Bus on West Broadway

You might wonder where I was standing for this painting. It was the corner of west broadway street near my office, just around rush hour when there are a lot of buses coming from the nearby depot. They went by every seven minutes so I got to see them about three times, but still it was a challenge to get all the details, I wanted to catch the bus in the middle of its turn. The rest of the composition is a surreal mix of triplex, apartment building, and rush hour traffic. Close cropping the composition like this gives an extreme sense of immersion.
 

Bus on West Broadway, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, April  2022 (No. 3103a)

Creature Cavern in Orange

Upon rearranging my spring/summer palette I included an orange paint called PO62 from Schmincke called chromium orange hue. The word 'hue' in a paint name usually means that it is a chemical alternative for an obsolete or toxic pigment. In this case, the pigment PO62 is benzimidazalone orange, a non-toxic, very stable mono azo pigment that is replacing the obsolete pigment called chromium orange. Azo dyes make up a wide range of yellow and orange paints, with a few maroon and brown options. To really test the paint, I made this abstract painting and tried to use the orange in all sorts of situations. It makes interesting olive greens, browns, and dark reds when mixed with other paints. On its own it is the colour of a fresh tangerine.

Creature Cavern in Orange, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, April 2022 (No. 3020b)

Chromacopia

Chromacopia sounds like some new Cirque du Soleil show, maybe it will be one day! The word I made up, it is a variation on pharmacopia, which means to be taking a lot of prescription drugs. Chroma means colour, so the word means 'lots of colours' or, 'I bought too many paints' would be apropos. Actually this was yet another abstract palette cleanser I made the other day while rearranging my spring/summer palette. Its always a pleasure to paint something.

Chromacopia, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, April 2022 (No. 3020a)

Spring Palette Adjustments

With the weather apparently getting better (who could tell?) I opted for some palette adjustments. The main additions were raw sienna (PBr7 from Daniel Smith Co.), and my old favorite phthalo green blue shade (PG7 from Holbein). Raw sienna is like the colour of toasted marshmallow, or warm caramel. It is good for certain types of bricks, and for when the sun is shining on a tree or the sidewalk. Phthalo green blue shade is a blue-green paint that does not appear in nature but can be used to make convincing turquoise with a blue paint, and a neat metallic grey when mixed with magenta paints. It is one of the only paints I have been using for almost the whole 35 years of watercolour painting. 

To make room for the two colours I removed my extra blobs of yellow paint and shifted the rest of them around in a kind of musical chairs. The other change was to remove pyrol orange red shade (PO73) and replace it with benzimidazolone orange (PO62). The new orange is a perfect middle orange without the red tint. I liked pyrol orange for night painting but it was not as useful during the day. When I go night painting next time I will bring a different palette that is optimized for night. 

This palette has eleven warm colours, eight cool colours, and black. It is a decidedly warm palette with plenty of earth paints. In my recent stroll down to Monkland Village I tested out the new setup and found it to be very flexible and easy to use. The phthalo green blue shade came in handy for the bus and car windshields, and I was able to make a scarlet red by mixing the benzi orange with the pyrol red for the fire hydrant. 

Stroll down to Monkland Village

The Monkland village is a short strip of coffee shops and other boutique stores located in the southeast part of NDG. I took a walk today to get some of that nice sun, although the wind was bitter and chilly. This painting was focused on some interesting old houses converted into retail space. As I painted the bus stopped just long enough to sketch it out, and colour it in by memory.

Bus Stopping, Monkland Village, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, April  2022 (No. 3095)

This scene was looking west towards the monolithic green apartment building that dominates the skyline. I liked how the habs flag was overlapping the apartment building in silhouette. Despite being whipped with the strong icy wind, I hung in there and completed a lot of detail for a small painting. My favorite part aside from the waving flag, is that red car near the right. It looks like it is driving the wrong way on the sidewalk. It was a mistake to paint it that way, it just adds to the chaos! 

Waving Habs Flag, Monkland Village, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, April  2022 (No. 3094a)

Paintings from Old Port

The Old Port is a touristy part of Montreal that has brick roads and plenty of fancy architecture, not to mention t shirt stores. It is not too busy yet with tourists due to the cool weather and the ongoing effects of the pandemic. Local shop and artisans have struggled in the past few years, even the pigeons have less to eat! In the painting you see the Bonsecours market dome at the end of the curve, and of course parked cars and pigeons. I think with a bit more practice I can tighten up the drawing elements and make a decent painting from this vantage point. 

View down St. Paul Street, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, April 2022 (No. 3007)

 

Molson is in the midst of moving their brewery to the south shore, in the painting you see their original factory near the Cartier bridge. Under the bridge is a portion of a giant roller coaster at park la Ronde, the Quebec equivalent of Canada's Wonderland. When I counted the letters in the word Molson there were five, but as I finally went to spell it out there were most definitely six letters! To be fair I also lopped off a letter from my initials.

Molso Factory, with Cartier Bridge, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, April 2022 (No. 3092a)

Here is a typical scene from the Place Jacques Cartier where the vendors, performers and tourists mingle. After I finished the painting I checked out the art on that stand and found one I liked. It turns out that these are photographs the artist took and developed in a dark room with silver bromide technique. He mentioned that he had been doing it for over 50 years and it showed in the quality of the work. Apparently my purchase was the first he sold this season, and I said to him that I hope it picks up with the tourist season.

Silver Photos, Old Port, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, April 2022 (No. 3093)

 

Finally I stopped for one more on the way back to do this scene of Habitat 67 and the nose of ship in port, which coincidentally was named PJD 22. Actually it was called Jeanna or something like that. To paint the weird structure of Habitat 67 I used almost pure Umber (PBr7 from PWC Shin Han), followed by raw umber (PBr7) plus perylene green (PBk31) shadows, and then carbon black/umber for the deep shadows. I knew from the other day that the water would look grey, so I amped up the indo blue (PB60) using it almost pure, and after drying it looked bang on. Habitat 67 is actually a livable, private condo complex after having served as a pavilion during Expo 67.  Today I stopped off at Deserres and picked up a fresh tube of perylene green (Daniel Smith company) and more of the excellent 5 x 7" cold press paper blocks by Fabriano.

Habitat 67 with ship, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, April 2022 (No.3008b)

 

 

 

Quest for Colour

Today I went on a quest for colour in NDG. There must be some, somewhere out there? Across the street, artists completed a new mural on Walkley street last summer. The painting only shows a corner of the mural and some of the parked cars that were reflecting on the colours.

Mural on Walkley Street, watercolour 6 x 8" cold press, April  2022 (No. 2993b)

 

Down the street is the famous Meldrum movers, with their gaudy neon night sign. During the day it looks comparatively dull, but the red, yellow and green popped against the brick and cream colours.

Meldrum Movers Sign, watercolour 6 x 8" cold press, April  2022 (No. 2991a)

 

A little further down Sherbrooke street is the Persian supermarket called Akhavan where we sometimes buy nuts, tea and dairy. The awning , a brilliant red contrasted with the blue-green winterized entrance. When the weather warms up they will remove the structure.

Akhavan Supermarket, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, April  2022 (No. 3091b)

 

This scene was a celebration of yellow and orange. They were redoing the bricks on this building, and the walls were right down to the foam insulation layer. To create the yellow insulation, yellow ochre (PY43) was darkened slightly with perylene green (PBk31). It started to snow/rain midway so I had to get it done in a hurry and head home.

New Bricks, watercolour 6 x 8" cold press, April  2022 (No. 2992b)