Light at the end of the street

 

There was a late painter named John Little who made oil paintings of Montreal circa 1950 -60's. If you search 'john little montreal' and click images, you will see some of his prolific works. Fascinated that there was another painter of Montreal, I studied his paintings and came to some conclusions. He apparently only painted in the winter, which is rare and odd, since painting in the winter is harder to do than painting in the summer. He painted on location which I could tell by the colouration and perspectives that he captured, and I knew from experience that he was standing on the sidewalk, slightly off to the side as I do when on location. Furthermore, the size (30 x 24" or 16" x10) is about what an oil painter is going to do on location. He was quite a draft-person, nearly an illustrator in how precise the paintings were. Although the scenes appear to be simple at first glance... buildings, sidewalks, cars and streets, they are in fact one of the hardest things to get correct. Composing the wide, sweeping roads, getting the sizing of the cars right, and having the buildings on either side of the street line up properly are very hard to depict especially if he was working on location as I suspect. Perhaps he did take photos but in the paintings I see the subtle blue tones in the snow shadows, and reflected light on the sides of cars that typically would not show up in a colour photo. Colour photography existed in the 1960's but it was probably in its infancy compared to later years. 

So just after work I got to my bike and saw this scene, the yellow and orange trees were illuminated by the last light of the day. Starting with the colourful tree-tops I filled the rest of the painting in with grey, blue, purple and black. As it dried, I applied the darker branches and leaves texture. Apparently I forgot to initial the painting, although it was very moist upon completion. I might put the initials on now that it is dry, who knows it may be worth money one day!

Light at the end of the street, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2024