Sun and Icicles

Its quiet here on the weekend, no commuter trains or millions of people around, just the sun going down over the snowy train tracks. The colours in the sky were amped up and feeling warm, which complemented well the curved red lamp posts. We had a lot of snow last Friday and it stuck around for awhile. Its been a good winter for painting, in this one I created the concentric colours around the sun using wet-in-wet with yellow, orange, red-orange, magenta, and blue. Judging the moisture levels is key, it keeps the colours blending together seamlessly without any back washes or hard edges.

Sun over snowy tracks, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, February 2025

Going from warm to cool, here is a painting of a massive row of icicles on the eave of the Harley community center. I had been looking for a good icicle scene to paint for awhile now, and finally got the right angle and the right moment. In watercolour, you have to paint around the shape of the icicles, then gently fill in the details. Soft blending created the fluffy snow in the foreground, and impressionist-style brush strokes fill in the sky. In the background there is a very tall apartment building which provided a good contrast element for the icicles to stand out.

Icicles over eave, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, February 2025