Dagwood's restaurant at night

 

It is such an interesting shape, and with an unusual variety of colours. I have painted this Dagwood's restaurant many times before, this time is was very dark. I applied the sky first, and outlined the building and background elements in dark paint. It was a matter of building up the washes and textures to give the impression of artificial light. My gloved hand made an imprint on the left side, which tends to happens when I paint on location since I hold the paper in front of me. I quite like the way this one turned out, you can almost imagine walking up and getting a subway sandwich. I changed the name to my initials mostly to save space, although I did copy the style of the actual lettering.

Dagwood's at night, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024 (No. 4110b)

 

Somebody let the scientist out of the office to howl at the moon

 

At last freedom from the office... but the sun was long gone. A bright 3/4 moon hung over some apartments near the busy corner of Sherbrooke and West Broadway. A bus rumbled by. Considering the poor lighting condition for painting, the colours turned out remarkably well. When painting at night the paints all look black and grey so you have to sort of know in advance what it will look like and where the colours are on your palette. I had my bike light which I flicked on once just to check that the sky was on the right hue of blue. Trees at night are almost jet black the later it gets.

Moon over bus, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024 (No. 4109)

 

Standing in the same spot, but looking east, there was a view of the eerie lights on campus. There were multiple sources of light including from the building itself, the lamps, and the windows in the administration building in the background. I usually start these paintings with the sky to establish the value contrast then work from there, making sure to keep some areas open for highlights.

Eerie lights on campus, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024 (No. 4110a)

 

It didn't seem possible to paint something like this but I gave it a go anyways. The tree was illuminated from the front by a strong flood light which cast a shadow on the facade of the administration building. The windows of the building were illuminated from within by a warm amber glow that cut through the tree shadow on the wall. I used a multi-layered approach to try and piece together this scene and it turned out okay in the end. What was really impressive is how hard our administrators work. There I was painting late at night, while the admin people were still up there working hard with the lights on. Or they just left the lights on.

Admin night shadows, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024 (No. 4096b)

 

On my way back to the office...

Today I had to press on at the office so I went out to get a quick Poke Bowl for dinner, there is a new spot down the street across from Trenholme park. On the bottom right is the outdoor sign and chairs from the restaurant, and in the background are many trees of Trenholme park illuminated by the last light. The colour transition on the road is purple (PV55, PB60, touch of yellow ochre PY43), then blend to orange (PO62, touch of yellow ochre).

Trenholme trees last light, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024 (No. 4094b)

When I turned around to put the painting away and head back to my office, I saw this scene, and thought what a shame to pass on it. The grant proposal isn't going to go anywhere, and its due in like two weeks anyways. I amped up the red brick mixes by combining burnt sienna (PR101/PBr7) with orange (PO62) and red-orange (PO73), and did the clouds with purple mixes lined with magenta (PR122). Maximizing contrasts was the key to creating a punchy colour scheme, and the composition was a nice L shape. You have to go for it on a painting like this, don't hold back or it will look bland.

Sunset clouds red orange apartments, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024 (No. 4107)

 

As I headed back to my office with my bike I was really impressed (distracted?) by this scene of the sun set, purple clouds, and the glowing red gas station underneath. For the sake of art I could not pass it up and did one last painting. It was so wet I had to carry it back while walking. Usually when trying to do a painting like this on location I tend to doubt myself, its going to be difficult, it will probably fail, I don't know how to do it... but this time I confidently realized how to do this scene and just did the painting. Considering how cold it was, and all the other factors its a difficult one to pull off. At any rate, I finally got back to the office and kept working, too bad you can't include paintings in a grant proposal.

Sunset clouds over gas station, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024 (No. 4108)

Finally some decent fall colours make an appearance

It was a cool and breezy fall day with a mostly blue sky and bright sun. These are the train tracks that go across Elerdale street on the way to the Westhaven neighborhood where there is the Snowdon bakery and the City fruterie. Usually I only paint around here during the week so it was neat to be here on the relative peace and quiet on a Sunday. I like the colour scheme of this painting, the earthy warm colours meld well with the soft blue and pale cyan sky. The clouds turned out well, and I added my signature in graffiti.

