roots

Its been four years of cleaning the palette, that is how these abstract paintings come about anyways. Since Montreal tends to be grey, brown, blue, and in the summer, green, there are not too many opportunities to paint colours on location. Of course, the artist can always embellish the scenery which I do on a regular basis. In an abstract painting there are no rules, you just paint whatever and hope it turns out okay. Usually I start with a strong brush stroke, like the yellow band in the background of the painting above. Then I fill int he rest accordingly with a variety of shapes and colours. Somehow there are roots growing in this painting, they are attached to my signature letters and 24 for the year. 

Restless Roots, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, March 2024 (No. 3827b)

Paintings on Drizzly Day

 

Setting off into the rain, I had to find shelter at Loyola park to make this painting. Everything was so soggy, you can see where the painting got smudged in my bike pack. When painting in overcast grey conditions, it is important to accentuate the colours and make them brighter than they appear. If you just paint what you see, the painting will look extremely dull and grey when you get it under regular light. It has something to do with how your eyes adjust in overcast conditions. On location, this painting looked incredibly brightly coloured, but now it looks about how I remember it being.

Melting Path Loyola Park, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3705a)

Getting as far as the second foot bridge on the Lachine canal, I stopped to make a painting of the gantry crane, but then switched to this tree with crows on it. The crows were cawing loudly the whole time which was distracting at first, but actually inspired me to do the painting. The rain was very light, but you can see the effects it had on the painting, it created a marbled-effect which is quite neat. To maintain the contrast on the crows, I applied them in dark black, a mix of black (PBk6), magenta (PV19) and blue (PB60) straight onto the white paper. So the sky here is just the white paper. I did that out of necessity, had I applied the sky first, it would not have dried fast enough. Its a neat effect overall, just imaging crows cawing and cold misty rain on your face and you get the idea. The tree by the way, is beige and barky on the bottom but grey and smooth on the top half, so I call it the hybrid tree, there are dozens of them all along the canal.

Crows on Hybrid Tree, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3706a)

Bridge Tower

The weather yesterday was cold and overcast. I made it down to the Terry Fox Park area on st Jacques street by bike, and did a painting of the new bridge that goes over the Decarrie. Its not so new any more, they opened it right around 4 or 5 years ago. First I applied the greyish background and infused it with various shades of blue, purple and coral red. As it dried I worked on the buildings and road using heavier looking earth colours. Everything was so soggy that I had to wait until I got home and it dried, then I applied the light purple shadow on the tower, and the caramel-coloured trees. The size of the bridge tower is quite exaggerated here, it almost looks like the Washington Monument.

Bridge Tower, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024 (No. 3704a)