On the way (digital)

On the way to visit family we drove past this scene in their neighborhood. I only got a few seconds to look at it before the car turned left, so this is my best memory, done with Sketchpad app. I mostly used the vintage pen and coarse watercolour tool. It has a colour selection to allow hue saturation and value adjustments. To do the setting sun, I used a similar approach to when I paint, along with the smudge brush. I did half a dozen abstracts yesterday with the app, Ill post those some time. We are going to visit another friend today, Davide who is active on Instagram, he is an art professor. 

On the way 800 x 1200, digital February 2026

Trees and pylons

This tree is growing up in the forest by the house. Its bark is peeling off in great ribbons, leaving a bare surface towards the top. The tree is at least 30 meters high. I used a lot of earth paints for this one like burnt sienna, yellow ochre and raw umber. 

Tree peeling bark, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, January 2026 (No. 5019a)

 

We walked up to another park but the main bridge was under construction making it impossible to get in. So we sat in the shade, and I made a painting of  these pylons instead. Using my 'Montreal orange' mix here came in handy...pyrol orange (PO73) with benzi orange (PO62). 

Pylons path, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, January 2026 (No. 5020a)

Trees sunset highway

Across the highway there is a row of old growth trees, maybe 10 or 20 stories tall. Its part of the religious convent that was apparently sold to developers. I hope these trees are still here next time we visit. The sun was going down which created some interesting light effects. 

Tall trees smoldering sunset, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, January 2026 (No. 5017)

 

Here is the view from the overpass looking northeast, the highway was clogged with noisy smelly traffic which made me feel right at home like back in Montreal. I am quite used to painting rows of cars and highways. In this case, there was a wonderful pastel sunset with tall trees in the background. 

Pastel sunset traffic tall trees, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, January 2026 (No. 5018a)

 

I started this one earlier but it rained, so I quickly moved on. The idea was to capture the variety of tree colours and textures in the park across from the house. 

Tree textures study, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, January 2026 (No. 5018b)

Scenes from memory on app

Being on this kind trip which is part vacation, part visiting, part working (for Concordia University) has been interesting. The grad student application deadline is soon, with a number of last minute students I interviewed over whats app, several collaborative grants, managing the students in my lab, researching and planning the sabbatical project, and making some paintings when time allows. On the recent excursion we drove by quite a few fantastic scenes that would have been great paintings. So I downloaded an app called sketchbook and scribbled in the scenes from memory. The first one shows a colourful gas truck. 

 

This scene, also from Indaiatuba, which I just learned is the number one ranked city in Brazil for living, shows a colourful cop car with lights, and a pink magenta flowering tree in the background. 

 For this scene, I liked the triangular piece of grass, and the imagery of a palm tree getting visually squeezed out by two massive condo towers in the background. The sketch app has a large array of pens and brushes, and I could use my colour knowledge to find the right hue, saturation and values. All the same I would have rather painted the scenes on location. I also saw stray dogs chasing cars, and enormous cactus plants growing infront of colourful plaster houses.

River falls, insect mound, Indaiatuba

Through Indaiatuba runs a long park next to a river, its more of a water control canal than a river but the city has tried to spruce it up with walking paths, footbridges and landscaped trees. Looking down the slope, I got this view of a small waterfalls and could hear the water splashing. The embankments were heavily eroded, revealing a rusty red-orange earth from below.

River small falls, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, January 2026 (No. 5016b)

 

We had seen these large mounds in fields and parks around town, about a meter high, they are probably termite or maybe ant colonies. I wanted to paint one but we were stuck in a car and there wasn't a whole of free time, so I was glad to find one of them in this park. Down the slope is the river, it was at a low point. Later, a massive rain storm arrived and on the way out of Indaiatuba we saw the river really full and flowing.

Insect mound river embankment, 6 x 7.5 watercolour, January 2026 (No. 5015b)

Scenery from Cardeal and Indaiatuba

There is a vast area of sugar plantations with a well-to-do city called Indaiatuba, about an hour and a half bus ride north of São Paulo, Brazil. Nearby, there is a quaint village called Cardeal, which not a car dealership but the Portuguese word for Cardinal. In the painting you get a good vista view of rolling hills of sugar cane dotted with dense trees.

Sugarcane fields Cardeal, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, January 2026 (No. 5013b)  

 

This is the side view of an old train station in Cardeal, its long defunct but still maintained for heritage. A number of stray dogs were running about. The photo is crooked... when I get back to Canada I will scan the collection and update the images. 

 

Old train station Cardeal, 6 x 7.5", watercolour, January 2026 (No. 5014b)

 

 

Back in Indaiatuba, Cilei and I were staying with a friend who lives in a gated community. Surrounded by a high wall with barbed wire, electrical wire, and a face-recognition gate, it was rather like staying in a medium security prison, with nicer furniture. The houses were a stark contrast to other homes I had seen in São Paulo, these were designed by architects, fully plastered and painted, with expensive landscaping and fancy cars parked on the open driveways. Kids played on the streets. It was like being in Canada, but a lot hotter. 

Gated housing, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, January 2026 (No. 5015a)

 

Standing in the blazing heat, trying to soak in as much as I could, I did a last scene from inside the gated community. Strangely enough I felt more anxiety standing here painting, everyone was glancing suspiciously at me. Was there a no painting rule I wondered? The wealth and class divide is very obvious in Brazil, in a large part its due to the after effects of colonialism. This community had little by way of diversity as compared to the other neighborhoods I stayed in, so you get the idea. They also had an affinity for vintage Volkswagen beetle cars, we saw about half a dozen in here fully restored.

 

Inside the gated community vista, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, January 2026 (No. 5016a)

Alll the fruit

 

All the fruit on a tray minus the mango we ate! There are two varieties of bananas, limes I picked, a green-skinned orange, red plums, peaches and grapes. In the background, anchoring the whole composition, is a yellow honeydew melon set against a cobalt blue-painted wall. People take for granted just how good the fruit is here, and painting it in bright Brazilian sunlight really made the image pop off the page. 

All the fruit, 8 x 10" watercolour, January 2026