With lingering forest fire smoke, Montreal was enveloped in a layer of haze that created pastel colours in the sky. Using raw sienna (PBr7, Daniel Smith) I created the warm and cool greys in the background, and dilute pyrol orange (PO73) gave the eerie orange glow on the horizon. The rest of the painting was done with a gradient of hue saturation... that is, greyish in the middle ground, then brighter colours and more contrast towards the foreground. In doing so, the illusion of amber haze is created.
Pastel forest fire sky, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, July 2025
Waking up really early to beat the heat and potential rain, I got these scenes of Montreal enveloped in a thick haze. Yesterday the air smelled of a campfire, I checked the forest fire map and there was a large fire in Moosonee that seems to have dissipated today. This view features a large billboard with my custom message (Peter is here, Montreal), a pastel sky and background, with the highway in the foreground. Making the yellow bright in the foreground created the sense of depth, and gave an odd fluorescent atmosphere to the painting.
Billboard and haze highway, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, July 2025
As I wrote in a
previous blog, the cause of these fires is global warming due to fossil fuel burning. All around, I heard cars roaring by on the highway, burning fossil fuels of course. Its all cause and effect... heat from the city causes fires in the back 40 (north) like in Moosonee for example, then the smoke blows back on the city. Painting smokey haze and oddly coloured skies is a skillset I never wanted to have, but as an artist, part of the job is to reflect the landscape as it is. (I also do
ridiculous abstract paintings too.. so its not all business all the time!).
Mount royal and foliage, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, July 2025
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