Scorcher with #20

 

Without air conditioning the apartment hit 30℃ today. We live on the ground floor with two walls facing the exterior so it is fairly breezy. Now that I am used to it the heat doesn't bother me too much but hopefully it will not continue this week. A few years ago it was even hotter and I made a series of large abstract paintings that year including the famous 'Trapped Under the Ice'. The idea is to see a lot of cold colours and shades of blue which gives the impression of being cooled off. I also spent a long time at the grocery store in the meat section to get some cold air! We may go to the local pool too, so it is kind of fun. 

The whole painting was done with my new #20 round brush with synthetic fibers, it is quite good for this style. For paint I used ultramarine blue (PB29, Stoneground Paint), Victoria green (PG51 Stoneground Paint), manganese violet (PV16 Stoneground Paint), Prussian blue (PB27 Holbein), Cobalt Blue (PB28 Holbein)

Scorcher with #20, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, August 2022 (No. 2968b)

Sprout Around Town

With the suffocating heat I decided to stay home and work on the catalogue for this year's paintings. I found a neat painting in the pile, it is an abstract palette cleanser done probably in April. Contrasting neon-green and purple grey highlight the sky, with a twisty pastel plant occupying the foreground. Neon green is impossible to paint without using special fluorescent paints, so I created the illusion of neon by surrounding an intense yellow-chartreuse with a purplish grey background. Iron oxide earth orange anchors the bottom of the composition.
 

Sprout Around Town, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, April 2022 (No. 2988b)

It was a hot day!

 

Today was a real scorcher, over 40℃ with the humidity factored in. To combat the heat I got out early on my bike to pick up some spices and tea at the excellent bulk store Anatol Spices. The staff are really friendly there, they are both owners and operators... young people who took over the business from their parents who had run it for decades. The scene was backlit, with just some light starting to fall on the landscaped pots and interlocking bricks.

Anatol Spices, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2022 (No. 3189a)

 

The store wasn't even open yet so I made another quick painting of the view across the street. St. Laurent street is a continuous line of storefronts and residential buildings. This store sold clothes and knickknacks. The yellow awning and blue-green car caught my attention. It was different to paint the shadows of the tree without the tree itself, it gives the suggestion of nature. (No. 3189b)

Yellow Awnings with Tree's Shadow, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2022

 

To cool off I stopped under some shade in Old Montreal near a small harbour area now used for tourism. It was a calm scene with the Montreal east skyline in the background. The building off to the right edge is the Molson brewery which is set to move to the south shore in the near future.

Old Montreal Harbour, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2022 (No. 3191)

 

I rode through Ville Henri and painted the iconic Grumman '78, a popular cafe and restaurant that unfortunately closed for good during the pandemic. It was a converted garage-repair shop. In the summers, you would see the parking lot full of patrons and hear music playing. The buildings in the background were factories in the old days but now they are condominiums. It was good to finally paint this scene, I had rode past a hundred times. Luckily I got home before noon and before the serious heat and humidity.

Grumman '78, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2022 (No. 3190)

 

 

 

 

Quarter Moon over Canal

Hoping to cool off I took an evening bike ride towards Ville St. Henri and the canal path but the heat and humidity were still quite uncomfortable. This scene shows some of the old factories along the Lachine canal that were converted into condominiums. A quarter moon hides behind a cloud. At night, the colour scenes are mostly about dark brown, blacks, dark blue and purple, with white and orange accents. Artificial lights and signs can also add just about any colour to the scene. In this case, there were just a few windows, lamps and the moon that were lighting up the scenery.

Quarter Moon over Canal, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2022 (No. 3188a)

Squirrel Hopping along Fence

After work I took a stroll around nearby Trenholme park where there are a lot of trees and squirrels. One of the young squirrels started to run along the fence right beside me, and it had no trouble keeping up with my pace until it got to the vine-covered part of the fence. At that point, it started hopping through the vines about half a meter with each go. It was remarkable how agile they can be. When I reached the end of the park and looked back to the path, the squirrel was long gone but I decided to portray the moment in the painting. I stood in the shadow of a large tree to block the sun, the rest of the scene was back-lit. The squirrel is just a few brush strokes in the top middle of the painting. The atmosphere of the painting really conveys August, the dog days of summer.
 
 

Squirrel Hopping along Fence, Trenholme, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2022 (No. 3187a)

The Human Synapse

 After the weekend painting in Park Extension, I was a tourist in my own city, this painting was inspired by the contrast in cultures. In particular, there was a scene I painted of an Indian and a Greek restaurant juxtaposed and it reminded me of a neuro-muscular synapse. Its something we study in class, the junction between the nerves and the muscle that control movement. In the middle of this painting is a synapse, the juxtaposition, and the rest of the painting shows multi-cultural interactions. This is one example of how the location painting can influence the abstract.  

The Human Synapse, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, August 2022 (No. 3047b)

Park Extension Day Two

 

Today's goal was to go to Anatol bulk store in little Italy but it turns out they are closed on Sundays during the summer. Instead I headed back to Park Extension which is not far at all from Little Italy, they are only separated by Park Jarry. In this painting, I tried a new type of horizontal composition with one third of a building, a strong background element, and the rows of cars. The rows of cars are the hardest part but I am getting better at doing it! At least you get the feel of the neighborhood here.

Ogilvy Street, view West, Park Extension, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2022 (No. 3185)

 

This colourful storefront is up on Liege street, it is an Islamic-themed grocer that sells Halal meat and other products. Next door to it, there was a vegetarian grocer probably aimed at the Hindu market. It was interesting to see two such stores side-by-side, in fact the whole neigborhood had a mix of Islam and Hindu with backgrounds of India and Pakistan. To paint the store front I sketched out the shapes with watercolour paint and a small #4 brush (I never use pencil), and then proceeded to fill in the details. I could only stand on the diagonal corner so that the actual scene had a strong perspective that had to be squared out in the painting. Several people stopped to look and seemed to enjoy it.

Marche Macca, Park Extension, watercolour 8 x 10" Strathmore Gemini 400, July 2022 (No. 3052)

On the main drag, Jean Talon street, there are numerous stores and restaurants. These two stores provided another interesting contrast, on the left was a traditional Indian dress store with a chandelier, on the right was a Greek souvlaki restaurant. I was standing in the popular Athena park looking directly across the street. Aside from the subject matter, the two storefronts had contrasting bricks, shapes, and colours. To get the intricate, shimmering dress texture I applied a layer of golden yellow, which is a slightly neutral yellow-orange, applied red texturing with a number 4 brush using perylene maroon and pyrol red (PR179, PR254), then applied some neutral red shadowing. 

Indian Store, Greek Store (Neighbors) Park Extension, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2022 9No. 3186)