With the days getting shorter and shorter it reduces the amount of sunlight after work when I tend to make paintings during the week, if not on lunch break. With endless paperwork and meetings it was another long day in the office, but afterwards I got as far as the Decarie overpass on the Maisonneuve bike path as the sun descended. Just before the sunset, the bright yellow sun had an orange disk of light around it which gave way to neutral cyan and blue. In the foreground is an autoshop with parked cars. Its not the first time I have painted on this location, it does tend to be the last area of NDG to catch sun.
Sunset over Decarie with autoshop, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2024
And here is the scene looking straight up the Decarie, on the right side is the rising off ramp that connects to Sherbrooke street. To paint the rows of packed cars bumper to bumper I created an angled grid of grey paint leaving the spaces free where the head and tail lights would go. After drying, I outlined the cars in rough blobs, dabbed in tires and shadows and finished with red tail tail lights, yellow (with a touch of white showing) headlights, and the blue-green windshields. I brought pyrol red back onto the palette, actually a blend of PR254 and PY97 called cadmium red hue by Daniel Smith company that is quite bright like a ferrari. Its ideal for tail lights. Its such a well crafted painting that it practically send shudders up my spine thinking about that Decarie traffic jam. It actually was moving well, since it was close to 7pm, so the painting might be a bit of an exaggeration!
Sundown rush hour, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2024
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