Scenes around the cabin*

The cabin we stayed at had an asterix because it was more of a lake house than a cabin. A cabin is four walls made from logs with a bed and a table inside. A lake house on the other hand has electricity, heating, running water, flushing toilettes and WiFi. Most people would pick the lake house version! To get to the cottage, there was a steep switch back road, you see it on the right half of the painting, with the driveway descending into the forest on the left half of the painting. The road was in pretty good shape since the town maintains it, and the cottage owners recently redid the driveway with tightly packed gravel. To paint this, the composition was key, capturing the swerving ess shape loading to the hairpin downward turn required some accurate brush work.

Switch back road, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August  2024 (No. 3957b)

 

Capturing a big tree on a small piece of paper is always an interesting challenge. I established the top portion of the tree first to get the shape right, than extended the trunk down as far as possible, using the background to indicate how tall the tree was. The bark of the tree was thick with a pale green moss or lichen that was flaking off. Impressionist-like brush strokes were used to fill in the rest of the textures. There are only about four paints used for something like this, yellow (PY154), green (PG36), dark green (PBk31) and red-brown (PR101).

Big tree, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August  2024 (No. 3966a)

 

The freshly painted yellow trim played well off of the faux-wood navy blue siding. A rustic fish carving, probably carved from an old wooden buoy or chunk of a dock sat next to the door, with its nose pointed to the lake.

Wooden fish near door, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August  2024 (No. 3959b)

 

 

Scenes around the shore

Unfortunately it was too wet to enjoy the hammock, but you get the idea! The owners of the cottage invested a lot into some really great renovations, and they built a small guest cabin next door complete with a trampoline and hammock. Considering how moist everything was, I had to find a bit of dry ground to stand on, and change the painting approach a little. The hammock was painted first, and the water just sketched in to suggest a lake. Had I painted the lake first, it would have never dried in time. The foreground was Group of Seven inspired. It turned out pretty well, an iconic Canadian image for sure.

Hammock by lake, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August  2024 (No. 3956)

 

As the sun burned off some of the moisture from the atmosphere, I could take on more complex scenes like this one. What seems like a simple rock and trees painting is a puzzle of limbs and terrain. In the background is a small bay, in the foreground is the impressive glacial boulder with moss and shine on it from the recent rain. The trees had a dark yellow with cross hatched bark. There must be half a dozen or more layers on the rock just to get all the colours, textures and reflections. Most of the area had this general appearance. Like Verdun, green and brown!

Rock and trees by lake, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August  2024 (No. 3958b)

 

There are a lot more paintings from the trip but I will end the blogging today on this one. Painting ferns is quite challenging in watercolour because they are very bright and light yellow-chartreuse with infinitesimally complex leaf structures. I could only suggest their textures and colours with some simple washes and over painting. When I paint a motif for the first time I try something, then if I get another chance I may refine the idea, or try something different.  The bright yellow spot captures that feeling of light coming through the treetops.

Ferns and Rocks, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August  2024  (No. 3959a)

 

 

 

 

 

Lac du Coeur, various conditions

North of Montreal there are many small mountains and fresh water lakes created by glaciers tens of thousands of years ago. Giant boulders lie in the midst of a flat forest as if dropped from the sky. This scene shows Lac du Coeur, a typical lake that can be found in Quebec or Ontario. The weather finally improved and I got to do this painting on a nice evening before sunset. Studying the hillsides I came to appreciate the variations on yellow, chartreuse and green... each tree had its own colour and texture. This painting was all about the subtleties, such as the pale yellow and purple clouds, the blue to cyan sky transition, the tree variations, and a complex yet smooth reflection in the water.

Lac du Coeur nice evening, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August  2024 (No. 3955)

 

It was raining on arrival, but I found a spot under the front balcony and made a painting of the wharf and rainy lake. The mountains were shrouded in mist, almost disappearing into the distance. The greens were made with perylene green (PBk31), even though it has a black pigment code (Bk) it appears to be a dark green. The water appeared to be a lilac shade, fading to grey in the distance.

Rain on the Lake, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August  2024 (No. 3958a)

 

Taking advantage of the relative lack of mosquitos this time of year, I made a quick painting of the lake at night.  It was so dark out that I used the headlamp to illuminate my gear which made the night vision difficult. The sky was still a little cloudy, but stars were visible through the gloom. Apparently there was a major meteor shower on the weekend but we could not see any evidence of it. The painting used a lot of indo blue (PB60), perylene green (PBk36), and carbon black (PBk6). There is no formula for a painting like this, you just go for it and hope for the best. The paint was very gooey which required a deft touch on the brush to avoid a mess! 

