Harley street mailbox, fruiterie, flower field

I've painted this mailbox before, at night in winter, and with a green bin in the scene. Its a good place to stand the weather is bad, or today it was very sunny and I had no sun screen or hat on, so the shade was appreciated. I took on the challenge of super-imposing the mailbox on a large black SUV parked behind on Harley street. The green tint on the windows contrasted with the bright red mailbox, done with pyrol red (PR254). 

Red mailbox SUV, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

Standing across the street in the shade of a large tree, I did another painting of the City Fruterie store with some cars and trucks around. The commuter train was going by, so traffic was lined up along Elmhurst avenue. 

City Fruiterie traffic, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

Finally I took another crack at Harley beach... its an empty lot that used to have a condo building until they tore it down recently. The remaining sand looked a bit like a beach. Today it was filled with growth, including pink flowers from wild clover. Clover grows well in harsh environment and spreads fast, then it gets replaced with grass. The main reason is that clover can 'fix nitrogen' that is, it extracts nitrogen from the air and stores it as biomass, eventually enriching the earth. So what you see here is the beginnings of a restoration of the land. Unfortunately, it will be replaced with a new condo, or perhaps a small park area, regardless, it is still interesting to see nature take its course. 

Harley beach flowers, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026