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!