Birch tree snowy park

At the end (or beginning depending on your viewpoint) of Terrebonne street, there is a small sliver of a perk called Place Guillaume-Couture. It is a good place to set up and paint urban scenes in the relative peace of a park. Of course, it is surrounded by traffic on all sides so its not exactly quiet. The challenge here was to paint the birch tree against a mostly white snowy background. Using subtle variations of grey and some textured overlays, I created the birch tree in successive layers. Funny enough, it was the 68 Stations of the Montreal Metro that taught me how to see and paint grey properly, given the large amount of concrete in the metro structures. If you look closely at the tree bark, the grey is tinted orange on the left, and blue on the right.  It had to be darker than the snow, and lighter than the black elements. Completing the scene is a picnic table, other trees and snow-covered cars. Its like Tom Thomson paints in the city.

Birch tree snowy park, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2025