Looking back, London Ontario flowers, trees, smoke stack

Here are more from the old collection of London Ontario done sometime between 1998 and 2004. These were probably later, since I steadily improved over this time period. In this example, some purple flowers grew in an old fashioned tiled planter. If I could go back in time and give myself a tube of quinacridone purple (PV55) it would have been great to use. I probably mixed french ultramarine (PB28) with alizarian crimson (PR83), or maybe qunacridone rose (PV19). 

Tiled planter purple flowers, watercolour 5 x 7", 200x

Near Saugeen Maitland residence, I know the exact location, here is a detailed painting of a White flower tree (probably Magnolia), and a red flowering bed. Looking back, I am impressed and inspired with the amount of detail I got into these small paintings. it must have taken some time, and required small brushes. I see side-drag texturing on the asphalt, and overpainting of the grass texture just like I do today. 

White flower tree red flower bed, watercolour 5 x 7", 200x

The University of Western was building lots of new residence buildings back then, this was a construction dumpster on campus. My love of painting garbage bins and dumpsters goes way back. In fact, I have a few such paintings from 1995/96 by first season painting outdoors. I will try to dig those ones up from the archive. 

Turquoise dumpster, watercolour 5 x 7", 200x

Also on University of Western campus, this rock had a detailed pattern chiseled into its surface. I managed to capture the bluish shadows, against a lime-green background. Notice the blue pine tree in the background upper right, it seems to be the correct shade. 

Rock sculpture, watercolour 5 x 7", 200x

 

Another highliy detailed painting, I compsed the red-orange liles against a dark green background, with a streak of light going across the lawn. Some pylons lay on their side to left. Bismuth vanadate yellow (PY184) would have been excellent for this painting, and pyrol orange (PO73). I really took on a tough subject here. 

Red lilies close up, watercolour 5 x 7", 200x 

One of the many campus buildings, with its limestone facade, illuminated by a setting sun. It was a neat composition, to cut the scene high like this, and focus on the light/shadow effect. Maybe I should give myself more credit for this period of painting in my life. Now that I make th blog it helps see everything in context. 

Sunset top of building, watercolour 5 x 7", 200x

Lastly, a delicate painting of a plume of smoke coming from the top of a building, probably steam coming out of an autoclave oven in the science building. The sun was setting which created an interesting orange halo around the dense plume. Its a tough effect to pull off, in fact I tried something like this last year, although in the winter. Maybe if I go out painting tomorrow which seems likely since its Saturday I can take on some more challenging scenes like this, of course, every painting is a challenge!

Sunset plume of smoke, watercolour 5 x 7", 200x