Looking Back: London Ontario, shadow, sunset, trees

Here are some more of the old collection from my age of early 20's. I date them as 2000 and x (200x) because I don't have records of when they were done actually, although the style give clues. This one was a later piece, it shows my shadow stretching down a hill near a Thames river tributary, with some geese off in the distance. I used to paint sitting down in a small camping chair, so you see that here in the shadow. 

Geese my shadow, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 200x

I recognize this as the Thames river closer to downtown where they built a steep concrete embankment to prevent flooding. Getting an effect like this was a big challenge back then, it looks like I applied a cerulean blue and rose madder genuine mix in the sky, blotted it out with a tissue or brush, then applied a pink wash over top, likely rose red (PV19) which I had in my palette. For a recent painting that is similar see the auto shop sunset. 

Pink clouds near Thames, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 200x

There were plenty of birch trees to paint, this one on a sunny day shows a nice blue shadow effect and autumn colours in the background. I managed to capture the light reflecting in the shadows of the tree trunks, creating a glow-effect. 

Birch tree park path, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 200x

 

Its rare I paint scenes of art installations, I did one recently of the art installations near Fort street.  In the above painting, its downtown London Ontario, near a public building, I liked the blue shadow and fleshy pink tones. The hand railing with shadow was a nice touch. You can see I signed the paintings instead of initialing as I do recently. You can see a summary of how my signing evolved over time in this blog. 

Pink sculptures, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 200x

 

It was obliged to post this painting, on the back I wrote something to the effect that it was extremely *** cold today! I recall sitting in the little camping chair freezing my rear off to get it done, and without salt at the time, I added alcohol. It worked out okay, this was done on part of University of Western campus, near Brescia college. 

Winter tree cold day, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 200x