World Inspired Landscapes: Morocco

 

Morocco, located on the north west corner of Africa has a long and storied history that goes back to the beginning of humans, through successions of world powers and a lengthy colonial rule that would forever change their culture. Indigenous peoples called Berbers were there long before, and to this day they remain as a distinct people although merged with the Roman and Arab cultures. In Montreal there are Jewish people with Moroccan ancestry because Morocco used to be home to many Jewish people before Israel was created. Now, most Jewish people from Morocco live in Israel, France, Canada and around the world with only a few thousand living in Morocco still. Nowadays Morocco is almost entirely Islamic. Echoing the cultural tapestry is the geographical tapestry. Morocco has beaches, rocks, vast deserts, mountains, tall trees and several islands in the Atlantic Ocean or Mediterranean. The painting was really just based on a single line starting in the sea and working its way to an undulating, then flat landscape capped with some tall green foliage. A few brush strokes in the sky, and some textural effects completed the stripped down composition. I thought about using just one continuous line for the entire scene, but then decided to go with a slightly more realistic approach.

World Inspired Landscapes: Morocco, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, April 2024

Painting Part of the Table

 

Part of the kitchen table is dedicated to my painting supplies. Although I paint outdoors most of the time, on occasion I will sit and paint something, like the painting above, while most of the time I drop off my location gear and work on the palette here. You can see a ruler used to measure paper, a handmade ceramic cup by Naomi that is used to hold brushes, the palette, some brushes including the big hog's hair, two of the Holbeins, and the pink 1 inch I've had for 25 years. Two plastic containers for clean and dirty water, and a well used rag made from an old T shirt complete the picture. Which object doesn't seem to belong? The can of WD40 in the background which I used to degrease my bicycle chain. So don't try to put WD40 on your paintings! I was kind of inspired to do this after looking at some of Van Gogh's still life paintings that he did presumably when weather was bad outside. He would simply paint whatever was in front of him or on the table at the time like food, books, alcohol, pipes, or on the floor like old boots. The background depicts our small kitchen behind a counter, the yellow colour was copied from one of Van Gogh's still lifes, he liked to use a lot of yellow.

Painting Part of the Table, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, April 2024

Pile of Rubbish near Field

After I painted the Chair in a Field of Yellow Buttercups, the chair was moved around and finally fell out of sight for quite some time, probably tossed into the tree line along the fence. Today I rode past and saw this pile of rubbish that seemed tempting to paint, but then again I was looking for blossoming trees or another spring-themes scene. I noticed that the very chair I painted in the field of buttercups was busted up and cast upon the pile of sticks, shovels, tires and other garbage probably put there due to city cleanup. You can see the chair legs pointing up, and the upholstered seating surface on top of the pile. The spring elements include a greenish grass colour and leaf buds on the background trees. I used the red hydrant and shovel handle to break up the green, brown and grey colour scheme. 

Pile of Rubbish near Field, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, April 2024

Blooming Tree Next Door

With spring well underway the trees are starting to make leaves and some are making blossoms. I painted this tree on the next door neighbor's front lawn, which was not quite as colourful as you see it in the painting, it is shown as it may be in a few days from now if the weather holds. To create a fireworks-like effect, I left in plenty of white space interspersed with flecks of red, green, and a variety of pink shades. The tree over top provides an essential dark contrast, and the shadowed buildings across the street make the pinks pop out. Over the years I have learned that a painting is essentially a sum of its parts, that each component contributes to an overall effect and feeling. I paint these on location, which also provides a feeling. Although I felt lousy today from the blood pressure pills, at least with the sun shining and the nice spring colours it was a reprieve of sorts.

Blooming Tree Next Door, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, April 2024

Rustic Scenes near the Highway

There was an article on Belmont Park in the news today, it used to be an amusement park up until the 1980's when it was dismantled and became a standard park by the river. Located up on the North shore in Ahuntsic, the park still hosts an annual fair with rides by the looks of the pictures on Google Maps. It also appears to have great views of the bridges over the Prairie river which gave me a reason to ride my bike up there. About halfway I was tired and saw some interesting rustic buildings just north of the Autoroute 40, which you can see in the background. One day these old structures will be cleared for condo developments.

Rustic Buildings, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, April 2024

Around the side of the rustic structures is a vast pebble field with patches of tall grass. The city has blocked development here for some time, the idea was to build a massive sprawling shopping and condo development. The main issue was the congested autoroute 40 which would be made worse with a large development here. Its hard to describe the vastness of the space, this view is looking West with the autoroute in the background. It was very windy and cold when I did this painting.

Pebble Field, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, April 2024

A rickety old retail space runs along the La Croix road, in the background is the brick wall surrounding a large cemetery. The scene had a wide variety of yellow and green shades, made with combinations of yellow ochre (PY43), orange (PY110), green (PG36), dark green (PBk31) and some brown (PBr7). To capture the building and all its detail I made a fairly accurate outline first with a small synthetic brush I got from Kama pigments last year. There was no indication as to what GBS stood for by the way, one can imagine a lot of possibilities.

GBS, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, April 2024

Grocer and Gas Station Rainy Day

If you are just seeing my blog, then I should mention that I tend to paint almost every day and often bring my paint bag with me to work and back. Some days I can't get the time or I am too tired to paint, but usually I can find some scene or another on the way to or from work, or on a lunch hour. This one shows the grocery store across the street in the background which has a colourful mural, and in the foreground is the front of the auto shop where there is a gas station. The gas station sign was red and green, the prices actually were quite high almost $1.90 per liter! Lucky I don't have a car, although the high prices affect everything including the grocery store prices. It started to rain when I was painting this one, so I had to finish it rather quickly and touch it up a  bit at home. Tomorrow calls for a sunny, cool windy day which should be alright for painting. 

Grocer and Gas Station Rainy Day, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, April 2024

Gas Station with Mountain View

 Up on a berm there are several views such as the odd green and blue building, and this view of the distant mountain with gas station. Most landscape painters would want to paint the mountain view without all the clutter, and so would I to be honest, but somehow its the clutter that makes the scene unique. Parked cars, trees, the gas station, and a construction crane not to mention a lot of traffic and noise. They are actually building a huge 5 story condo block down here on st Jacques right next to all the industry which seems wrong for a lot of reasons. When painting a busy scene such as this, it is important to include a few decisive brush strokes like the mountain, the red roof of the gas station, and the Van Gogh dark pine tree in the lower left.

Gas Station Mountain View, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, April 2024