NDG Secret Path, Blue Flowers

 

Spending most of 2020 wandering around NDG looking for places to paint away from the crowd I thought I had discovered everything. Today I turned left off Broughton, and reached a small clearing on Easton Avenue with  path leading down to Avon/St. Jacques. I had seen this clearing and trees from down below but never figured a way up there, and on google map it does not show up in any significant way. A narrow footpath led down through the small forest, and a tree was arched over the path like a gateway. The arched tree was mimicked by the curving sidewalk in the middle ground. On the distant horizon a mosque was visible. Usually I do not depict religious buildings but from time to time include them as accents. The qubba (dome) was a dark yellow ochre (PY43) with warm highlights. The path relied on venetian red (PR101) and umbers (PBr7), while the trees were umber neutralized with indo blue (PB60).

The Secret Path NDG, 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, April 2021 (No. 2591a)

 

Walking down the path I came across an embankment covered with little blue star-shaped flowers and chartreuse leaves. These might be Chionodoxa Luciliae (Glory Of The Snow) a small star shaped blue flower that grows up in the spring according to the website plant-and-flower-guide.com. In the first painting I was looking down the path, in this painting I was looking up the path.The blue flowers were much brighter and higher chroma but there are several limitations in my palette and with the paper. The colour was made with phthalo blue sapphire (PB15:0) and rose red (PV19), which makes a muted lilac, and the paper was the one I over soaked so it absorbed a lot of paint. Next time I can try with ultramarine (PB29), quin magenta (PR122), and properly prepared paper. There is also a trick where you apply a white paint first, the colour pops even more. I may try that but currently do not own any white paint due to the longstanding myth that white paint is bad. In fact, the Victorian watercolour painters were known to prime their papers with white paint in order to enhance the beauty of the watercolours. I learned that on Handprint.com (MacEvoy). Turns out the internet is a great tool for an artist (and their fans!).

Glory of the Snow 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, April 2021 (No. 2592a)

 

Paint where they aint, Saturday Painting Trip

 

The weather was unseasonably warm today, like summer but without the green! I hoped to make it down to Ile Jean Drapeau but the Lachine Canal path was teeming with people so I veered west and found a spot to paint a few meters off the path. The scene looks north towards Mont Royal, with the dilapidated factory in the foreground, the same one with the pink house on top, which I painted before but you dont see the same angle here. I wanted to feature the nature, you see the gravely grassy growth all over as the buildings become one with the land. I used the grey ochre for the ground with raw sienna throughout. Burnt sienna was used for the bricks.

Ville St. Henri Gentrification, 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, April 2021 (No. 2581b)

 

Finding green space in Montreal is always a challenge, there was a small lot planted with trees and flower boxes, some yellow flowers were growing and sparrows were hanging out. It just takes a little green space for the animals to have some habitat. I composed the scene so that what little nature was present occupied most of the painting. The background was a challenge to fit in between the trees. It was nice to paint in warm weather because the paint dries quick and I can do fancier techniques as compared to the winter.

Ville St. Henri Flower Box 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, April 2021 (No. 2583b)

 

There were a few scenes but I had to find spots away from the people even though I had my medical mask on. This is done in a 'green alley' the city has reconfigured laneways throughout the city to contain planters, trees, flowers etc. I liked how the shadows were radiating on the ground. It was also irresistible to paint the yellow ochre bricks. In fact all of the earth colours came into play here, the tree bark, bricks, mortar, wood, dirt, sidewalk all used earth paints. The green was phthalo green. As I suspected, most of Montreal can be painted with brown, green, grey, blue, and orange for the pylons! 

Ville St. Henri Tree Shadows, 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, April 2021 (No. 2590b)

Swirling Earth and other thoughts

 

The earth paints are composed of browns, oranges and various shades of rust which makes for some difficult colour choices. After extensive practice I created a symphony of earth I called Earth Embrace, and other small paintings like the one above. A discovery was to use value contrast, in particular the yellow ochres are considerably higher value than the umbers, and siennas in between. In the small study all shapes were outlined in ochre which gives a good visual contrast and accentuates the actual colour differences between the earth colours.

Swirling Earth, 2.5 x 5" cold press, watercolour, April 2021 (No. 2617a)

On the back I made a Botswana test, this time using synthetic colours like quinacridones, benzimidazolones, and perylenes. Visually they are similar to earth colours when mixed in the right proportions. The two orange pillars are burnt sienna which show the contrast. When I did the first Botswana painting it was not quite right so I did a second one and posted it a few days ago for the World Inspired Landscapes: Botswana.  If you click on the link or go back to that blog, I updated the painting with a new third version and added some comments about the versions. So, next stops Brazil and Brunei on the world tour. 

Sunset Test, 2.5 x 5" cold press, watercolour, April 2021 (No. 2617a)

April palette adjustments

 

After testing out the new palette setup there were a few things not quite working out. To tweak the setup, I kept the earth colours in place, re-organized the other paints, and added and removed a few. Starting on the top row, 9^th slot, I included four paints for making various shades of greens, followed by four cool shadow paints. On the bottom are high chroma (saturated/bright) yellow, orange, reds, magenta, and some darks. Two paints were removed because they really stain the plastic (phthalo blue PB15:3 and phthalo blue turquoise PB16) and one because it was a little redundant (PR122), although those are all great colours indeed. I included pyrole vermillion with the extra spot because I missed it during the test runs. 