Lake at night, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August  2024 (No. 3957a)

 

 

Tree roots by road

We had a quick weekend getaway at a cottage on Lac du Coeur, which is normally about an hour and a half drive north of Montreal but a little more with traffic. This morning I did the last painting of the trip of these tree roots next to the road that goes around the lake. Cutting the road away leads to erosion of the forest floor which exposes the tree roots, and causes trees to fall over eventually. The main inspiration was Van Gogh's 1890 painting called Tree Roots, which some say could have been his last painting. When I walked past this scene it reminded me of his painting and I thought to give it a go and see what the idea was. In watercolour it was a rather difficult painting to pull off, I had to rely on my abstract painting practice, such as the palette cleanser series, in order to create the complex root structures. In the spirit of Van Gogh, the roots were infused with blue, magenta, red and violet. It was fun to paint and a good way to cap off the trip. There were enough paintings for quite a few blogs!

Tree roots by road, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, August  2024 (No. 3898)

Sunset on Girouard

It was another case of looking for something to paint after work... the sun is starting to go down earlier and earlier which is a sure sign of the seasons. This painting shows the sun set on Girouard which is near the Decarie expressway, I am looking north west roughly. The guard rail was illuminated and cast a neat shadow on the foreground road. At first I was thinking about how to paint this scene, then I just told myself to stop thinking, the only way to paint this is to paint this!  

Sunset on Girouard, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August  2024 (No. 3952)

 

Just before the sun sets, it can be difficult to even notice that everything is getting darker. Your visual system adapts to the low light conditions. To tell, I look at car headlights or street lamps like you see in the painting. I just wanted to see if I could paint the illusion of the street lamp looking bright against a dusty blue sky. To mix the sky blue I used blue paint with some additional 'gunk' from the palette. Gunk is the greyish, greenish or purplish stuff that accumulates in the corner, and it is good for cutting the chroma or increasing darkness. The gunk in question was probably yellow ochre (PY43), red ochre (PR101) and some magenta (PV55).

Lamp at dusk, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August  2024 (No. 3953a)

 

This alley scene was the first one I did, the sun was still about 1 hour from setting. You can see the highlights are less orange than during sunset, and the shadows have more blue. In the old days I would avoid painting near sundown or at dusk because it was too hard... there is little time to catch the effects, its usually moist, and it requires some knowledge of value and chroma, two things I knew little about historically. Its been a journey over the past four years, one thing I learned was how the sky changes and importantly, which paints can be mixed to capture the effect. With yesterday's 'Sunset on Walkley' and the earlier 'Sunset with fire truck', its been all phases of dusk to sunset.

Sundown in alley, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August  2024 (No. 3954a)

Sundown in NDG

On what used to be a large grassy field they built an extremely large block of condos with a grocery store at street level, filling in the plot to the edges of the sidewalk. Just a few decorative trees were planted around the behemoth. I was riding my bike around NDG looking for some scenes to paint before the sun went down and found this impressive view of the condo block with the sun just behind it, low in the sky.

Sundown on Cote st Luc, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2024 (No. 3951b)

I stopped up in the Decarie Square parking lot were I made a painting from a similar spot in the spring melt, during the pandemic. Its not a spot I go to paint very often, but it does provide some wide angles and very dense urban landscapes. On the right is the Decarie, with the ever-present traffic zooming through an underpass. The sun was slowly getting obscured from the clouds, by the time I finished this painting it was totally overcast. Luckily, I caught a good sunset illuminating an apartment block on Walkley street on the way home.  

Sundown at Decarie Square, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August  2024 (No. 3937b)

Sunset on Walkley

On Walkley street we have a very tall and impressive looking apartment block that catches the sun when it sets. The illuminated portion was done with almost pure orange paint (PO62), set up by the dusky blue-violet sky and the brownish shadows. The dark yellow and green trees provide contrast and really make the highlight area pop. When I saw this view, just outside of our condo, it was quite inspiring and presented a challenge of getting the highlight area and the sky colour just right.

Sunset on Walkley, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August  2024 (No. 3942b)