Knotty Tree, Coffee Park

 On my way back from the office I walked through coffee park, it looks a bit different than the last time I painted it in the winter, as seen in this link. Last year it took me awhile to switch from summer/fall painting to winter painting, it required quite an adjustment in technique and materials. Now I find myself readjusting to summer painting. The paint dries much faster, and the colours are more complex. Today's painting is filled with warm green and browns, with magenta in the blossoming tree, I used the new kit which is mostly Van Gogh brand paints. The dandelions are two tones, yellow light for the highlight, yellow ochre for the shadows. The black fence provides the backbone to the composition, and gives dark contrast to the rest of the painting which is important if you want colours to appear to glow. I wanted to channel Van Gogh as much as possible, so each element has a life its own, and I used excessive amounts of yellow paint!

Knotty Tree, Coffee Park, 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, May 2021 (No. 2636)

Gogh Auto (with Van Gogh Paints)

By now this is a familiar scene, Joe and Ralph auto on Somerled Avenue, now renamed 'Gogh Auto'. I just had a little time today during the sunny day to make a quick painting, and wanted to test a new product I got called Van Gogh paints by Royal Talens a dutch company, sold by Kama Pigments in Montreal. I promised myself to stop buying paint but then I figured, of all the addictions to have this one was pretty harmless! These paints are considered 'student quality' because they add some filler and keep the pigments simple. I found them to re-wet beautifully and provided very strong pigmentation. The new paper helps too, it holds the paint, notice how bright and vibrant the brick red is.

Gogh Auto, 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, May 2021 (No. 2637)

 

Here is a picture of some of the Van Gogh paints before they were unwrapped. I got several yellows, just because it was his favorite colour. The size of these is about that of your thumbnail, but they hold a surprising amount of paint.

This is a shot of the new aluminum palette I got also from Kama Pigments, it was the main thing I wanted to buy so that I could bring my other pan paints on location. The pans are little plastic cubes with the paint in them, you see how they clip in to the holder area, and you use the fold out to mix. On the back is a ring to put your thumb, that lets you hold it with one hand. I also filled two empty pans with indo blue (PB60 Daniel Smith) and magenta (PV19 Shcminke) from tubes that I have, and clipped them to complete the set. I had to draw the line at buying any more blue or pink paint that is why I used some from tubes, once they dry it is almost the same as the premade pan paint. 

In this snap you see the test painting, and the paint-outs of the Van Gogh paints, they are very bright almost whiteish, that is likely from aluminum hydroxide brightener/filler they add, and the yellow has white in it. I think they were out of stock on some of my order because they sent yellow light and red light instead of regular yellow and red. Close enough!

The pigments are...

Permanent red light (PR255)

Azo yellow light (PY154 +PW6)

Pyrrole orange (PO73)

Permanent yellow green (PY154+ PG7)

Viridian (hue; PG7)

Phthalo blue (PB15)

Raw Sienna (PY42)

Yellow ochre (PY42)

Light oxide red (PR101)

Oxide black (PBk11)

The word permanent has no meaning anymore, all these pigments are very lightfast (stable). They use that word because in the old days they would have used a non-stable pigment, then they replace it with a new one that is 'permanent'. In fact, no paint is permanent, and the inclusion of brighteners may diminish the longevity of these paints further. In general modern watercolour paints will remain mostly unchanged for 50 - 100 years, so its not something we need to worry about!

Canadian Legion

On my way back from picking the bike up at the shop I stopped for a quick painting of the Canadian Legion building on Decarie. In the foreground you see the green (PG36) markers used for the bike Maisonneuve path which goes from NDG all the way across Montreal. To capture the interesting coffee-brown brick colours I mixed yellow ochre (PY43) with burnt sienna (PR101) and raw umber (PBr7). It would have been easier to use raw sienna but I took that off my palette for now. The red is pyrol red (PR254), the blue is cobalt blue (PB28), and the Canadian flag is pyrol red-orange (PR255). I also snuck in some yellow on the curb (PY110 and PY154). When you consider the sky blue and chartreuse tree colour, it would appear that I got almost every colour of the rainbow into a rather drab scene. The bike is great now, the spoke was replaced and all tuned up and ready for the summer.

Canadian Legion 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, May 2021 (No. 2635a)

Stormy Sky St. Henri

 On my way back from dropping my bike off for a tune-up, I saw this scene of a stormy sky with the Hardware store in the foreground. I was impressed by the contrast of the grey-blue sky which I did with graphite grey (PBk10) and indo blue (PB60) and the orange roof which was a mix of paints (PY110, PR255, PO36). Since I had some cobalt blue (PB28) on the palette, I could create the downtown Montreal skyline with glowing turquoises. The cobalt blue paint is a lot easier to handle than the phthalo blue paints especially when working on a small format like this. My new paper block also amplifies the brightness of the paints and really holds the washes. Luckily the rain held off and I got in home just in time for the next on-line meeting.

