Flower power in the neighborhood

 

Although it was overcast today, the flowers were popping up and shining brightly. Knowing about the Cavendish underpass from previous years, I made the short bike ride through cote st Luc and to the train tracks where Cavendish goes under. Both sides of the road have grassy embankments with large flower and shrub gardens and tall pine trees. It's pretty noisy there due to the traffic but not so bad on a weekend like today. To paint the tulips I did most of the background first including the dark dirt (PBr7 burnt umber + PBk6 lamp black) and green foliage (PY154 + PG36 + PBk31) leaving blank space for the tulips flowers, stems and leaves. The fun part was colouring in the the tulips with almost pure yellow, magenta (PR122), and pyrol red in the background tulips (PR254). The numbers are pigment codes, it helps me remember what I did for next time.

White, yellow, pink tulips, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, May 2024

Using a similar technique I painted another part of the garden with almost all yellow tulips, a few magenta ones, and a flowering yellow shrub in the background. I applied dots of ochre (PBr7) and orange (PO62) over the dark dirt colour because that is what Van Gogh seemed to do in his famous Irises painting. I got to see some of his work in Amsterdam up close, but not the irises painting, which hangs in California.

Yellow tulips, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, May 2024

I took a crack at the pink flowering tree across the tree next to the auto shop. There was a neat contrast between the grey structure and black tires sitting beside the delicate foliage. I am still working out the best way to paint such a tree, there may be a few days left to get it right. Anyways, it was great to ride around the neighborhood and paint some colourful scenes today.

Pink tree near auto shop, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, May 2024