Snow melt, paint after work

Finding something to paint after work is a theme sometimes.. I ride down Maisonneuve bike path until the sun goes down and find a spot. Lately, it has been bright blue skies after work as the days get noticably longer and we had the daylight saving time shift recently. This scene was done at the end of NDG, those buildings in the background are on Decarie Blvd, which is a road that runs parallel to the underground Decarie highway. The old bike path must have ended here because the asphalt path goes in a loop around these trees and a small grassy area that you see emerging from under the melting snow. The path was a pale yellowish grey, with dark spots where the water had seeped in. The grass had that de saturated beige green that you see when snow melts before spring starts. I got the colours right in this painting, and the contrast really pops.

Pine tree snow melt, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2025 (No. 4283)

It is such a great spot for an artist to set up and paint, right in the middle of all the action but safely tucked away in this mini park-oasis in the city. To help the trees here I added fertilizer spikes a few years ago and they look great now. Looking due south there is a dystopian view of the glen hospital in the distance, and the commuter train rumbled by a few times as I painted. Being able to work without gloves meant I could get in more detail than usual when I wear the 'oven-mitts' during the cold winter. The fence was the coolest part, it was a twisty, rusted thing with cut tree stumps and new growth all throughout it, almost like folk-art. Sandwiching in the train and the billboard completed the scene. I wasn't sure I could pull this one off on such as small format, but shortly after getting the outline established it was clearly working out. I initialed the billboard on the top right.

Glen hospital train and billboard, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2025 (No. 4284a)

Corner of Sherbrooke Street, Greene Avenue, Mt. Pleasant Avenue

With another dental appointment I made a quick couple of paintings on the nearby corner. Although it was chilly I could do the paintings without gloves on for the first time in awhile. The street in the scene is Sherbrooke looking west, from the corner of Greene/Mt pleasant avenues. It is called Greene up until this point, then it is called Mt. Pleasant all the way up the side of the mountain. I wanted to capture the neat architecture of the wooden bay window painted minty green, and some of the other brick condos along with trees (no leaf buds yet). I signed my initials and year on top of the central building in the middle ground since the paint was very moist. Soon the salt wont be needed and the paintings will dry faster.

Sherbrooke corner with Greene/Mt pleasant, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2025 (No. 4282)

Before the appointment I did most of this painting from where I locked my bike up, I just had to apply the detailing on the bark afterwards when it all had a chance to dry. In the end, it created a faux-focus effect, like when a camera focuses on something up front leaving the background somewhat blurry. Everything around here was brown and grey so I composed the tree up front and really embellished the texture on the bark to inject some visual interest.

Tree on Sherbrooke, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2025 (No. 4281b)

World Inspired Landscapes: Rwanda

 

Rwanda is a small landlocked country in central west Africa known for its lush, mountainous forests, mountain gorillas and plenty of other wildlife like giraffes and exotic birds. In human history, Rwanda was only populated starting in the stone age or bronze age which is rather late in the game for an African country. It has remained as a unified collective or country for recorded history which is also unusual on the continent which underwent many colonial-era and post WWII-era changes. Just the other day I was writing about how mountainous countries in history have generally held together and avoided significant changes, as opposed to low-lying flat countries such as Belgium for example which was considered to be Europe's battlefield for hundreds of years. Speaking of Belgium, it and Germany took turns exerting influence over Rwanda in the colonial era, although neither country really invaded militarily or caused the sorts of problems seen in other colonized countries. All has not been peaceful in Rwanda since it underwent a terrible genocide in the 20th century, which has now passed by and the country is more or less unified again. 

In the painting, I scrolled through a number of internet images and came up with an original composite of everything I have seen, including some of the knowledge I gained regarding the African landscape in general after having painted many paintings in the series. In some ways what I am doing is similar to what artificial intelligence does, that is, scan through a bunch of images then recycle them into a new image. Instead of artificial intelligence let's call it artistic intelligence, AI!