 

This test painting depicts the mixing areas and approximately what can be made, so you see the potential. Top left is for a variety of browns good for tree bark, dirt, wood etc, top middle is for greens like foliage and grass, top right is for cool shadows or darker greens, and to neutralize the browns. Bottom left is bright yellow and oranges, bottom middle is reds and probably brick reds, then the mixing cups bottom right are for sky blue. I surrounded the blue circles with a colour that represents cloud shadows, it was venetian red with iron blue, a combination that was used by Winslow Homer which I learned from Handprint.com (MacEvoy).  

The previous palette setup was mostly following the hue angle (rainbow colours), whereas this set-up is more functional, each part has a job to do. It is closer to my old palette set up, albeit on a larger scale. The old palette is depicted in Inner Workings. My blog becomes a record of notes and images that helps keep track of it all, I apply a 'paint test' tag to all the experimental stuff. 

Pal-ing Around 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, April 2021

Loyola Campus Green Roof

On my way to work today I stopped to make a quick painting of Loyola Campus sitting on the new bench that they installed last year. I did a similar painting from the same spot last year of a tree and the green roof. The trees are still there but I was short on time today and had to cut some of the detail out and focus on the colours and textures. The roof was yellow ochre (PY43) with phthalo green (PG7) and some lemon yellow (PY175), while the grass was mostly indo yellow (PY110) and phthalo green (PG36). Those are light and bright paints that produce interesting saturated olive greens and cool greens. The brick was a mish mash of various colours, I mixed all the green mixes with pyrol red (PR254) to produce brown. The colours, values and textures are right on, next time if I have more time and a bigger piece of paper I could capture more detail.

Loyola Campus Green Roof, 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, April 2021 (No. 2586b)

World Inspired Landscapes: Botswana

Here is the first version which was a little rough around the edges but had some great energy. The green splashes worked, and the animals were leaping right off the rock. The drawings were inspired by actual rock art from Botswana. Now that I see it scanned, it's kind of my favorite version! The animal in the middle with the stick legs makes me laugh.

 World Inspired Landscapes: Botswana i, 5 x 11.5" cold press, watercolour, April 2021 (No. 2606a)

World Inspired Landscapes: Botswana iii, 5 x 7.5" cold press, watercolour, April 2021 (No. 2607)

Located in East Africa, Botswana is one of the fastest growing countries due to abundant resources and tourism. It is a popular safari destination since the majority of the country is protected land teeming with zebras, elephants, elands, lions, and all sorts of birds and reptiles. It is also know for its cave and rock art done by indigenous people from thousands of years ago and in modern times. In my painting, the animals resemble living rock art, they were done in silhouette using burnt sienna (PR101) and some burnt umber for shadowing (PBr7). Those are likely to be similar pigments as the ancient rock paintings were made from, the are very durable and don't fade over time. The rock artists (painters not musicians!) probably got their paints from a trader or local paint maker, archeologists found evidence of a sophisticated paint making operation including grinders, containers, and about 4 or 5 types of pigments. By the way, did you notice the lion lurking in the painting?

World Inspired Landscapes: Botswana ii, 5 x 11.5" cold press, watercolour, April 2021

The painting at the top of the blog was the third try, this one above was the second try. The first try was a little off the mark so I didn't scan it, its on the back of this one. The main change I made was the proportion going for a taller aspect ratio, and the forest was redesigned. The animals can be endlessly rearranged but for full impact this kind of painting would need to be on a larger surface area format. The main thing is that the series is meant to capture ideas and have a little virtual adventure after all. (No. 2606b)

 

 

Earth Embrace

 

Earth paints include mineral/clay based pigments derived from artisanal mining operations, and synthetic derivatives produced from iron/ore oxide slag. These represent the oldest pigments known to art, at least, the ones that survived the longest since there are cave and rock paintings using earth pigments going back tens of thousands of years. Yellow ochre, which can be seen throughout this painting consists of a small proportion of hydrated iron oxide along with various silicates and other minerals, but its the hydrated iron oxide that gives it the distinctive yellow colour. With heating the hydration is removed and the colour becomes orange, red, brown, and even black. If more iron oxide and manganese is present, then the colour is darker and tends to be greenish, chocolate brown, chestnut brown, dark oranges, and even a dark purplish red. You may notice green, that is called green earth (PG23) made of a phosphate based mineral from Nicosia Italy or Antica (USA?). A lot of these paints have cool names, like pozzuoli red earth, mars orange, or lemon yellow ochre. 

The painting was done on the back of an old painting that I cut down to poster size so that it fits in the frame we have on the wall. It is a highly absorbent paper that further reduced the chroma (colour saturation) of the paints. The photo is okay, I took it outside with full sun, but you can imagine the colours are a bit brighter and sharper in real life. It was the best I could do with one hand on the painting, one on the camera, and a healthy bit of wind outside blowing the paper around. If you search you will see my initialing (PJD 21) and the painting title hidden amongst the patterns.

Earth Embrace, 24 x 36" 90lb, watercolour, April 2021