Waiting to cross the street, I looked to my right and saw this scene of a person walking through a sliver of light momentarily. By the time I set up my bike for painting the light, and the person, were long gone, leaving behind a greyish cold scene. As I painted the scene, I tried to recreate that fleeting moment as if it were taken by a camera. It was hard to tell where the light was even coming from, it must have been reflected off a window or it was beaming through some sky scrapers. A red fire hydrant in the shadows anchored the composition.
Sliver of light, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024
As it turns out, Wellington street goes further than just Verdun, it extends all the way into the downtown. In this view east, you can see the approach to Griffintown with all the shiny white, grey and green condo towers, and a few colourful trees interspersed with the traffic. I just had this lemon yellow (PY175) today which is a pale gummy sort of paint that felt a bit under-powered. But then again, it helped my find those half-chroma earthy yellows and oranges representing autumn leaves.
View east along Wellington Autumn, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024
Painted this tree, and it turned out looking more like a brain! It was a half chroma red-orange that I made by mixing the brilliant pyrol orange (PO73) with the earthy burnt ochre (PBr7/PR101). For the yellows I mixed lemon yellow (PY175) with yellow ochre (PY43). By mixing a brilliant paint with an earthy paint I could recreate the sweet spot that looked true to the scene. Using just brilliant colours may look garish (too intense), and the earth colours tend to be too dull, but when mixed they seem to hit the right colour notes. I was thinking of Van Gogh's style when I painted this, it is reminiscent of his tree paintings done in st Remi, although maybe that's not a good thing for me if you know his history.
Half chroma trees, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024
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