Jolicoeur Metro Station, green line, southwest borough, Cote st Paul

On the weekend I made it down to Jolicoeur station after perusing google maps the night before to find good places to sit. When I arrived, the entire station was surrounded by a construction fence complete with blue tarpaulin blocking the view. Finally I found a spot to sit where the entrance was visible, the overhang had a bright orange underneath, and the rest of the structure was a black monolith. I wanted this scene to be inviting, so the construction barriers are minimized in the design, and the sidewalk stones lead the viewer to the entrance. The only signs of life are a lone tree and some grass in the cracks. 7 x 10" cold press, watercolour, June 2020

Resigning to the situation, next I painted the construction barrier with the metro building tucked behind it. The was a gratuitous amount of graffiti on the tarpaulin, so I added my own signature scrawling over the concrete support. The building itself was actually a very dark tinted glass that could be easily captured with raw umber, carbon black, and tints of yellow ochre. Storm clouds were brewing but luckily the rain held off. 7 x 10" cold press, watercolour, June 2020

Wanting to capture the orange overhang, I found a spot in the corner by the back entrance to the station but unfortunately it smelled of urine so I remained standing for the painting. Big storm clouds loomed in the distance giving the trees an eerie glow that I captured with mix of yellow and black that created a greenish tint. Getting the angles right was tough, I had made a preliminary sketch to figure it out. After my experience  at Angrignon, I put benzimida orange on my palette and it came in handy here for the orange roof. These 70's era stations sure like to use orange.
In the background, barely discernible, are tennis courts which were in full swing. 5 x 6.5" cold press, watercolour, June 2020

Here is the sketch book page that I completed on location shortly before doing the paintings. I do not use pencil or pen on the actual watercolour paper, these preliminary sketches are in a separate book. They have been a great help for capturing the complex angles and architecture. I plan to combine the studies into 'The 27 stations of the green line metro, Montreal' series, station #3 Jolicoeur.

Ultramarine Blue, some thoughts

Recently I learned that ultramarine blue can degrade from even mild acids, called ultramarine sickness. I tried to avoid it for a few weeks, but the colour is just too darn good. Ultramarine blue in a blue-violet pigment chemically similar to the ancient blue pigment called lapis lazuli. Being a blue-violet pigment that it absorbs virtually all green light, and most of the red light leaving only an intense blue-violet. The retina sees colours with three different cones that actually work together to see the full rainbow. The cone that specializes in detecting blue light is the S cone, named after short wavelengths of blue light. Ultramarine blue also reflects a small amount of red light, which stimulates the L cone (long red wavelength) a tiny bit, which creates a blue-violet sensation. For comparison, the magenta squares in the top left and bottom right reflect a little blue light, but more red light, creating violet-magenta in your retina because of increased L cone activity. I also included a square of cyan (blue-green) above the signature box, it is the same blue I use to paint skies, but here it appears green when surrounded by a sea of blue. I love looking up close at this painting, I want to make a giant 40 inch painting of ultramarine blue, and just stare at it to give my S cones some exercise. 8 x10" acid free paper pad, watercolour. June 2020

Another reason ultramarine blue is so good, is that it is the perfect  complementary colour for iron oxide earth colours like burnt sienna, in this case iron oxide red PR101. They neutralize into interesting greys when mixed, and can produce near black at mass tone. The little design on the right is meant to symbolize how much these two colours intertwine. 1.5 x 11" cold press, watercolour, June 2020

What's the catch? Any form of ultramarine blue including the natural mineral forms are susceptible to mild acids even vinegar or apparently air pollution. You would think with a name like ULTRA MARINE, it would be tougher than that!! I have french ultramarine from winsor and newton in a giant tube (that's how much I used this colour, I bought the 37 mL size), and recently bought a slightly different version from The Stoneground Paint Company in pan form, along with some ultramarine pink a derivative that looks the shade of bubblegum. To test it again, I painted out carbon black, ultramarine pink, ultramarine blue, french ultramarine blue, manganese violet, and iron oxide red (from left to right in the scan). On the left of each paint out I applied a small drop of concentrated vinegar, on the right just water. Clearly, the three ultramarine paints (#2, 3, 4) lost their colour from the vinegar exposure, while the other colours were unaffected. Manganese violet was slightly disturbed but it was seen in the water group too, meaning that the paint was easily lifted by the capillary action of evaporating water. Carbon black and iron oxide were indestructible of course.

What to make of this? Clearly watercolour paintings were not meant to be cleaned with vinegar or water. They are supposed to be protected behind UV coated glass and sealed at the back. I can protect it from vinegar, but what about air pollution. Sadly, I'm going to phase out ultramarine blue, luckily these days there are good options like phthalo blue which comes in red and sapphire shades.

Iron Oxide Alley, Somerled Avenue, NDG, Montreal

After working in my kitchen for a long time today I headed outside for some sun, painting, and lots of noise. Somerled avenue is getting back to its busy, congested ways with plenty of buses construction trucks, fire trucks, loud cars, etc. This scene was perfect for a few reasons, there was a bench to sit on, it was side lit with strong afternoon sun, and it had a lot of earth colours that  I wanted to practice. In fact, the fence between the building was likely painted with a red iron oxide paint, and the bricks are coloured by iron oxide pigments, the same ones I have in my kit. My signature is once again hidden on a sign, it was actually a health clinic so the heart was actually there!

