Saturday, October 19, 2024

Primary colour day: red and yellow trees, blue sky

What a nice autumn day, blue sky, cool breeze and lots of interesting colours to paint.Truth is, most of the colours were brownish and olive and I had to seek out the more colourful trees, like this red bush and yellow tree. In the background the Lachine canal was a clear blue.

Red bush yellow tree blue canal, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024

The low sun created these brilliant sparkles on the water. As the deciduous trees were changing yellow and red, the coniferous trees were looking dark green by contrast. Perylene green (PBk31) is the key for painting that dark pine tree green. The version I have now is called Shadow Green from Holbein. 

Autumn colours sparkle on water, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024


This red tree made an intense maroon reflection on the canal. In the background, you see Mount Royal with its different coloured trees. Over time, they keep building more condos like the one you see on the right, pretty soon the whole canal will be lined with them.

Red tree reflection, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024

Speaking of condos, here is the tall stack and the massive factory-turned-condo development. In the background is the Montreal skyline. Trees were growing on an embankment where they took down some of the canal wall. I was just about out of yellow (PY175) so I used yellow ochre (PY43) instead. The yellow was lemon yellow, its a whiter version of the regular yellow, not one I like much but it was a good opportunity to use it up today with all the yellow in the landscape.

Tall stack and condos, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024

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