Glasgow, Scotland last batch from trip

 Being in Glasgow was a real treat, I had never been in the United Kingdom before so it was all new, the money looked different and the accents were very thick. I tried to make a painting of the famous landscape but there were many highways and difficult areas to walk so I settled for this view from a parking lot in the Maryhill area. You get a sense of the lush countryside views. 5.5x7.5" cold press, watercolour, Maryhill area, 2018

 

I spent time painting in the University of Glasgow. I had bought some new Daniel Smith paints in an art shop, but found the ultramarine blue to be unsatisfactory. In this painting you see everywhere the blue paint was added it broke into little clumps and patches as it dried. It gave the painting a creepy feel. I since discarded the tube. 5.5x7.5" cold press, watercolour, Glasgow University, Kelvingrove Museum 2018

There was a strong cold wind coming off the Clyde river, my palette blew over several times and so did my water containers (this was before I used glass jars for water). I had to paint fast here it was almost unbearable the cold wind. I used Winsor and Newton's green gold PY129 a neat option to paint foliage.  5.5x7.5" cold press, watercolour, Clyde River, 2018

Finally I sat down in a small park in the city and made one last painting for the trip. The sun was just about down, so I had to paint fast. To get the sun effect, I put a wash down first, then let it dry, and added the leaves last. I filled in the rest of the picture as the big wash dried. Its risky to try this since the wash has to dry which depends on sunlight and humidity. When it was done I didn't care for this painting but looking at it now it is one of my favorites from the trip. 5.5x7.5" cold press, watercolour, Lilybank Gardens, 2018

 The other Glasgow paintings can be seen using the label feature on the desktop version of the blog, click on 'Scotland' label. 

Sunset on Somerled Avenue, NDG

 It was the last chance to make a painting today outside with the sun going down around 6:30 now the days are getting shorter and shorter. I was stuck in all day recording educational videos, the system actually crashed for the whole university this afternoon, but they brought it back up too late for my live class. So they got everything per-recorded, jokes and all. I set it up with a beach background and wore sunglasses for a moment to complete the virtual classroom illusion. 

This painting started out simple enough, and it looks fast and easy, but there are a ton of elements packed in, each with a complex light and shadow effect. The railing is the front steps of our building and the structure behind it is a bus stop. In the background, the grocery store that used to be a Steinberg's. 

5 x 7 " hot press, watercolour, September 2020

Bolton and Area, the grand tour

 

Let's take a tour of Bolton and surrounding area! We start off with a walk in the Bolton camp trails and find the iconic water tower. The leaves have changed colour and the sky is turbulent. Bolton Water tower, landscape 6.5 x 11", cold press, watercolour 1993 (No. 0040) 

 

Amazingly, it snowed all afternoon and changed seasons! We can go for some cross country skiing up in Albion hills conservation area. This scene is where the trail turns sharply and presents some of the greatest views of the rolling hills and farms of the surrounding area. I have made other paintings from this area. Albion Hills, Red Trail 9 x 12' cold press block, watercolour, 1993 (No. 0041)

And what a way to end the day, we head downtown to the Mainstreet Station in Bolton. Many a good pints and clubhouse sandwiches were eaten there, and the staff were great! They changed their sign a few times since then, and then sadly closed up shop a few years back. Now its time to walk back up the hill. Bolton Main Street Station 6.5 x 11" cold press, watercolour 1993 (No. 0045)

But we still have to walk back up the hill to get home. On the way all the snow has melted and it is fall again, or maybe we had one too many pints? This is the Bolton Cemetery war memorial commemorating the fallen soldiers of the great war, and world war II. We loop around the back road and finish the walk along the path back to home.  6.5 x 11" cold press, watercolour 1993 (No. 0041)

Cape Cod, USA

 

Cape Cod is a vacation getaway location south of Boston, it has sandy beaches, cold water and decent clam chowder. Most of the other food was deep fried and kind of bland, but the beer was great... Samuel Adam's on tap in a turbulator glass. I made a few other paintings while I was there including the beach, and a museum. 5 x 8" cold press watercolour, 2009

Hiding behind this parking lot was a nice scene, unfortunately there was nowhere to sit and paint it other than a tiny patch of grass. I remember being frustrated with Cape Cod, all of the waterfront was hidden behind private property leaving just a few little looks for tourists other than the beach. I deliberately made the filthy parking lot occupy two thirds of the composition, and made sure to get in every oil stain and tire track. 7.5 x 11" cold press, watercolour, 2009

Capturing the ugly side of things was important for these paintings, in this case some otherwise nice architecture is overlapped with a tangle of cables on a pole. The hotel was named Three Ducks so I wrote quack quack quack on the sign. Now a days I try to beautify the locations when I paint them, mostly leaving out parking lots and wires in favor of composition and focal points. I always liked this painting for its deft use of pastel tones, the warm beige, yellows, and greens provide a contrast with the harsh wires. 7.5 x 11" cold press, watercolour, 2009

Palette Cleanser 32

 

I made this painting early today, it is an abstract from my imagination. The outlines were done first, and then filled in with various colours that seemed to harmonize. The minty green and mustard in the background go well with the reds and browns of the foreground elements. It reminds me of an old computer game called asteroids, where you had to shoot them and fly around them in space. Doing a black background would have been nice but this paper is very thin so it wont hold heavy washes. 

After work, I entered more paintings into the catalogue. The catalogue is a spreadsheet that contains a code number, name, and year for each painting which I also write in the margins or on the back of the painting. It also has size, paper, subject matter source, owner, comment on date, and additional notes.

I am starting with my oldest portfolio, it contains drawing and paintings mostly from 1980's until about 1995, along with a few more recent ones. I constantly shuffled things around my portfolios over the years. One on the list is Birdman which I sold in 2000, I gave it a code number too. Naming some of the old paintings has been fun.  

9 x 12" watercolour paper, watercolour, September 2020

Come Play, Trenholme Park

 

Snuck out at lunch hour to donate a few bags of items to the reuse store and made a quick painting today. I wanted to paint the sports dome but couldn't find a good angle, so I headed to Trenholme park and painted a fenced in recreation area where they had set up colourful banners and a sign saying "come play". There weren't any people around but there were plenty of squirrels. As I set up to paint they mobbed me, curious about if I had peanuts. One even tried to hop on my bike so I scared them away. You see one on a tree and one staring at me from the ground. 5 x 7" hot press, watercolour Sept. 2020

Mom and Dad's Boat

 Just one blog for the today. This painting was done from an old family photo, it shows Mom and Dad's day sailor boat from the 1970's with perhaps Mom and Dad in the boat. To paint the reflection I had to leave the paper blank where you see the white elements, and the darker reflection were painted over top of the water. The mast should of been in the reflection too, but this was a very hard painting considering my skill level at the time, I would have been about 17 years old. The tonal blue-grey of the water looks great and the value contrasts throughout the painting give a feeling of depth and atmosphere.

Today, I started making a catalogue of my artwork, starting with the older ones in no particular order. This painting seemed a fitting one to start the catalogue with. I am amazed at my output in 1993, there seem to be over 40 paintings I found so far and I am only partway through that portfolio. 

12 x 16" hot press block, watercolour, 1993 #0001