After the sun set on the Turcot highway interchange, the sky turned orange and blue with coral accents. As my paint brush froze and I froze, this painting was all about getting the right feel, in terms of colour, energy, and the ominous atmosphere of highways in the background.
Turcot sundown traffic, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026
This old warehouse shut down last year, now it site derelict as the city decides what to do with it, or some company wants to rent the massive structure. I'd like to see it turned into a wetland, renaturalized for birds and reptiles, but it seems unlikely! Piles of snow remained on the parking area, nestled in among the cool shadows.
Sundown warehouse, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026
The first painting I did, this one shows the sun almost down, hovering over the warehouse with truck trailers parked in the depot area. Its interesting to compare the colour and value range of this painting and the other two which were done afterwards. As the sun sets, it picks up more red light from the atmosphere and tints colours strongly. I have a lot of experience painting at all phases of sundown including at night, so its been interesting to develop different colour mixtures for the occasion. I did a page on
how to paint skies, and
how to paint at night.
By they way, that sun-effect in the painting, I apply a yellow circle, orange circle and thin magenta circle, then surround in dilute phthalo blue with a slight orange tint on horizon. The hard part is getting the moisture levels on the brush equal on the colour changes so it all blends together, I suppose that's where the skill comes in. Too much water and all the colours blend, too little water and they wont merge properly. The paint started to freeze when I was doing it, luckily I brought some salt water to mix in.
Sun down truck depot, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026
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