Dumpster depot blue

 

As an art connoisseur of dumpsters, I found this selection to be delectable. It was the mother lode of dumpsters. Usually I see one, maybe two side by side, but this lot had dozens of them, all blue, in all different shapes and sizes. Unfortunately (or fortunately if you are a dumpster connoisseur) they were all pretty rusty and looking worse for wear. I painted the blue first, then over-painted rust with rust... literally, red ochre pigment (PR101) is iron oxide, to which I mixed in yellow ochre (PY43) and pyrol orange (PO73) for good measure. In the background you see the trees lining the lachine canal, which I would normally paint from the other direction. It was neat today to find Turcot Place road and see what is beyond the tree line and down in the industrial area. Completing the scene, there was a pile of gravel, some old 2x4 planks, and some scattered bricks. I just added blue to the painting name in case I find another dumpster depot and they are in a different colour. Those neon-yellow ones have to be kept somewhere in Montreal....

Dumpster depot blue, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, April 2025

More paintings of the Turcot interchange

This prominent suspension bridge tower has been featured in many of my paintings over the years. In this scene, I am on the bike path that runs along the edge of the service roads, looking up the massive, landscaped ramparts. The bridges off to the left are highway 15 coming from Verdun and connecting with NDG. Today's goal was 'more is less', I mean, more detail, less paintings. Using smaller brushes and adding more brush strokes increased the paint time by about 50%, but I still knocked out seven paintings. I like the way this one turned out, I wanted it to have a monumental feel, like a modern day Roman coliseum in Montreal. 

Turcot tower, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025

 

You just go for paintings like this and hope for the best, its not possible to think about the finished product. In the end the whole scene gives me a woozy, tipsy feel like a bowl of spaghetti. The horizon line anchors the scene. A couple of train engines went by in the middle of the scene, one was towing the other. The Turcot is an appealing subject matter because its a modern, awe-inspiring, grotesque thing, with lots of places to stop and paint, and bike paths all throughout. Monet painted trains and train tracks, and train station, which were relatively new and exciting in his time. Anyways, I would rather be painting it than driving in it.

Turcot tipsy, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025

Industrial strength paintings

 

On the way back, I rode over the Rue Pullman bridge over the highways and found my way down Pl. Turcot, an industrial street that skirts between a bunch of warehouses and light industrial shops. Its just next to the Lachine Canal bike path, I could see the embankment where I painted the other weekend. In this painting you see one of the enormous piles of recycled paper waiting to go into the boilers and become cardboard once again. One day I will donate my entire painting collection, they are already in cardboard boxes and all my watercolour paper is high quality rag that would be easy to recycle. Just kidding sort of, but the paper in the stack was very colourful and I had a great time painting it, complete with the smell of wet cardboard.

Recycled paper, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025

Out front, the business is called Kruger, there is an enormously long warehouse painted in ochre and pale green. A row of cedar trees, and those trees with banana-shaped seed pods lined the front. I like industiral plots from this era because they still valued landscaping and tried to make the property look nice all around. There was garbage everywhere though, the bits of paper and cardboard were strewn about.

Cardboard warehouse, watercolour 10 x 7" cold press, April 2025

Luckily the rain held off today, it made for some interesting skies. I do the sky with a dilute wash of yellow ochre, surround with the sky blue, and drop in the purple-grey shadows. I wanted to include the truck, the parking lot, and some other structures but the paper was way too small for that. Could be a candidate for a larger painting one day. I struggled with the perspective on this one, must be a little rusty after only one location painting over the past week or so.

Kruger sign, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025

To practice perspective I took on this scene of a truck trailer in the parking lot. The back of the truck was the main focal point, you see all the interesting signs and textures, with the sun reflections creating a highlight here and there. Its a real feat to paint a scene like this and still have it filled with light and shadow. Incidentally, it was a great location to paint, I had a whole area to myself, of course, there was a fence between me and the scene which was omitted. I am pretty sure the bit of road I was standing on used to be an access road for the highway prior to the Turcot renovation, now its mostly covered in dirt and grass. If I go back here I will try paint that scene too. 

