Lemon and Lime trees, views up McGill avenue

Firing on all cyclinders, I did this painting of overlapping lemon and lime-coloured trees along McGill avenue. That McGill guy really got around Montreal, they even named a University after him. At first I wasn't sure if I could get the subtle differences in yellow to contrast enough... I worked up the lime tree with yellow (PY175), orange yellow (PY110), dark green (PBk31), and touches of black (PBk6). The black might seem wrong, but yellow and black make a neutral olive green if mixed properly. Here, I am actually mixing the paint directly on the paper, not in my palette. The lemon tree is yellow, yellow-orange, and dabs of red ochre (PBr7/PR101). When I name paints, I do not name the brand or actual name of the paint since it varies company to company. For example, PBk31 is called perylene-green from Daniel Smith, but its called shadow-green from Holbein. I've used both and they are very much the same. For the rest of the painting I amped up the chroma to avoid too much boring grey, just pulling colour notes and exagerrating a bit. 

Lemon and Lime trees, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024

 

This row of trees had an interesting spectrum ranging from red-orange to lemon yellow. I wonder if it had something to do with the shadow from the building because the yellow tree would have received the most sun, the reddish tree the least. To infuse the apartment with colour I created a varied wash of turquoise, green and violet, then overpainted with a grid of dark earthy yellow (PY43 + PBk6).

Spectrum trees under apartment, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024

 

Its one of those unrecognizable scenes in Montreal, at least if you knew what it once was. That beige building with the pointy green tops is the old train station, now its a community center and metro stop. There are tall hotels and sky scrapers all around it, as seen from McGill av. looking north. The cars were done with a simple 5 brush stroke technique... a mushroom cap, line across the bottom, two hash marks for tires, and a strip for the window. Then just two red dots for tail lights.

Buildings and trees view up McGill av, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024