Saturday Painting Trip, Downtown Montreal

 

Yesterday I rode downtown via the Maisonneuve bike path and turned south on Stanley Street to reach the Windsor Station building which now houses one of the main entrances to Bonadventure metro station. This is in very close proximity to the Bell Centre where the Canadiens play hockey, so the station likely serves the massive crowds on game day. On Saturday it was very quiet though, had the Habs won game 5 maybe there would have been a game 6 crowd here for a home game but we will wait until next season. The great facade of the building had a covered entrance, there were skylights casting grey squares of light onto the interlocking brick, and artificial lights illuminating the ceiling and intricate brickwork. Outside was a bright sunny day although it kept switching from overcast to sun which made the painting even more of a challenge.

Bonadventure Station Orange Line, Windsor Station, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, July 2021 (No. 2923)

 

The other entrance was a non-de script drive in parking lot although people were walking in and out here too. I was standing on a massive raised platform of the Place Canada office tower, looking down on a steep road I believe is Cathedral road. The angles were odd, for example the sidewalk was nearly parallel with the bottom edge of the painting, while the lines of the structure were slanting up at about 20 degrees. I used the tree to anchor the composition, and stuck to the plan throughout the painting process. These shadow-scenes are tough to get right, I would change the shadow mix next time to be less iron oxide. These Bonadventure paintings did not capture the essence I know from this station, it is where you go when you are setting off to travel, like train or bus to airport. I think next time I will try to go in and make an interior painting of the station, it has several underground entrance points that should have more of the character I am after.

Bonadventure Station Orange Line, Parking Entrance, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2021 (No. 2750)

 

Heading back up Rue de La Montagne I caught a view of the chalet on top of Mount Royal. I have made a few painting from the vantage point of the chalet for example in 2019, or an earlier one done in winter of 1997. The fore ground was entirely in shadow, with reflected window light casting a pattern on the street. The middle ground was bathed in warm sun, brilliant chartreuse trees filled the view, and a lady in a white dress was walking calmly across the street which contrasted the traffic, construction and noise of the city. The chalet is tucked away in the center top, with the radio tower prominent on the horizon. There were bewildering construction signs everywhere, I painted them with pyrole red vermilion (PR255) and indo yellow (PY110), next time I go down town I have to remember to bring the incredible pyrole orange (PO72).

Rue De La Montagne, view of the mountain, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2021 (No. 2751)

 

Finally I rode by the old parking lot where I made a painting of a famous milk bottle landmark. In the old painting you can sense the expanse, but now it is a solid block of skyscraper condominiums with no hint of the old landmarks. In this painting, I framed some of the wonderful old triplex condos probably circa 19th century, with a jumble of parked cars (remember the parking lots, all gone now), and a few bits of the towering shards of glass buildings at the very top. I liked this scene due to the neutral yellow  and blue buildings. The yellow is a pastel, I made it with yellow ochre (PY43) and a touch of carbon black (PBk6) with the right amount of water. I learned that mix last year at the Joliette station location, you see the same colour in the yellow bricks there. On the other side is the pastel blue house which looks almost violet, in fact that colour is called periwinkle and made with indothrone blue (PB60) and a touch of carbon black, with the right amount of water. Once again, I used the tree to anchor the composition in the middle. There was a street light growing through its foliage.

Avenue Overdale, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2021 (No. 2752)

Palette Cleanser: Patterns

 

After completing the end-to-end bicycle and painting trip I have to admit I was a little burned out. Some years I completed 50 painting in the whole year, here I had done that many in a week! The palette itself was a mess too, and I had done a few more paintings just to use up the last of the yellow and perylene green which turned out to be the most popular colours of the trip. In this palette cleanser, I drew inspiration from the trip, capturing a range of greens and blues with other accent colours. That prominent green in the lower right is phthalo green yellow shade (PG36), similar to the blue shade version but much better for making clean greens.  

Palette Cleanser: Patterns, 9 x 12" watercolour paper, watercolour, July 2021 (No. 2887)

A few more memories from London Ontario

 

London Ontario exists on the confluence of the Thames river which snakes its way through the city. A cycling path was built up and down its shore line, providing for great views of the fall leaves and exciting reflections on the water surface. This scene captures the spirit of the landscape, it was cold but sunny when I did this, must have been late fall.

Thames River Trees Embankment, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 1996 (No. 0458)

 

This is a portrait of the enormous residence hall where many students (including myself) stay in the first or second year. Also called the zoo by the way. It seems to soar over top of the beige and olive-green trees. The dark neutral shadow side looks right, must have been a complex mix of alizarin crimson and other neutralizing cool paints.

Saugeen Maitland Residence UWO, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 1996  (No. 0459)

The University of Western Ontario campus is quite amazing, in this scene you see the overpass between two of the buildings, seen from atop the main hill. It is a very delicate painting, with wispy branches, perhaps the season was just between winter and spring. The tunnel reflection is neat, almost photographic in its likeness. Another neat painting from UWO was the Mustangs scoreboard in winter. It seems like just yesterday I was anticipating my departure from Bolton, going to UWO, site unseen to start a new chapter in my life.

Passageway UWO Campus , watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 1997 (No. 0461)

 

This scene was from a local park with a kids pool, it was empty at the time. It was a challenging painting, I remember thinking about how to get the light-on-dark details of the chair frame. These kinds of paintings would steadily build my confidence as a landscape painter.