Kruger truck, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025

World Inspired Landscapes: Seychelles

Here is another exotic country that I have actually visited in person! Instead of researching this landscape, I went from the memories of sitting on a pure white sand beach surrounded by large smooth granite rocks and with pristine turquoise water lapping up to the shore. It was so darn hot I had to sit under a tree to make paintings. Its one of those snobby things Europeans like to do.. go to Seychelles and 'island hop', that is, take ferries to progressively smaller and smaller islands with progressively more and more expensive hotels. In the Seychelles I discovered what is at the end of the world, and it was a 20 Euro Martini with a sunset. Not bad. The proverbial speck in the ocean, it is actually a collection of hundreds of islands in the Indian Ocean. These islands were uninhabited prior to its discovery by Europeans (let the islands hopping begin). The sea is so hostile around these islands, it was unlikely that any ancient people could have made it there in one piece, although Arab traders has visited other island nations in the Indian Ocean. The other funny thing about this place is that you have no shadow at noon because the sun is directly above, being on the equator, when I looked straight up, there was the sun above me. Very odd feeling since it never happens in Canada. Usually I try to avoid the 'screen saver' style beach scene, but for Seychelles, its perfect. Now just imagine a 20 Euro martini and a sunset. 

World Inspired Landscapes: Seychelles watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, April 2025 (No. 4305b)

World Inspired Landscapes: Serbia

Serbia is a small country located between central and south eastern Europe. Evidence for human habitation goes all the way back to the early stone ages, and Serbia has remained a country in one way or another for a very long time. I was writing about how some countries seemed to resist regime change, however, Serbia has been conquered and re-conquered so many times, there are several Wikipedia pages dedicated to the historical twists and turns. It appears that 2006 is the year they finally claimed independence and self rule through democracy. Ancient mountains in the south east are covered in grassy meadows and old pine trees, as depicted in the painting. To paint the bright green grass, I first applied pure vanadium yellow (PY184), then surrounded it by chartreuse, which was a mix of the yellow with some green (PG36). Adding more green and neutralizing with some orange and blue gave depth to the scene. It all looked pretty bland until the dark pine trees went on, the foliage is perylene maroon (PR179) with blue-green (PG7). This series has challenged my creativity and compositional skills, and allowed me to explore landscapes that I never would have encountered in Canada. If I ever visit one of these countries, I am ready! It is also fun to learn more about geography, politics, and history of the world.

World Inspired Landscapes: Serbia, watercolour 8 x 10" hot press, April 2025 (No. 3880b)

World Inspired Landscapes: Senegal

 Located on the west coast of Africa, on the northern bulge of the continent, it is the western-most country of all Africa. It is a semi-arid climate with plenty of water, forest and jungle remaining, and desert in the north. Unfortunately Senegal is extremely sensitive to climate change, even a 2 degree change will have major effects on the wetlands. In antiquity, the land was part of a large coalition of territories spanning the whole horn of Africa, but that ended shortly before the landing of Portuguese colonists and long colonial rule that followed. In fact, Australia seems to have been in charge during war time, then France was influential until just last year when the withdrew their forces. It remains one of the poorest countries, its main exports are gold, and fishing is a major industry too. I saw a documentary where Senegalese fisherman could not fish anymore because huge Chinese vessels were in their waters scooping up all the fish. Like many African countries, a history of slavery, resource exploitation, and political instability has made life hard for the people. 

This painting reminded me a little of one of the first one I did for the series, Argentina, which featured a meandering river. For Senegal, I amped up the green, chartreuse and blue sky to create an image of the meadows, or wetlands. I threw in a small pointy mountain on the horizon and added some orange-earth tones to complete the African look. Those features are common to most of the countries I painted from this amazing continent.

World Inspired Landscapes: Senegal, watercolour 8 x 10" hot press, April 2025 (No. 3881b)

World Inspired Landscapes: Saudi Arabia

 Saudi Arabia formed as a country between the two world wars, just before vast oil reserves were tapped. Of course its the world's largest oil producer by quite a margin, even more than the neighboring countries in the middle east. Most of the geography is flat desert, with grass land and rivers more to the east. There is a also a mountainous region that gets the occasional snowfall. The painting shows some cliffs receding into the distance with a stretch of desert. When cliffs or steep mountains erode, rubble accumulates at the bottom creating the skirted shape. 