Fall colours and tracks, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024 (No. 4105)

 

Harley street is the main drag with the stores. Across the way are long blocks of apartments, with tall trees. This one was a reddish orange with green mixed in. Its a subtle thing to paint since the red is intermixed with pale olive green. On the scanner it all comes out looking more red than the actual painting, where it has an orange tint.

Colourful tree Harley street, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024 (No. 4106a)

 

Just some hints of the fall colours, this painting shows the train tracks where commuters would normally board the train at rush hour. The sign was a lot taller than shown, it was all the way up in the sky but I decided to compose it lower to fit in the scene. For today's painting I avoided burnt sienna in the foliage mixtures (although it was used almost pure for the train tracks), and also minimized yellow ochre. Most of the foliage was made with variations of green (PG36), yellow (PY97), orange-yellow (PY110), orange (PO62) and red-orange (PO73). For dark areas I dabbed in some perylene green (PBk31). The goal was to lighten up the foliage mixtures a notch as compared to yesterday and I think it worked out well, although there was nothing wrong with yesterday's paintings either. I prefer to look at art like a journey where you try to move forward and continue to explore.

Tracks and sign, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024 (No. 4106b)

Taverne, with sterlized glasses!

On the way back I did one last painting somewhere along the bike path in Le Plateau. It took awhile to find this on google maps in retrospect, it is on the south east corner of Rachel and st Hubert. The taverne sign looks pretty vintage, it has neon tubing on it which must light up at night, just in case you need to know where the entrance is. Some nice fall colour trees were in the background, a variety of yellow and orange. The sign over the door said Verres Stérilisés (sterlized glasses!) which always makes me laugh, since you would assume that a bar would have clean glasses, but this one says so on the sign over the door. In fact, the name of the taverne appears to literally be "Taverne Aux Verres Stérilisés Inc", so its some kind of chain since I saw this sign elsewhere in Le Plateau. At any rate, the neighborhood is full of these hole-in-the-wall pubs that are probably a good place to go for a drink and hockey game for the locals.

Taverne and fall colours,  watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024 (No. 4104)

Fall scenes from st Helen's island

To paint the Expo67 dome I painted the sky first and then painted a greyish ring and faded it into the middle like a bubble. When that was dry I overpainted the central structure, then the criss-crossing supports. The colours in the trees got too heavy, I was adding burnt sienna which muddled things up. I will use pyrol orange (PO73) next time. When the season's change it usually takes me a few trips to sort out the mixtures. This fall so far is very mild and sunny.

Stone tower and dome, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024 (No. 4103a)

You get a good panorama view of the city, mount royal, and the old port with its ferris wheel. Somehow it all got crooked, a rookie mistake. Unfortunately the feeling of malaise was working against me today, but it would pass later in the afternoon.

Mountain and city across river, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024 (No. 4093b)

Its the same scene but with a lot more detail, and the river line is straightened out. There were interesting colours in mount royale, I used pyrol orange (PO73) and orange (PO62) with yellow ochre (PY43) and various shades of green.

Detailed mountain and city across river, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024 (No. 4103b)

 

The concert area on the island was renovated in recent times, they laid down a vast desert of interlocking brick and crushed white stone, with these monolithic, almost alien looking sound towers. At the concert they hook speaker up there and lights, and it projects into the crowd. A few small figures and a cyclist were added for a sense of scale.

Concert towers, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024 (No. 4092b)

 

Various scenes from Dieppe park on a nice blue sky day

These giant cruise boats were in port, separated by the tall glass tower and the grassy seating area where they set up colourful red, blue, yellow and green deck chairs for the tour boat people. The boats are so small they have to use the tower, which has staircases and an elevator inside, to get down to ground level. The tower is a funny shape, like a lego leaning tower of Pisa. 

Cruise boats old port, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024 (No. 4101)

 

This bench looked like a great place to sit, with full sun on top of a hill. Sitting in the bench, you would be looking back at the Montreal skyline. In the background on the right is the Concorde bridge with its dusty turquoise colour. There were plenty of fall colours today, this tree was almost entirely yellow.

Bench on hill yellow tree, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024 (No. 4102a)

 

I have never quite got this scene right despite trying several times, in this version the reflection seems too long, and the shape of the tower is off. But you get the sense of a blue sky and the Montreal scenery, on the right is the Molson Brewery, on the left is an old factory-turned condo.

Clock tower reflection, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024 (No. 4102b)