Gas Station #19, St. Laurent Blvd, Little Italy, Montreal

Gas stations are seldom thought of as artistic subjects although there are some notable exceptions such as the painting called "Gas, 1940", by Edward Hopper an American oil painter. He captured the nostalgia of a vintage gas station at twilight, with an eerie loneliness under artificial lights. Recently I discovered Hiroshige, the Japanese master print designer from the 19th century. His work along with other prints were collected by the French impressionist painters including Monet, who appreciated the excellent compositions and colours of the work, hanging them in his drawing room at Giverny where the prints still hang. So I had this idea to work on a series of paintings based on "19 Odd Gas Stations of Montreal" inspired by Hiroshige's famous series called "The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō". In fact there are a lot more than 19 gas stations in Montreal but I wanted to aim for something doable in one year. Gas station # 1 was the gas station across my street, and #2 was the one by the NDG Canadian Tire. I skipped the naming to #19 for this one because it is all the way across Montreal in Little Italy, so maybe it is the last in the series geographically. 

Gas Station #19 features a Petro Canada landscaped with shrubberies and an emotive tree hanging onto its leaves- one of the branches leans down to use the gas pump! Integrated with the background, the gas station blends with a church making it look like the stained glass windows and spires are part of the petrol pump. Bitter cold wind and a blue sky frame the scene.

5 x 7" rough press (block), watercolour December 2019

Hiroshige's Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi bridge and Atake, Japan

"Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi bridge and Atake" is the name of a famous wood block print by the artist Hiroshige from the 19th century. It was made more famous by Vincent Van Gogh who made a copy of it using oil paints. Woodblock printing is an ancient method of mass producing artwork and stenciled fabrics. In 19th century Japan, woodblock prints were extremely popular among tourists and the growing middle-class. Hiroshige designed around 5000 pictures. His did the drawing and composition for a publisher, who would then send it to a copyist, a woodblock cutter, a printer, and finally distributor. The team could print up to 10,000 copies of each picture!

Lately I have been working a lot on drawing skills using a book called The complete Guide to Figure Drawing for Comics and Graphic Novels by Daniel Cooney, and by copying Hiroshige pictures using pencil. This painting was the first time I tried to copy a Hiroshige print, of course I had to pick the one Van Gogh copied. I measured out the proportions and carefully made a pencil drawing on hot press 140 lbs watercolour paper. I was surprised how much detail there was in such small spaces, and how rich the colours really are in the print. Painting the streaks of rain took some courage, after painstaking work I had to deface the picture with lines of gray paint! I signed my initials, and my impression of Hiroshige's signature in the top right.


This image is 24 x 16 cm, the paper about 2.5cm wider and 2cm longer around the margins.(The original print is listed at 37cm x 25cm)

House and Telephone Pole, London Ontario

Most landscape scenes have many elements that an artist can choose to keep or omit. When painting on location with small formats like this one, you have to omit some things just to be able to finish it and fit everything on the paper. Despite the size and time limitations, I managed to fit quite a bit into this painting- the houses in the background have convincing textures and windows, the trees nicely abbreviated, the fences and telephone pole complete with wires are depicted in the foreground. What caught my eye here was the interesting contrast between the rich violet shadow of the house's facade, and the dark ultramarine paint on the window frames and trim.

Based on the picture this looks like spring, but I really can't remember when or what year I painted this. I have a vague awareness that this was very late in the London, Ontario paintings, it could have even been one of the last ones I did there from that era. I went to Western University and lived there from 1994 until 2004. During this time I painted landscapes from about 1996 until the time I left. Being young and bold I also painted all seasons including winter!

5 x 7" hot press watercolour, 2001-2004?

CN Tower, Rainy Day, Toronto

When it rains, watercolour painting becomes very challenging! I can see the raindrops in this painting, they landed when the paint was wet and created little snowflake effects. This scene was done in downtown Toronto, I am not even sure when exactly, but I recall painting about half a dozen paintings around the Spadina and U of T campus area.  There is an amazing amount of detail in such a small picture, all the overhead tram car wires, the tracks, window sills, leaves, even a red sign on the post. And oh yeah, the CN tower is hidden in the background!

The perspective lines in this painting are surprisingly good considering I did not do any preparatory work and used no pencil drawing underneath. I read a book recently from the library, it was called "Watercolor Secrets" by Robin Berry. She talked a lot about preparatory work and using photographs as source material. It made me think, if I had taken a photo of this scene maybe in the studio I could have merged this small study with a larger more accomplished work. I find landscape painting in a studio to be boring- it is hard to capture the feel you had when the tram car was rumbling by, the people were looking over your shoulder, and the rain started coming down.

5 x 7" cold press watercolour, Early 2000

Sea Bird, Florida, USA

This painting depicts a kind of sea bird living on the Florida coast. It looks like a heron or egret. Animals are always difficult to paint on location since they tend to move away. In this case it must have stood still long enough to capture the colour, shape and texture of the feathers. The rest of the painting depicts some characteristic stormy weather and choppy water of what is probably Sarasota bay.

I recently borrowed a book on Japanese wood block prints called One Hundred Famous Views of Edo which was begun by the famous print artist Hiroshige in the 19th century. Many of the French impressionist painters, and Van Gogh, were familiar with those types of prints and even collected them. When  I did this painting I wasn't really aware of Japanese prints, it just stuck me that there were a few similarities with the vertical picture format and the unusual foreground composition. One could say this painting has a birds eye view.

5 x 7 " cold press 2002?

NDG, Tennis Court in Winter

Perspective matters when painting landscapes. I recently got a book on perspective from the cultural center library and started to read about all the different kind of perspective. In fact, this painting was done earlier this year at the end of Winter in Parc Somerled looking at the tennis courts that were thawing out. I used a trick to get the perspective right on the fence and trees and walkway: I held up the painting in front of the scene and made small marks on the edge of the painting to know where the lines would cross. Notice the top left of the fence behind the trees intersects with the edge of the painting around the middle, whereas the top right of the fence intersects near the top of the painting. So the fence is on a shifting diagonal. The book recommended the same trick so I felt smart that I had already figured it out on my own! But the book has a ton of information to learn, it is by Matthew Brehm who is also a watercolour landscape painter, it is called Painting Perspective, How to See it and How to Apply it.

7 x 10" hot press (block).  2019

Mailbox, University of Western Ontario, London Ontario

London Ontario has plenty of interesting landscapes to paint...I just had some trouble finding them! But no matter where I was, something caught my eye. In this case it was the back side of a mailbox, with the University of Western Ontario entrance structure in the background. I was actually sitting within the campus looking outwards towards Richmond Street (seen cutting across the scene behind the entrance structure). The mailbox was a simple geometric shape with interesting variations on red-orange. I like the foliage details, there is a lot of variety in the different greens. Compare the rich emeralds of the manicured campus lawn to the rugged yellow-green of the wild growth in the background. The shadow of a tree is suggested on the right middle.

I was not big on putting dates on the paintings back then, so I can only assume this was done in the early 00's just before I left for Montreal. I can sort of tell based on the ambition and skill level it took to accomplish this, but it also has a rough finish to it, so that puts it around that date. 

5x7 " Cold press, 2001-2003 ?