With yet more rain today I put together eight more world inspired landscape paintings trying to move the chain closer to the finish line on the series. 

World Inspired Landscapes: Saudi Arabia, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, April 2025

Ernal Optimism and Catalogue update 2024

Finally I got caught up on the catalogue, there were a lot of paintings to number and record. I put a small number in pencil on the corner of each painting, and register in a giant spread sheet with information on size, year, type of paper, and who owns it. This abstract painting was in the pile but never get scanned, probably because Cilei liked it so much I left it on the kitchen table display for a long time. From the look of it, I was cleaning off some burnt sienna and vanadium yellow, along with some other neat colours. 

Ernal Optimism, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, 2025 (No. 4289b)

In the end, 2024 was the most productive painting year ever for me, by quite a margin (graph below) with 885 paintings. Most of those were small location landscapes, with additional abstract and World Inspired Landscapes. To date, I painted 179 in 2025, which is tracking slightly higher than last year since the summer is always more productive. But the number of paintings is not the important thing, its whether I have fun with it, and if people on the blog/Facebook/Instagram continue to check in. Perhaps I can spend more time per painting, it just gets tedious on location but well see how it goes. Here is a graph since 2018... it goes way back to 1989 but I just show the last 6 years.

Fabulous day, blue sky over Bakery

At lunch hour I got down to my favorite place to buy bread and a sandwich on Harley street, its the Snowdon Bakery. For what felt like forever we have had grey, cold and rainy weather until today it was a fabulous blue sky with warm sun. Even with the chilly wind I could paint without gloves or salt in the water. Although the bakery is long and single story, I composed the scene on the vertical to emphasize the amazing tree in the background that dominates the skyline. Its the same tree seen behind Rafi auto at the end of the street. Harley street in Westhaven neighborhood has been a treasure trove of art subjects including the famous diamonds and truffles I wrote about in that blog. It would have been nice to do more but there were several things going on in the office, and then I went out briefly after work with some colleagues to celebrate the grant successes.  

Blue sky over Bakery, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025

painting notes to on tree:

the light branches are yellow ochre (PY43) with orange (PO62). 

the medium value branches are the previous mix, with burnt umber (PBr7) added to it

the dark branches (shadow) are the previous mix with indo blue (PB60) and violet (PV55) added to it

To paint, start the light branches with the number 6 round brush, add the darker and shadow branches. Switch to rigger brush, repeat with smaller brush strokes towards the outer edges of the tree. Follow observed patterns of branches. Make sure the sky-blue, which is applied before painting the tree, is middle value (has to be between the value of the light and medium values of the branches). The yellow ochre is thick enough to sit on the blue wash. Blue wash needs to be dry.

 

 

The Last Sequel, news about howling at the moon

Going through the pile I noticed a few paintings that never made it to the blog for one reason or another. This abstract was titled the Last Sequal, which is a spelling error as I was thinking of the word sequel, like a movie sequel. It was made with some leftover paints, including the sparkly MICA paint (PW20), and the very bright vanadium yellow (PY184). Who knows what I was thinking about for the title, but the colour scheme is really neat, the greenish greys work well with the purple, yellow and oranges. In other news, last fall I worked extra hours to write a number of grant applications for research, one painting that says it all is Moon over Bus, in the aptly titled blog Somebody let the Scientist out of the office to howl at the moon. That blog actually got almost 60 views which is pretty high, in fact, many of the older blogs are climbing in view count. Back to the other news, out of nine grant applications, we got three already, which is great news, and the rest of the results are still pending. Actually we just needed one, so with more than one awarded, I guess there will be some more howling at the moon down the road from time to time. The reward for doing good work is always more work.

The Last Sequel, watercolour 8 x 10" hot press, 2025 (No. 3897b)

Bolton winter other scenes

I have painted many scenes along Colombia way, it is the main access road to the suburb where my parents live, the same house I spent most of my teenage years. This view has been protected by the city for decades to prevent urban sprawl, so you still get good views of the horizon.

Colombia way horizon view, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024

Going to Bolton I thought I would not see pylons... at least they were different than the Montreal ones, orange and black instead of orange and white, or pink. A stand of pine trees in the background had snow on their boughs.

