At the bottom of Humberlea there is a small bridge going over the river on King highway. There were these fluffy seed pods bursting but I could not quite get the effect right. The heat was really getting to me at this point, but I pressed on. This epic walk was barely four hours but I managed to crank out a dozen small paintings. The key was to not be too picky about the scenes, and get them done quick.
Bridge and wildflowers, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2024
At the end of mill park there is a bridge on Queen highway over the Humber river, with a commissioned mural on its flanks. The path goes under the bridge and pops on on the other side, but I was just sitting on a nice bench with shade doing this painting. The colour of the water is bang on, that caramel beige tone. I can't recall how I mixed it, but it was likely yellow ochre (PY43), red ochre (PR101), and a green mix (PY97 + PG36). To make the cool brick colours, the lighter portion has to be on the yellow side, and the shadow more on the violet side. Quin purple (PV55) is quite useful in bringing the colour mixtures to the cool neutral point.
Under bridge with mural, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2024
Heading back, I took a look downtown behind me, and decided to make one last painting on the day. I've painted this scene many times before, this time I accentuated the walking path on the left, and created a neat shadow element on the cars going along Queen highway. Two days later I would be on a city bus heading down this road on the way back to Montreal. My parents enjoyed the visit and they have a few new paintings on their wall now including the Barns with Cornfield, the Steinberg train track, Shadows over Ramp NDG, and I left cloud over Trenholme for a friend who wanted to buy it!
Final view downtown, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2024
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