Like the Beatles sung, I have to admit its getting colder....its getting colder all the time. Okay, they said better not colder. Luckily I brought along some extra salt because my salt water was not salty enought and the sky started to freeze in this painting. On the palette the paint turned to slush and I knew it was cold! Dumping in about an ounce of salt, it worked perfectly and I could continue painting for the night. All of these paintings were done wearing the gauntlet mitts, which are like oven mitts covered in deerskin, I got them from Canada Outfitters by delivery, a retail outlet in Toronto area.
Canal gantry crane frozen sky, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, December 2025
While the sky dried in the first painting, I did a second one looking east along the frozen bike path. Parts of it were like a skating rink and I had to tread carefully with the bike. In the background you see the gantry crane next to the night canal, it was once used to move shipping containers and large peices of iron on and off barges. One of the main uses of the canal was in putting together bridges... Lachine had a brdige construction factory that assembled iron bridge spans and transported them to their building sites around the river.
Lamps path canal crane, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, December 2025
The canal was half frozen, in places you could see the unfrozen water next to iced water. I tried to paint the two types of surfaces. On the unfrozen water reflections were crisp and high contrast, while on the iced water reflections were blurry and low contrast. I painted the unfrozen effect with dry brush, while the iced effect was a wet-in-wet technique. In the background you see the lachine canal, traffic on st Patrick, and a couple of converted Condos. There was one star out last night, very visible and due south, maybe it was a planet. I put it in all three paintings.
Two textured reflection, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, December 2025
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