Bolton winter pylons, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024 (No. 4236a)

Appreciating some colour on an otherwise grey day, I painted this pink store downtown using magenta paint (PR122). It was so dim and overcast on this afternoon, that the lights were illuminating the front of the building. I found the scans of these Bolton paintings recently as I have been updating the catalogue and organizing the pile of paintings. I have a few more to number and file, but so far, there were 875 paintings done in 2024. It will top out a little higher than that, its nearing double the number from 2023. But who's counting? 

Bolton pink shop, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024 (No. 4237b)

Bolton forest winter

Over the holidays I visited my parents in Bolton for a short while, there was plenty of fresh snow all around. This scene was in Bolton forest, many trees had fallen, actually, they seemed to have been cut down and had evidence of worms. There was a lot to do in this painting, as always the forest scenes are deceptively tough.

Bolton felled trees, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024 (No. 4236b)

Here is a scene I probably painted in the summer from the exact spot, but there was a lot more green and many flowers then, not to mention mosquitos. In the forest, everything is grey and brown, with a little green and white in the winter. Keeping the brush strokes fast, and mostly dry helps, and avoid making big washes that stay moist.

Bolton winter path vertical, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024 (No. 4235a)

 

I had this named as a path, but it may well have been the Humber river. Either way, it looks neat with the blurry distant elements and all the yellow ochre and umber reeds. A few licks of red here and there really pop.

Bolton winter path horizontal, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024 (No. 4235b)

 

If you venture far enough down the walking path it comes to the old, derelict Bolton Camp. It was purchased by a Toronto youth group but never renovated, so all these buildings stand empty. I liked how they were arranged up the side of this steep embankment. Everything was overgrown, I bet in the summer they are hardly visible.

Bolton camp winter, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024 (No. 4238a)

World Inspired Landscapes: São Tomé and Príncipe

São Tomé and Príncipe is a rare country that was uninhabited when the Portuguese colonists arrived to make a base. The islands' climate was so hostile and miserable that it was more of a trading post or stopover, sadly a stopover for the slave trade. Small slave ships  would arrive from the west coast of Africa, load onto larger boats and sail west across the Atlantic ocean to Brazil. With its volcanic earth, the country was good for growing sugar cane, and agriculture is a major part of the industry. The painting shows an interpretation of an old 17th century map of the main island,  São Tomé, while Principe is further to the north, and the coast of Gabon is way off to the east. I added some typical sea creatures that were drawn on maps back then, it was more of a Danish thing, they had superstitions about sea creatures. To yellow the map, I applied a mix of yellow ochre and orange (PY43, PO62), with some burnt umber (PBr7) around the edges to give it a worn look. Usually yellowing of the paper is a bad thing, but here it was meant to simulate age. Maps were probably on hide parchment back then anyways, better with all the sea water splashing around, so maybe this is the colour of tanned hide.
 

World Inspired Landscapes: São Tomé and Príncipe watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, April 2025

World Inspired Landscapes: San Marino

San Marino is on of three countries that is completely surrounded by another country, that is Italy. The other surrounded countries the Holy See (Vatican City) also surrounded by Italy, and Lesotho completely surrounded by South Africa. A few blogs back I was musing about how mountainous countries seem to be less conquered in history, but the story on San Marino is a little different. Although mountainous in places, there were no particular defense attributes this country had, rather, it was the complicated history of Italy. Before I started the series, I did not know that Italy only formed as a country more recently, during the mid 19th century actually. Prior to that it was a collection of regional areas, the remnants of the Roman Empire. San Marino has been independent since antiquity, although is suffered from some occupations by Italy and France. In the World Wars they stayed neutral. Their government is unique, they rule by an elected committee rather than a head of state, and there are elections every 6 months. 

Exploring pictures of San Marino revealed a lot of chartreuse (lime green) and yellow-tan colours, with dark pine trees. In the Italy painting, there was a similar colour scheme, and olive trees were shown. In this painting of San Marino I started by painting an elaborate field of grass with flowers, then realized it was the foliage of an imaginary tree so I flipped the painting over and painted the tree trunk, branches and added a simple wash for the grassy meadow. Just missing the Spring Fawn!
 