Stormy Sky St. Henri, 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, May 2021 (No. 2634)

Earth Exploration

 After trying out a few different styles with the earth paints, I created this painting which depicts the interior of an imaginary factory that makes pigments. The roasting furnace is in the bottom left and delivery vehicle bottom right. I was also thinking of the oil painting Monet made of the Saint-Lazare Station which has a large v-shaped roof and smoke in the distance.

Pigment Plant, 8 x 10" cold press, watercolour, May 2021 (No. 2661a)

 

Most of this painting is made from earth colours too, along with a few accent colours. I was inspired by Rembrant who painted in the classic Italian style, and often had a light source emanating from small windows or some unknown source from above. Earth colours can create warm shadows and eerie depths, and they make the bright colours stand out such as the vermilion reds.

Robot Dancer (Earth Moves), 8 x 10" cold press, watercolour, May 2021 (No. 2662a)

 

Every 17 years the locust come out, they are currently about to emerge. They probably dont look anything like this painting, so we have to assume its on another planet maybe Mars. I used cobalt blue for the moon, it is a nice high chroma blue paint that has slightly more toxicity than an average watercolour paint but not so much as to be concerned. I took it out of my palette for about a year, now I picked up a new tube by Holbein (PB28) and will use it sparingly.

Blue Moon Larva, 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, May 2021 (No. 2639b)

Sunday Painting Trip: North Shore Parks

 Taking advantage of the good weather and favorable west wind I got up to the north shore on my bike ending on O'Brien blvd and turning onto Gouin blvd. which runs along the shore. The scene above is a small picnic island connected to Parc de la Merci. Stately oak trees populate the island, and Prairie river can be seen in the middle ground. Across the river is Laval. To paint the new leaves, I made a fairly wet sky first, then dropped in the yellow dots to make them really glow. That technique was possible on this fantastic new Fabriano block paper I got, in fact I ordered more of it!

Ile Perry Parc de la Merci, 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, May 2021 (No. 2640)

This was the first park I stopped at, the ground was coming alive with a variety of plants and grasses. The shoreline across the river is wall-to-wall houses.

Parc des Bateliers, 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, May 2021 (No. 2639a)

 

Near the O'Brien and Gouin intersection is a good sized park called Raimbault. I walked my bike right down to the shore line where there is a pebbly beach and ducks. These were a pair of mallards, Canada geese and some other interesting fowl. There was a strong smell of barbeque food and other aromas coming from the picnic areas above. The bridge in the background is highway 15. Note, I updated the scan, since the second Brazil painting there had been a small green smudge on the scanner glass.

Raimbault Park Ducks, 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, May 2021 

 

At the farthest point of my bike ride, was a small park in Montreal North, a little over 20km from home. It seemed a worthy scene to use the 9 x 12" Fabriano block, it is the same brand and make as the smaller 5 x 7". I used a big brush called a filbert for most of the painting, and finished with a small rigger. A filbert is a wide short hair brush with an arc shape, a rigger is a narrow long hair brush. There were many houses across the river but I just showed one, it probably looks like it did 100 years ago when it was all farm land! There were people playing Bob Marley in the park, so I had some good music to paint by.

Parc Aimé-Léonard, 9 x 12" cold press, watercolour, May 2021 (No. 2659)

Short Painting Trip

The area around the new hospital is rapidly filling up. Near the vendome station they are building another gargantuan condominium complex for retired folks. The entire corner will be obscured by this structure and traffic will increase, what a place to live. In the background is the new bridge they built which connects St. Jacques street to Ville St. Henri, I am calling it the Oscar Peterson bridge because why not, and it looks like a piano when you get up close to it. This painting reminds a bit of London Ontario. The brush work is quite varied, the new brushes I have make detailing more accurate.  

Last Chance View, 8 x 10" cold press, watercolour, May 2021 (No. 2653)

 

This scene depicts the Maisonneuve bike path which winds through Westmount park. I painted it last year in September, but the blossoms were not there late in the season. The pink colour was hard to get because this batch of paper I got (d'Arches) had a problem with the sizing, meaning that the paint absorbs too fast making it dry dull and greyish. At least today was overcast, so the slight greying suited the mood. I painted a few of the dogs in the park too but they were moving too fast to get a good sketch. To make the outlines I used graphite grey (PBk10) which is turning out to be good for outlining and grey washes. In fact, the entire bike path was done with graphite grey. The trees relied on yellow ochre (PY43) and quinacridone magenta (PR122) with the 'two perylenes' for shadowing, they are perylene maroon (PR179) and perylene green/black (PBk31).

Westmount Park Blossoms 8 x 10" cold press, watercolour, May 2021 (No. 2654)