Memory of supermoon over fishing village

 

On the way back from our walk along the boardwalk, some passer-bys said, 'do you see the moon?' and we turned around to see something like this painting. The moon seemed large on the horizon, and it glowed with an amber-orange light. A strong vertical reflection beamed down onto the harbor. Underneath the moon was the fishing village, partially illuminated. In the last light, a heron was finishing up its day of catching fish, and eventually flew off. I almost composed the heron flying past the moon but that idea seemed a little cheesy and distracting from the spectacular lunar effect. The painting was done from memory, as we gazed at the scene I tried to memorize the details, although I did use google to find a picture of the North Rustico fishing village from this approximate vantage point albeit during the day. Its a neat painting, this year has been pretty good for lunar events after the total eclipse.

Supermoon over fishing village memory, watercolour 6 x 10" cold press, August  2024 (No. 3912)

More scenes of Westhaven neighborhood

 

I did a painting of this exact scene recently but it was a pile of rubbish in the foreground. Since then, the community garden people have planted a whole row of decorative flowers which grew quite well. A few of the old timers water them and the plants get sun all day here. I made sure to preserve the brightest possible reds and yellows, and maintain the white paper in order to make the flowers pop. The rest of the scene is done quick with neutral brown, green and yellow, while the fire hydrant anchors the composition. When I say something anchors the composition, it is an element that keeps your eye moving around the subject matter. Without the fire hydrant, the diagonal road element would be distracting and cause the eye to wander off the picture plane. Its actually a pretty unusual composition this painting, most of the elements of interest are lined up in a vertical row, but somehow it works.

Community yellow white red flowers, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2024 (No. 4005a)

 

How many times have I painted this store? A lot, and from many different angles. This time, I am looking through the facade from a side view standing across the street. Getting the perspective right is always difficult, I hold my brush up to the scene to approximate the angle. Instead of fruit, there was a pile of boxes out front, but I wanted the painting to be a bit more inviting so made ambiguous red orange and green fruits instead. The red thing in the middle is a mailbox.

Fruiterie Cite perspective, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2024 (No. 4005b)

Bus over canal and bridge chaos

I tried this scene before of the city bus on the bridge from the other angle but did not quite capture the effect I was after. This time, I composed the scene on the vertical format, and eliminated any kind of foreground to give a feeling of plunging into the canal. Just a thin layer of metal with concrete seems to hold up the city bus. Actually, I like the way the bus and bridge and canal are all melded together. It was a very difficult painting to pull off, it helped that I bought a new Holbien #4 the other day which gives sharp lines. This bridge connects Lasalle/Upper Lachine to Ville st Pierre.

Bus over canal cloudy day, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August  2024 (No. 3997b)

 

Looking to the right, and there was a view of where the bridge meets the ground, and part of the small park in the foreground. A tree anchors the composition, and I put my initials in place of the graffiti that was there in real life. I stared at this scene for quite some time trying to figure out how to paint it, then I just figured, you got to paint it the way it is. With the new Holbein brush I outlined most of the key details with black paint, then went about filling it in piece by piece. For a small painting it packs a lot of visual interest and really conveys the chaos of the bridge at rush hour.

Bridge chaos, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August  2024 (No. 3998a)

Campus complicated

At lunch hour I sat in some shade and made a painting of the facade of the Science Pavilion in relative peace. Until a student orientation tour group showed up and sat all around me and ate a pizza lunch, they talked a lot but it didn't bother me much. I've looked at this scene many times and never saw a way to paint it, until today when I thought, just paint it ugly. The complicated mishmash of grey metal, black cladding, yellow-orange brick and green tinted glass makes for a chaotic painting. But in the end it came together into a decent painting. 

Campus complicated, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August  2024 (No. 3998b)

Eaton Center

The last painting was this chaotic scene  just up the street from where I painted Sunflowers in the City. When I saw the Sunflower scene, I said to myself, if you bike past these scene without painting it, you may as well turn in your watercolour kit and retire. Luckily I did the painting, and got one more iconic scene done of the Eaton Center. The size of the sign was exaggerated so that I could do the brushwork, although the more distant sign is more or less to scale. To paint the traffic, it was a matter of applying a series of interlocking 'mushroom' shapes, then applying the red, green, and various washes. A row of pedestrians can also be seen across the street. To be honest I was glad to be standing by my bike painting these scene rather than sitting in one of those cars!

Eaton Center, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August  2024 (No. 4004b)

In the zone, downtown Montreal

You can probably guess which dépanneur brand this is, judging from the yellow and orange sign at bottom. A prominent ATM sign helped anchor the composition in the lower half. But the main interest was the distinct apartment on top, it looked like a retrofitted Victorian-era architecture sitting atop a busy street. I fit my bike between a sidewalk planter and the pedestrian thoroughfare, must have been a hundred people walk by and a few talked to me. It took awhile to do this painting but it was not hard. I established the outlines with carbon black, then worked through the various washes and textural elements. It was one of the scenes that was so good, all I had to do was get it down on paper. Funny thing, is that ATM is an English acronym, automated teller machine, it is supposed to be DAB in French distributeur automatique de billets.

Distinct apartment over dépanneur, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August  2024 (No. 4003b)

 

When I took a little detour after working, I didn't expect to make this many paintings. At any rate, I discovered Hope Street and this cool mural across from Hector Toe Blake Park. The mural was marked with Roiks ?, Achoa ? and Peter-McGill who were presumably the artists. The question mark is because they used a small but neat 'tag' which is a graffiti artist squiggle that represents their names. Its not often I paint other people's art, but I wanted to understand the colour combinations, which were yellow, yellow-orange, violet (on the magenta side) and some darker blue-violets. The rest of the mural had a woman sitting on the ground, and she seemed to have some meaning. The rest of the scene was like blocks of lego. I captured the asphalt with the same purple mix used in the mural plus carbon black, and some blue for reflections. Actually, I echoed all of the mural colours in the rest of the painting by using muted or pastel version where possible.

Hope Street Mural, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2024 (No. 4002b)

 

I was just hallucinating by now, and mostly because of the heat and humidity! The buildings were done in a semi-invisible way where the sides seem to melt into the sky. A few lucky backwashes made the bus seem to glow. To complete the painting, a large graffiti initial was added and some green-yellow grass overlaid on the mostly brownish foreground. I think the lightness of the buildings is neat considering how big and heavy they really are, and the foreground elements provide a chunky, textured contrast.

Cityscape with STM bus, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2024 (No. 4004a)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Canadian Centre for Architecture

 

No signs here, the building on the left is the end of a very long and serious looking building called the Canadian Centre for Architecture. Ironically, you have these kind of pre-fab looking condos surrounding it from different eras. The black and white ones are brand new, the brick one is probably 1990's era, and the tile and balcony job on the edge is likely 1960's. Hopefully I did the CCA building some justice here. 

CCA Building and condos, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2024 (No. 4001b)

 

This was part of the fancy facade on the other side of the CCA building, it looks like a refurbished old stately manor, or perhaps some expensive government building from yesteryear. It was too challenging and architecture is not my favorite thing to paint but every now and then I will give it a go. This one would require a big piece of paper but I was only carrying 5 x7" today on my bike.

Fancy Facade, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2024 (No. 4002a)

Its hard to capture the whole building, this segment would be about one third of it. I put my initials on one of the big wall posters... so now they are having a showing of my artwork.

CCA Building frontal view, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August  2024 (No. 4003a)