World Inspired Landscapes: San Marino, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, March 2025

World Inspired Landscapes: Samoa

Samoa is a remote island-nation in the south pacific ocean, the closest location you may know is Fiji, and even that is over 1000 km to the south! Despite its remoteness, it was briefly occupied by German Empire, and afterwards without violence it was ruled by New Zealand until its independence. Like most of these locations, the islands have steep interiors due to volcanic activity, surrounded by lush vegetation and wide valleys. When a volcano erupts it leaves a cone of debris which steadily erodes, leaving the molten core behind. Called a volcanic plug, these cores stand tall on the landscape, such the ones I painted under the giraffe in the Cameroon painting. This one shows a volcanic mountain off in the distance and a typical beach in the foreground. Since this was a rare place where the indigenous culture and people seemed to have existed without too much outside influence, I wanted the painting to feature some cultural element. A famous ritual involves swirling of fire-batons in a circle, which creates a spinning disc of light. I omitted the person that would be behind such a display, instead showing the landscape at night. Using my experience from painting on location, I could mix all the necessary colours and make the fire pop.
 To make the fire effect, first I outlined in light orange, then filled in the entire background. To finish, a bright orange outline, with a bright yellow outline were added to make the fire seem to be alive. The inside of the fire is just white paper, but the dark background and glow-effect on the sand gives it the illusion of being bright.

World Inspired Landscapes: Samoa, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, March 2025

World Inspired Landscapes: Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

 

Like the other islands in this region, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines had an indigenous population that was mostly displaced by European colonialists and slaves that were eventually freed in the 19th century. After slavery ended, a labor shortage lead to workers from Portugal and India immigrating. The Grendadines are 32 smaller islands but only 7 of them are inhabited by people. In the painting, it looks like a side-view of palm trees against a turquoise sea at first, but its actually meant to be an overhead view of palm tree shadows. I saw this kind of image while scrolling through Caribbean pictures on the internet and took on the challenge of painting it for the World Inspired Landscape series. It was harder than I thought, below are the first two versions. The key was to get the value of the water correct, simplify the textures, and omit the actual palm trees to complete the illusion.

World Inspired Landscapes: Saint Vincent and the Grenadines v3. 2.5 x 4.5" cold press, March 2025 (No. 4293)

 

In the second version I raised the value of the water, making it lighter, and simplified the textures. The brown shadows on the sand looked too much like tree bark, and the paint ran near the sand.

World Inspired Landscapes: Saint Vincent and the Grenadines v2, watercolour 9 x 6" watercolour paper, March 2025 (No. 4292)

 

The first version had a realistic look to it, with waves, and the actual palm trees on the bottom of the composition. It has the look of a picture taken by a drone, or the view of bird soaring over head. While the realism is evident, I felt like the main gimmick, the tree-shadows that look like trees, was a little lost with all the other elements. The third version at the top seems to work best no matter how its interpreted.

World Inspired Landscapes: Saint Vincent and the Grenadines v1, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, March 2025 (No. 4306b)

World Inspired Landscapes: Russia

 

Russia has some really cold parts up in Siberia, where the lakes are frozen solid. In the painting I show the cracked ice layer upon layer. In some cases there are methane bubbles that freeze in place creating even more interesting patterns. To paint the scene I applied successively darker layers, leaving narrow gaps between the washes to create depth and a sense of tension.

World Inspired Landscapes: Russia, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, March 2025

Yellow bins, commuter corner

The last time I painted these yellow bins, there was no graffiti on them and it was a lot tidier. The bins are outside of City Fruterie by the train tracks where the commuter train picks up passengers and the train crossing bell rings every ten minutes. Instead of the graffiti tag, I added my initials on the front using the same style, and the year on the side (in blue scribble). To make the yellow pop, I surrounded it by purplish tones and variations of yellow that were duller or darker.

Yellow bin with tag, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2025 (No. 4202b)

 

Shifting to the left, this scene looks down the back of the building with the commuter train coming by on the tracks, heading in a west direction. There was a lot going on with this painting, it was one of those paintings where I had a little regret being so ambitious, but stuck with it to the finish. Not many artists are going to set up in front of garbage bins and rubbish piles.

