Old and New, Lachine Canal

With nothing but sun and blue skies in the forecast it looks like a string of good painting days lies ahead. Today it was hot and hazy, with plenty of smog on the horizon. This scene shows the old train bridge that is long defunct, and some of the brand new condo sky scrapers in the background, still with the cranes on top. To depict the contrasting shapes and colours, I did the background painting first to near completion, then painted over with thick applications of red ochre (PR101/PBr7), indo blue (PB60), and carbon black (PBk6). It was fun to apply such dark colours on top the the light and airy condo building. The red ochre paint contains the same chemical (partially hydrated iron oxide) that is found in rust, so its easy to get the colour right! Although I also applied red-orange (PO73) and orange (PO62) to give the brighter pops of colour on the rusted iron structure. 

Old Bridge New Condo, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, July 2024 (No. 3869b)

Two scenes by the overpass

On a quick trip to the bike store to pick up a part I made some paintings of two scenes by the highway 720 overpass. Here you see a BBQ on an artsy brick patio surrounded by tiger lilies and other greenery. It was open to the public, although the BBQ looked to be in disuse; the painting makes the BBQ look a lot better than it did in real life. In the background, instead of a sky, you see the side of the overpass with some vines and trees growing. There was also a row of park benches. All this was built up during the Turcot project, it is a small gesture and really helps the local community have a bit of space to do things.   

BBQ by overpass, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2024 (No. 3930)

 

Here is a scene of the overpass, I am standing in the parking lot of the bike shop looking west. The sky had some interesting clouds today. There is actually a large field of wildflowers all around here, but I was just on lunch hour and went back to the laboratory after this. We are doing a small project to learn more about how different kind of oils affect leukemia cell growth.

Overpass, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2024 (No. 3929b)

Walk in Bolton part 3

At the bottom of Humberlea there is a small bridge going over the river on King highway. There were these fluffy seed pods bursting but I could not quite get the effect right. The heat was really getting to me at this point, but I pressed on. This epic walk was barely four hours but I managed to crank out a dozen small paintings. The key was to not be too picky about the scenes, and get them done quick.

Bridge and wildflowers, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2024 (No. 3926b)

 

At the end of mill park there is a bridge on Queen highway over the Humber river, with a commissioned mural on its flanks. The path goes under the bridge and pops on on the other side, but I was just sitting on a nice bench with shade doing this painting. The colour of the water is bang on, that caramel beige tone. I can't recall how I mixed it, but it was likely yellow ochre (PY43), red ochre (PR101), and a green mix (PY97 +  PG36). To make the cool brick colours, the lighter portion has to be on the yellow side, and the shadow more on the violet side. Quin purple (PV55) is quite useful in bringing the colour mixtures to the cool neutral point.

Under bridge with mural, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2024 (No. 3928a)

 

Heading back, I took a look downtown behind me, and decided to make one last painting on the day. I've painted this scene many times before, this time I accentuated the walking path on the left, and created a neat shadow element on the cars going along Queen highway. Two days later I would be on a city bus heading down this road on the way back to Montreal. My parents enjoyed the visit and they have a few new paintings on their wall now including the Barns with Cornfield, the Steinberg train track, Shadows over Ramp NDG, and I left cloud over Trenholme for a friend who wanted to buy it!

Final view downtown, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2024 (No. 3928b)

 

Walk in Bolton part 2

At the end of the open field in Bolton, there was a good view of the purple cones. They had magenta petals that were falling off, and spiky protrusions all around. The rest of the field was filled with yellow and white wildflowers, including brown eyed Susan's. The cone shapes and colours were so delicate that I had to find a view were they were set against a simple background, such as the sky and cloud. The dragon fly had passed much earlier in the walk, but I memorized its shape and colours to include it in a later painting. Old wooden fences could be seen throughout the field, it was an old farm no doubt.

Purple cone with Dragonfly, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2024 (No. 3925b)

Winding my way down the trail led to King highway, which has a sidewalk leading back into town. I turned off towards Humber river and found this view featuring the river banks. The water was a coffee-toffee colour and sparkling under the sun. The colour was a mix of yellow ochre (PY43), umber (PBr7) and some greenish mix (PY97 + PG36).

Humber River and banks, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2024 (No. 3926a)

Bolton was founded around a mill, which would have been a gathering place for farmers and locals. What remains of the dam was remediated so that fish could swim across it, the hope was to have salmon spawning again. You see the remnants of it in the painting, the water gently cascading between the old stone works.

Old Mill Dam, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2024 (No. 3927a)

Not too far downstream from the last scene there were some very small rapids, the drop here is less than a meter. Painting cascading water is one of the hardest things to do especially with watercolour. You have the reflections, the river bottom, the foam, and the sky all melding into a complex tapestry broken up by wet rocks.  The best I ever got it was in Mount Sutton where I painted a small brook. Maybe I can find a similar scene in Montreal but its rare since all the rivers and creeks tend to be in pipes.

