Searching for some colour on an otherwise grey day has been the theme of the last month of painting. When the snow melts, so does the contrast disappear. Everything is also covered in a thin layer of dust and grime, waiting for a good solid rain storm to clean off. On st Jacques street, for some inane reason, they jammed in this massive five story behemoth condo building. When it was still but a giant hole I painted a
welder working on the foundation. Now, its encased in green insulation panels awaiting bricks, then people to move in.
Green condos, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025
Back up at Trenholme park I wandered into the play area where they have croquet, horseshoes and these shuffleboard strips painted in green, yellow or magenta. It looks simple but this is a very technical painting. The grey concrete slabs are interspersed by light-tan coloured leaves and heavily textured. Each slab looks narrower due to perspective, and the lines also follow perspective. In the background a tree and fence cap off the scene. I set the shuffle lines off a little so as to avoid perfect symmetry.
Green yellow and magenta shuffle boards. watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025
Taking advantage of the relatively good painting conditions (it was about to rain) I made one more of a bench and table with the chess board painted on top. In the background there was an impressive tree with a huge, bulging knot. The painting does not even do justice to the knot. It was another technical painting, all the lines on the table and bench had to make sense, and the brown/green/grey needed a few contrast elements to be preserved like the chess table and highlights on the benches, which have glossy paint. The classic wrought iron fence caps off the scene. The tree might look beige, but if you look carefully I added subtle tints into the bark including red, magenta, blue, green, orange, and yellow.
Tree knot and chess table, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025
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