Bin and commuter train, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2025 (No. 4206b)

 

This scene seemed impossible, and it basically was. I tried to paint the image of the yellow bins reflecting in the side of a passing car. The cars were moving making it hard to get the image right. I like the idea of painting reflections in the sides of cars, or the reflection on the windshield, there was a good from back in 2021 of a park reflecting in the side of an SUV. When the conditions improve, its still cold and windy, i will take another crack at something like this.

Yellow bins reflection in passing car, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2025 (No. 4207a)

More scenes from the demo mall

For today's paintings the idea was to catch the last bit of sun before it set, so I rode down the Terrebonne bike path to what I call the 'demo mall', its an unsightly old strip mall that is slated for re-development soon. The first painting shows the old lashes-and-nails place, it still has most of the signage intact and even still has curtains. The paint painted bricks retain the original pinkish hue, which I recreated with dilute pyrol-orange (PO73). Using pyrol-orange to paint pink seems wrong, but according to MacEvoy's handprint.com, the source of all watercolour knowledge, he said pyrol orange has coral (salmon) undertones upon dilution. Trusting his assessment, I diluted the colour and it looks great here.

Lashes and nail shop, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2025 (No. 4208a)

 

I've been looking for a good barber in town but unfortunately this one is shut down and ready for demolition. Right next to the lashes and nails shop, its decorated in all manner of beige and caramel tones, with a dark chocolatey sign painted with golden letters. In fact the whole colour scheme seemed like baby puke and it was not easy to coax a good painting from it. I infused the shadow with purple, and tried to texture other elements to distract. Its the hardest one to paint because the front is really long, and well, the colour scheme.

Coiffure entrance, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2025 (No. 4208b)

 

This version mostly features the sign, and the sun-decals on the window. I was rather hoping for some nice weather but as the sun descended it became very cold and windy. I used the brand new palette that was featured in a recent blog, however being new, the paint beaded up and was harder to mix. It will take a few sessions to get it broken in, just not literally broken at least for awhile. You may wonder why I return to this doomed building so much, and so do I. The interesting thing is that the demo mall blogs have garnered the highest view counts this year so far, so the work is connecting with more than average viewers. In 2022 I returned to Dépanneur Diamond 10 several times to get the perfect painting and it also has a high view count, which was the whole idea. Photos, and google maps, retain the images of these structures, but an artist can only visit and paint on location until they are gone. The Dépanneur Diamond 10 is just an empty lot now. For the demo mall, perhaps a few more visits are warranted, its always been cold and miserable there, so hope it lasts at least until spring time.

Maurice Coiffure, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2025 (No. 4207b)

 

 

Sundown end of street

 

The street in question is Avenue Rosedale, looking north of Cote st Luc road, I was standing outside of the excellent Mazzeh takeout restaurant waiting for the Kebabs when I made the painting. If it looks a little rushed its because I was hungry, not to mention, there was a chilly wet wind barreling in from the west. Painting a scene like this is quite a challenge because the paint dries slowly, and the entire foreground is extremely dark... green becomes black and orange gets a yellowish tinge. I started with the sky, using a similar technique as the dépanneur Yo Yo painting from 2022, and the Quebec City sundown from 2023, which is to paint peach on the horizon, make a light green to cyan transition, the darker blue at the top. I will list the colours in more detail. When semi-dry I added the deep purple clouds, then started daubing in the near-black trees, and brownish houses and street. Keeping the small areas open for the street lamps completed the effect. I omitted all the parked cars. 

Sundown end of street, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2025 (No. 4206a)

 Notes on colour transition in sky... it is painted like assembling cake layers from the bottom up, with blending between these layers.

1. start at horizon: pyrol orange (PO73) medium dilution, keep clean

2. orange (PO62) medium dilution

3. neutral grey/blue dilute

4. green (PO36) keep very dilute

4. switch to blue (PB15 sapphire) medium dilution  

5. same blue stronger dilution

6. end at top, daubs of dark blue (PB60 at top). 

7. finish with clouds: when semi dry, overlay clouds wet-in-wet (PB60 and PV55 for hue, with some PR179 and PBr7 to adjust chroma to half-neutral) move brush quickly for feathering effect. 

If you are an artist and try this, the skills needed include accurate judgement of moisture on brush, and knowledge of the paint mixtures to produce the correct hue, chroma and value on the first try. Fiddling with it will collapse the washes, so it must be done clean, one pass for it to come out like in this example. At least I got a great kebab dish for a reward!