Small rapids, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2024 (No. 3927b)

Walk in Bolton part 1

North hill Bolton is basically a large subdivision with a high school and elementary school in the middle. This scene is the sidewalk on Kingsview drive heading to the high school, the wildflowers on the left lead down into the valley and forest.

Sidewalk Kingsview drive, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2024 (No. 3923a)

 

For years and years I walked down this path to attend school, it curves around the edge of the valley and emerges on Kingsview drive. Some interesting flowering vines were growing on the fences, and much of the greenery was quite lush after all the rain. 

Walking path, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2024 (No. 3923b)

 

A manicured walking trail snakes through the forest roughly following the contours of the river down below. Looking down the ridge line gave a bird's-eye view of the river. To create the image of the river, it had to be kept at a high value, almost white. Then, the foliage and trees were added to create the illusion of depth. By varying the size and position of the tree trunks, the downward view came to life.

River in Forest, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2024 (No. 3924)

 

After walking up a steep hill, the path turned out into an open field with a small pond. There were a lot of birds, insects and the path was mostly overgrown. It was getting to be very hot and humid by this time of day, so I made this painting while still standing under a shady tree.

Path into open field, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2024 (No. 3925a)

 

Scenes from rural Caledon by bicycle

Reaching a train crossing, I stopped to drink some water and make a painting of the livestock train, probably meant for transporting cows or pigs, although it was sitting idle. Painting the train tracks was by now familiar after painting train tracks in NDG quite often. The rest of the painting was fairly straightforward, cloudy sky, green trees and some wild flowers. The flowers are done by applying the green and dark yellow leaves, leave white space, then daubing in some yellow (PY97) and pink (PR122).  

Livestock train and wild flowers, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2024 (No. 3921a)

 

I felt obliged to paint these hay bails, with he rickety old fences. It was the closest I could get to them standing on the side of the road with the bike. The hay bails are done with combinations of yellow ochre (PY43) orange (PO62) red ochre (PR101) and a bit of burnt umber (PBr7), careful to retain the light highlights on top of the hay bails. Monet was famous for painting hay stacks, its something I would like to try more of if I can get access to some hay up close.

Hay bails with fence, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2024 (No. 3921b)

 

An area called Gibson lake is more like Gibson swamp, or last time I rode out there it was Gibson desert since there was no water. Ontario got a good dumping of rain the last few weeks, so the area was quite full of water and teeming with birds like ducks, geese, and red winged black birds like the one in this tree. The swamp had an orange-rust colour perhaps due to algae growth.

Gibson swamp west, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2024 (No. 3922a)

 

Looking to the other side of the street the swamp showed a bit more water, and had abundant lily pads. I tried to capture the colours and textures quickly; the heat and humidity was bearing down on me at this point. The darker greens are perylene green (PBk31) and orange yellow (PY110). Perylene green is sold as perylene black but it has a distinct green hue.

Gibson swamp east, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2024 (No. 3917b)

 

 I did a scene here many years ago, around 1996, its a painting I blogged about recently. In the 2024 version I used a landscape (horizontal) format, and used magenta (PR122) with blue (PB15) to make the delicate violet colour in the foreground. In '96 I used french ultramarine (PB29) and alizarin crimson (PR83) to make violet, but I dropped both of those paints many years ago due to stability problems. Ultramarine vanishes with weak acid exposure, and alizarin vanishes with mild light exposure. The newer pigments are lightfast meaning they have good durability to light, and they resist acid.

Field with with flowers Columbia way, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2024 (No. 3922b)

Bolton Farm Scenes

Bolton as some of you know well is a large suburban community north of Toronto that is protected more or less by a sort of green belt. As such, the outskirts of town are composed of vast expanses of farm land or low density housing. Some houses sit on acres of land. This painting shows one of the few functional farms on Mount Hope road, it looked to be in good repair and was probably related to the Kolb hill farms. It was surrounded by a vast corn field. I composed the scene in an abstract manner by compressing the structures into a vertical format.

Barns and Silo, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, July 2024 (No. 3891)

 

This is the same farm from a different angle and without the red house. The painting was mostly meant to feature the corn field, with the farm set off center to show off some of the distant tree elements. It looks little greenish in the photo that I took, the original has a crisper look to it. We framed that one and hung it on the wall in Bolton.

Barns silo and corn field, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, July 2024 (No. 3892a)

A long and wide hay field led up to an equally proportioned barn. The hay had been cut and was dried out, which created a raw sienna colour that I made with yellow ochre and red ochre (PY43 + PR101). Raw sienna is a great pigment but I stopped carrying it on my location palette since its a bit redundant with the mixture I just mentioned. All of these farm and rural countryside paintings were made using my Dad's bike he leant to me, it has a similar backpack on it that I used to set up the paints like I do when in Montreal. The riding was tougher in Bolton, massive rolling hills made for a constant challenge, although there were not many stop signs or red lights to deal with!

Barn and hay field, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2024 (No. 3919b)