World Inspired Landscapes: Rwanda, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2025 (No. 4194b)

World Inspired Landscapes: Romania

 

About half of the Carpathian mountain range is in Romania, it is a geologically old range eroded with time and lush with greenery and blue water. With abundant thermal and mineral waters there are many popular outdoor thermal spas. I went to one, although it was in Banff at the hotel in Calgary, and the water was naturally warm and saline even though it was in the midst of winter. As a small country in the middle of East, West and Southern Europe and surrounded by regional powers, Romania shifted from Roman to Ottoman to Soviet rule over the centuries, finally landing as a democracy part of the European Union and NATO. Unlike other European countries, Romania appear to have been more or less a country as far back as the bronze age. In studying the history of countries all over the world, I noticed that countries surrounded by mountains, like Albania, Afghanistan, Nepal or Andalusia, tended to have less changes politically. Maybe in the old days Mountains made it harder for ground armies to sustain any influence, and defenders had a big terrain advantage. In the painting, I tried to capture the golden, green and blue colour scheme of various scenes I could find of Romania. Its is definitely a mountainous place.

World Inspired Landscapes: Romania, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, March 2025

Nice day for painting... sort of

It was a nice day to go for a ride and do some painting, sort of. Riding with the wind behind me, it seemed fine, but cold wind was barreling down the river as I painted out here on the Old Port, and the ride home was an upwind grind. In the foreground, the harbour area was frozen over, in the background, you see all the new condo towers they are constantly putting up. 
 
Cityscape and ice, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2025 (No. 4194a)

Standing at the same spot, looking west, here is a view of the maltage factory, and in the middle there were hundreds of seagulls floating on the open water or resting on the receding ice. If this weather keeps up, all the ice will come back. But after warm, rainy weather last week, most of the snow and ice had disappeared. Its a difficult time to paint since most scenery is grey, dusty and drab, but I found a few good compositions today like the angled edge of the ice on the river.

Gulls on melting ice, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2025 (No. 4275b)

 

On the way back I stopped along Atwater street to make a quick painting of one of the many converted factory-condo buildings. As I painted, the train went by in between the two buildings, it looked like the VIA train. With cold weather and low sun the painting dried slow and I had to finish the details at home. I will go back to this spot in better weather and try to get more details. Today I was checking our reflections and saw some neat ones downtown, but again, better weather would help since painting reflections in glass and marble needs several successive layers. When seasons change, it usually takes a little while to adjust. 

Hipster condos sunset, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2025 (No. 4281a)

Tooth be Told

 After a tooth extraction, I made this painting of the missing tooth up the top left. The thing in the bottom represents the dentist and his assistant. Actually they did an excellent job and the stubborn thing is gone for good now. As I had the procedure, on the upper floor of a tall building near Greene avenue on Sherbrooke, I looked out onto a great view of Montreal and wondered how I could paint it. Other artists have painted from elevation but they must have had access to rooftops or upper floor apartments. It was a slow week for painting owing to some atrocious weather and a busy first week back to teaching. Another 5 or 6 weeks of it then off to my second sabbatical, minus some wisdom.

Tooth be Told,  watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2025 (No. 4278b)

Wake and Shape

Time for a little palette cleanser, this one is called 'Wake and Shape' since I completed it this morning. There is some old marketing slogan called 'Wake and Bake' which is like hash browns or grits, actually, more like cannabis, but that's just what I could find on the internet. In this case, it was shapes being created, using a variety of colours including a 'new' paint I picked up recently called Antique Russet Brown (PR101) by Holbein. It is part of their discontinued antique watercolour set, that set is now being sold as a gauche set. Gauche is like watercolour but much thicker. You can see the brown colour in the wood-branch elements, it is a very neutral brown like coffee with milk. Over top I applied vanadium yellow (PY184) and equally dense version of yellow that is great for concept pieces, and it really pops yellow on the scan more than other yellows it seems. This was the last piece of paper from the watercolour paper pad, although there are a few backs of painting to work with, it may be time to get a new pad of this paper to continue the experimental abstract paintings.
 

Wake and Shape, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, March 2025 (No. 4291a)