Lifeguard Chair,  watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 1997 (No. 0469)

The sprawling apartment buildings were springing up all over the old farm land. This painting was nearly ruined by rainfall, but in the end it looked amazing. The little dots are where the rain hit the moist painting. You can only get this effect through pure chance. Now if it starts raining I try to get a few water drops on it just for effect, like in the recent bench under pine tree painting.

Apartments Rainy Day, watercolour 5 x 8" cold press, 1997 (No. 0470)

It was 20 Years Ago...

 

At the beginning of the 21^st century, young Darlington was really into abstract painting not to mention ultimate frisbee and beer. Ok, so I was doing a lot of abstract paintings in the evenings while during the day I would spend most of my time at the lab working on the PhD. Don't try to hard to understand this painting, I have no recollection of its meaning, and made up the title last year when I catalogued my oeuvre to date. Oeuvre is a fancy way of saying big pile of paintings.

Decipher Me, watercolour 7 x 11" cold press, 2002 (No. 1349a)

 

This one follows the form of the blue sky, with swirling whirling noodles and other organic shapes. I used the colour scheme rules learned in high school, blue with orange and red with green. The shade of blue is interesting, it looks like cerulean (PB35) with some antwerp blue (PB27) which I had at the time. All of these paintings were named and numbered as I did the catalogue.

Detached Retina (Blue Sky), watercolour 7 x 11" cold press, 2002 (No. 1349b)

 

I experimented with a lot of different techniques in the 2000's, like the colour splash. My signature also changed a lot, here it is the version with all caps printed out. This painting reminds me of a bowling ball hitting pins in an alley, Halloween style. The work was carefully done with good modelling of shapes. I was mostly trying to hide the brush strokes in smooth-appearing surfaces. I like how the yellow light permeated the gloomy greys.

Splatter Matter With Trees, watercolour 7 x 11" cold press, 2001 (No. 1353a)

 

These paintings would have been done completely on the spot, that is, no planning, no doodles. I would not get into doodleism until the following years. Often I would combine completely abstract shapes with a few easy to recognize items like trees, or in this case bubbles.

Pastel Forms and Formula, watercolour 7 x 11" cold press, 2001 (No. 1353B)

 

The layering in this painting gives it a sense of depth and internal warmth. Earlier in the blog I talked about colour schemes, but most of the time I went with gut instinct. In this case it worked out, the combination of yellow, orange, maroon and pink plays well against the splash of grey and green. In due time I will get back to these styles of painting, for now I am content to work on the landscapes on location, at least when the rain stops!

Internal Levers, watercolour 5.5 x 7.5" hot press 300lb, 2000 (No. 1354)

 

Bench Under Pine Trees Rainy Day

With the crummy weather I was just able to get out in the afternoon for a quick painting under the pine trees where I painted the neat ice scene last winter. Actually, for this painting I was sitting in the bench that you see in the other painting. Several squirrels came by and were quite bold, I threw them some peanuts. When painting in overcast conditions, it is important to keep the value contrast high. For example I kept the grass lighter than it appeared, and the pine needles darker than they appeared. In doing so, the painting looks lively in normal viewing conditions. There is about 10,000 times less light on an overcast day compared to a bright sunny day. Your eyes adjust a lot making things always look similar. As an artist, that is the final lesson- to not believe your eyes! 

Bench Under Pine Trees Rainy Day, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2021 (No. 2749)

St. Lawrence River, Nice Day

 

We had a nice day, today, going on a bike ride with Cilei. This scene was done down at the end of the Lachine Park where I made a challenging winter painting, we sat on the breakwater wall near a small stony beach. Lots of people were out, taking in the sun and excellent view up the river. I composed the tree line a bit bigger than it actually appeared in order to bring the background in a bit closer to the viewer. Compared to the winter painting, this atmosphere was a pleasant warm wind with an interesting cloudy sky to paint. The water was actually a lot darker than it appears in the painting because the idea behind this painting was to capture the pastel tones of the water, trees and rocks. You can see the transitions between the blue, brown and maroon colours. It has been just a few paintings lately, I needed a little time for recharging the batteries.

St. Lawrence River, Nice Day, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, July 2021 (No. 2898)

Somerled Avenue Summer Colours

 As the sun set I made this painting of some interesting construction pylons, these ones are pink, orange and reflective silver. Maybe the mayor Valerie Plante had something to do with it, she is famous for wearing pink blazers, and for wanting to make construction more pleasant. Good start. In the background is the fire station, done with yellow ochre (PY43) and a touch of perylene green (PBk31). The cones were magenta (PR122) and orange (PY110+PR255). I used the orange and pink to make all the greys of the sidewalk and road by neutralizing them with indo blue or carbon black.

Orange and Pink Cones near Fire Station,  watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2021 (No. 2747)

This one was done mid day overcast, sitting in one of the modified containers that acts as a garden and sitting area. The turquoise was easier to do after practicing it on my bike trip out east at Peter's cape cod restaurant. It was cobalt blue (PB28) with phthalo green yellow shade (PG36), and for the darks indo blue with perylene green. Like in the last painting, I used to the turquoise mix on my palette to create the greys, and the reflected light on the wood strucutres. The background shows the hustle-bustle of Somerled Avenue in the afternoon, many cars and many people. But nobody sitting in the gardens but me.

Somerled Turquoise Gardens, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2021 (No. 2748)