 

World Inspired Landscapes: Saint Lucia

 Saint Lucia is in the same region as the previous painting in the series, Saint Kitts and Nevis. The two countries have much the same history with the native Arawak people being displaced by a succession of British and French colonial rule which eventually settled on the British. Slavery for sugar cane was predominant on the island until the early 19th century. In the mid 20th century it became independent although remained part of the Commonwealth with the Queen, now the King, as the ceremonial head of state. Otherwise they have a democracy. As you might have guessed, tourism is now the number one industry, followed by agricultural, mostly tropical fruits.

After painting a large number of island countries, there are less and less original ways to show the ocean, lush mountains and turquoise sea. Here, I mixed graphite grey (PBk11) with prussian blue (PB27), cerulean blue (PB35), vandium yellow (PY184), and mica (PW20) which sparkles. So the original paintings sparkles when held up to light but that doesn't show up well on the scan. The idea was to let the contours of the sharp mountains and textures of the foliage carry the composition without using much colour. 

World Inspired Landscapes: Saint Lucia version 1 (No. 3900b)

In this version I made an outline using the grey-blue mix, hoping to capture the feel of the scene without using colour. The lines were too thick on the mountains, but the idea here has some potential.

World Inspired Landscapes: Saint Lucia version 2 (No. 3896a)

 Here is the third version,

It was meant to be a stylized motif of the twin-peak mountains, but the foreground felt flat. It will be challenge to compose the next painting, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, its in the same region. Maybe I just need to literally go to one of these places and see it for real!

World Inspired Landscapes: Saint Lucia version 3 (No. 3898b)

Paper and cardboard recycling, and somebodies home

Behind the paper and cardboard recycling facility there were these giant bus-sized palettes of compressed paper and cardboard. It was not very inspiring, and the cold weather made me want to leave, but as I stood assessing the scene, a racoon lumbered across the ground and I wondered where it was going at this time of day. Then the raccoon turned up on its back paws and disappeared into a hole in the back of the cardboard palette. It had made a nest inside of the mound of pulp! I suppose it is excellent insulation and easy to dig inside, maybe there is a whole condo full of raccoons in there. 

Painting a giant pile of compressed paper and cardboard was a unique challenge. There was plenty of beige which I made with pure umber (PBr7), it has nearly the exact colour of cardboard without any mixing. Burnt umber (PBr7) gave a sharper, reddish texture, then black (PBk6) and blue (PB60) for shadowing. Lastly, I daubed in random bright colours to represent the labels and markings the material had. Leaving white gaps signified the paper mixed in. Getting the perspective correct on these cube-like shapes was tough because the edges all seemed to disintegrate. The raccoon was only in view for about 5-10 seconds so I had to memorize its shape and patterns, and go by memory.

Paper and cardboard recycling with raccoon, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, March 2025 (No. 4306a)

More industry along the Lachine canal

 A large truck depot and warehouse sits next to the Lachine canal, its called Garfield, apparently unrelated to the cat. These colourful trailers were lined up in an interesting way. Despite the bitterly cold wind I gutted this one out. It a scene that I ride by all the time on the way to the canal and have always wanted to paint.

Colourful trailers, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2025 (No. 4205b)

 

The truck rigs were just as colourful and interesting. By now the wind had picked up and it was like standing inside of a blast chiller...  I know what it feels like to be inside of an ice cream machine. The painting actually blew away at some point and it was lucky to not blow onto the highway. So the rough appearance is genuine, in fact, it suits the subject matter nicely.

Colourful rigs, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2025 (No. 4204b)

 

Earlier I painted this plume of steam emanating from the paper and cardboard recycling center. It smelled like wet cardboard, so I assumed they were boiling it inside. Since I am standing next to the canal path, this is the view of the back of the facility, and you see the giant bus-sized palettes of compressed cardboard. I did a larger version with a surprise in it, will post next. For this painting, the plume of steam needed to have more contrast, it was a stark white with almost hard edges against a blue background. I'll try to do it better next time, today was tough, this painting also blew away but I retrieved it, then my bike blew over !

Steam recycling center, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2025 (No. 4205a)