Somerled Auto Mechanic NDG, with Windchill

 

With the winter weather approaching, it is difficult to make location paintings. Today was very sunny with a clear blue sky but the temperature was about -12C with a -17C windchill factor (1.4F). To test out the theory that I can still make paintings in these conditions, I bundled up and went out front with a minimal kit: a cup of salty water, palette, paper, and two brushes. A few notes on the experience, my face was frozen by a bitter northerly wind, the palette rapidly froze up creating a kind of colourful slush puppy, it was like painting with crayons, and my eyes were tearing up making it difficult to see. The painting seems to convey all of these factors- it looks like a windy cold mess where your eyes are watering and nose is running.

The paper was actually cold press, but I decided to call it frozen press this time! 

Somerled Auto Mechanic NDG, with Windchill 5 x 8" frozen press, watercolour December 2020

World Inspired Landscapes: Belgium

In researching Belgium from a travel guide and google maps I learned that Belgium is very flat and non-de script. Sweeping fields, marshes, low lying grassy hills and winding rivers adorn the landscape. Another characteristic of the Belgium countryside is the poppy, made famous by the Canadian Great War poem Flanders Field by McCrae. The travel book had a picture of that too, and I remembered the many paintings made of poppy fields by Monet one of which I copied in acrylic years ago. Belgium is also known for cartoons such as Tin Tin and others including the Smurfs! To add a flair to the painting there is a Smurf on a hike behind the foreground poppy field. 

The design for this one included layers like a cake, in variations of green, olive and chartreuse. This year I learned a lot about colour mixing and expanded my range of greens. I used phthalo green yellow shade (PG36), a variety of yellow, yellow-orange, and orange with touches of perylene green (PBk31) and blues. The poppies were pyrolle vermillion (PR255). The smurf colour? Phthalo blues (yellow and red shade).

World Inspired Landscapes: Belgium 8 x 10" cold press watercolour, December 2020

Palette Cleanser #46

The idea here was festive, like Christmas and birthday wrapped up into one day. Like Cilei! I was also cleaning my palette off after the four location paintings I completed this weekend. Certain colours are working well in the cold weather such as burnt sienna, indo blue, carbon black, and benzi yellow. Other colours are not working well in the cold like the umbers. It may have to do with the formulation of the paint, and the fact that paint companies probably dont test their paints in sub-zero temperatures! 

In the the painting, I used dilute carbon black to make the tentacle, which was later decorated with bismuth yellow and quin magenta. Then I added in the baloons starting with the blues, greens, then reds. The deep red is perylene maroon with quinacridone pink- it looks just like alizarin crimson one of my favorite paints that I abandoned this year due its poor lightfastness (fades in light). 

 Palette Cleanser #46, 9 x 12" watercolour paper, watercolour, December 2020

Benny Sports Center, view of Paths, NDG

 

Staying a bit closer to home today, this painting was done at the Benny farm community area which includes a sports complex with landscaping in the front. The path and black light post in the foreground heads to the front door of the sports center, and the curbing path heads up to a few benches and trees. In the distant background you see the monolithic green apartment building located in Monkland village, which was painted with a dilute mix of phthalo green (PG7) and carbon black (PBk6). To make the tree greens I used various yellow/orange mixes with phthalo green. The middle ground tree mix is benzi orange (PO36) with phthalo green blue (PG7). The lighter, grassy fields in the foreground includes goethite and some earth colours with benzi yellow (PY154). I just made one outside, it was pretty cold with the wind, although I was sitting at a tall retaining wall so mostly protected.  

Rarely do I touch up a painting back at home, but in this case, the middle ground hills of grass has washed out so I made a slight adjustment there, and added some shadowing under the tree branches on the top left. Monet always bragged about doing all of his location painting on location, and some people questioned him about the claim. In some cases he finished paintings in the studio or made adjustments requested by his dealer or the clients. Van Gogh was known to made adjustments, he would even add ghost-like black figures in his landscapes back in the studio. One of his most famous paintings The Starry Night, was entirely done in the studio from his memory of a view out the window of a mental asylum! 

Benny Sports Center, view of Paths, NDG 5 x 7" cold press watercolour, December 2020

Saturday Painting Trip, brrr

Painting outdoors brings about many challenges such as cold, precipitation, and corona virus. So I dressed really warm, wore a mask, and stayed away from people! The extra benefit of the mask is that it keeps the face warm and protects from windchill. The wind was actually coming over my back from roughly the north when I did this painting, a small outcropping of concrete/stone breakwater offered some protection. I made the mistake of adding too much moisture in the river and it never really dried. But I got in enough of the detail I think. 

St. Lawrence River, Lachine Park Point 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour December 2020 

 

The weather was deteriorating into a light sleet with nasty windchill. I found a place to sit under a copse of huge cedar trees which broke the wind and sleet a little bit. I was looking east towards the point of Lachine Park, on the left is St. Lawrence river, the walking path and the bike path. On the right is the shore line of Dorval. After having problems finishing the first painting, I adjusted my approach for this one. I started with a carbon black outline to establish the main shapes and shadows, then worked in the blocks of colour and some details like the branches and lamp posts. 

Lachine Park, Under the Cedar Trees 8 x 10" cold press, watercolour December 2020 

 

 

 I was riding the bike towards home, when I just decided to turn onto Ranger Park where I found a row of juniper trees to sit under with a view of Honoré Mercier Bridge. This painting looked fantastic when I was nearly done but small pellets of hail had landed on the picture. When I took it out at home it acquired a mottled appearance. At least you can get the full experience of being there, hail and all! I also grabbed some juniper berries to make hot tea at home.

Ranger Park under the Juniper Trees, Honoré Mercier Bridge 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour December 2020

Birthday Card Cover with Tulips

 Kitchy? A little bit. This is the front of a hand painted birthday card for someone in my family! I was inspired by the cover of an Amsterdam travel guide that we had from our 2018 trip to the city of tulips. The background was black and the flowers made of wood on the travel guide, here I made the flowers more life-like and put in a lush green background with tulip stems. It is all non-toxic paint, and the paper is sufficient quality to last a very long time. Now people will feel extra guilty when they recycle the cards later on.

Birthday Card Cover with Tulips, 4 x 8 (8 x 8) watercolour paper, watercolour, December 2020

Abstract Frames

 

A good frame can make a big difference in how a painting looks. Over the years many of my paintings have been framed, the interesting thing is that the framer will have their own opinion on the choices, or, if you are using a frame a store you just don't have much choice other than standard options. Either way, the frame and mat end up becoming a major part of the artwork. In this group of paintings I left a wide border then filled it with an abstract frame. The above design contains 5 pink paints that I have  including quin magenta (PV19), quin rose (PV19), quin purple (PV55), manga violet (PV16), and ultra pink (PR259). The border is mostly goethite (PY43).

Abstract Frame with Five Variations of Pink 2 x 5" cold press watercolour, December 2020

In the painting above I used indo blue (PB60) and quin rose (PV19) with raw sienna (PBr7) and nicosia green earth (PG23) in the twirly shapes. The abstract frame is shaded as if the moon were glowing on it. If it were a real painting that would be impossible of course. It gives the whole thing an eerie glow. 

Abstract Frame with Moon Glow and River 5 x 7" cold press watercolour, December 2020

 

The last painting also has an abstract frame done in umber (PBr7) and dilute quin rose (PV19). The sky was mostly indo blue (PB60) tinted with phtalo green (PG36) or quin purple (PV55). The specters are quin rose outlined with indo blue. I liked the way umber and indo blue mixed together. 

Abstract Frame with Specters 5 x 7" cold press watercolour, December 2020