To capture the brilliant orange brick I used venetian red (PR101) with some red iron oxide (PR101), the fence was pure red iron oxide, and the bricks on the right building were burnt umber (PBr7), some red iron oxide, yellow ochre (PY43), and a touch of phthalo blue (PB15). The large shadowed brick was venetian red with some carbon black, it didn't take much to make it very dark. These paints definitely carry the colour-intensity of the scene. As usual, the blue sky was phthalo blue (green shade PB15:3) at the horizon, and gradually blended in with indo blue (PB60) towards to the upper sky. The shape that the sky produces is an off center "T" that is very pleasing. A lone tree and some grass in the sidewalk cracks is the only sign of nature. Also, the roof of the left building was once painted orange but it was sun-bleached. 7 x 10" rough press, watercolour, June 2020

3 yellow blocks, NDG, Montreal

Yesterday I tried a scene with bright yellow paint on asphalt and it went pretty well but the yellow was too bright. I found this scene down on the same location where I did the definitive Pandemic Blues painting a few months ago but looking in a different direction. The yellow painted blocks were badly faded by the sun and chipped, the block on the right was almost bleached white, and the shadow had a bluish cast. The stronger yellow blocks had orangish shadows which I could recreate with a darkened orange mix that became a little too muddy. There was a crumbling asphalt pathway being taken over by grass, dandelions, and yellow buttercup flowers winding down the small embankment. A bright green garbage bin and row of cars in the background completes the scene. Oh yeah, I got to use all my iron oxide earth pigments on the small rust pole sticking out of the middle block. The shape of the blocks reminded me a lot of Dad's 'elephant stands' which are home made step stools modeled after the old fashioned circus prop they used to use in elephant shows.

Three objects tastefully arranged like this are a real gift for an artist. Even though each block probably weighs half a ton, they looked like light an airy cardboard boxes that I picked up and placed artfully. Repetition is one of those art rules that was meant to be broken on occasion, but it can really work if you get it right. The three blocks are mirrored by three clumps of flowers in the foreground, and three cars in the background. The garbage bin stands out and looks more prominent since there is only one, it looks like Oscar the grouch may even live there!

On the weekend I had more time for painting and completed 6 paintings and pencil sketches from 2 more of the green line metro stations, Jolicoeur and Verdun. I will be scanning and blogging about those soon, the week days only allow me to sneak out now and then for some fresh air and a quick paint.

5 x 7 " cold press (last sheet from pad*), watercolour, June 2020

* for the Winsor and Newton pad I got early March, the painting area actually measured 5 x 6.5" since there was 0.5" with tear-away perforations holding in the spiral note pad. You can see the perforation remnants on the right of this one.

Temperature rotation

Encircled by colour, a tropical lagoon, explore the island, hike, sail, take the cyan canoe out for a paddle. This painting was inspired by the original painting which happens to be on the back, called Temp Shift done about 5 years ago. After reading a lot on colour, it seemed popular for artists to make a colour wheel, that is, a circle of all colours blended together. This painting is essentially a colour wheel superimposed on an imaginary scene of a lagoon and tropical island. Every colour I have in use was put to the test here, starting at the top with the yellows, moving clockwise with oranges (the white sun), reds and magentas down the right side, moving to violet, purple and blues, then a cyan-canoe middle left, and the lush mountainside in greens and yellow greens. The cave uses black paints and dark umbers, the mountainside is composed of earth oragnes, reds and yellows, and the ground in front of the cave has various shades of grey. I even threw in the white sparkle paint on the cloud element at the top left.

11 x 15" cold press B side, watercolour, 2020

Here is the original design on the back of the paper, well, technically on the front since it was done first. Cold colours on the left merge with the warm colours on the right. I think this was done in 2017 but it could have been a few years earlier. The photo is a little more grey than real life, I will try to update the photo this week there is a ton of sun in the forecast. 

Montreal West Station, NDG

Learning never stops, no matter how much you think you know. On the way back from getting groceries today I took a moment to do this painting on the waiting platform for Montreal West Station, part of the commuter train that connects NDG to downtown Montreal. The sun was going down, creating a slow, creeping shadow from behind me so I had to paint fast. It's about the fourth or fifth time I've painted these train tracks by now, I can add that to the 'most times anyone has painted watercolour paintings of something in NDG guiness records.' Hey if a dog can be in the guiness records for holding 6 tennis balls in his mouth at once, than surely they have a few extra pages for a watercolour painter?

Painting asphalt and yellow traffic paint is surprisingly difficult, in fact, I have never quite got it right after 25 years of trying. In the past I was attempting to use purple or brown mixtures because that's what I thought I was seeing. The other day I walked around my apartment taking pictures of the street including asphalt and yellow traffic paint, and then did a colour analysis on the photos. The asphalt was in fact a fairly saturated blue, but very low value (dark)- there was no purple or brown. In this painting, I mixed a strong saturated blue paint with a lot of lamp black (carbon black), and then diluted with a little water. Sure enough, the colour of the asphalt just below the yellow line, is almost exactly what I saw. The yellow line, it turns out, is a very high value, medium to high saturation yellow, in other words, almost pure yellow. I tried that in the painting but may have over done it a little the yellow is too bright, just a touch more water would have been okay.

The other thing you may notice, or not notice rather, is the signature. I didn't put the PJD 2020 marking on this painting, or did I?

5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, June 2020

The myth of blue shadows

Recently, I have been reading through Handprint.com (MacEvoy) section on colour theory, I also found a good article by artist and blogger Paul Foxton who does amazing photo-realistic oil paintings. The consensus is that most shadows retain the same hue and same saturation as the main surface, but they have a much lower value (darker). I always added blue in shadows, but never added black because Monet never used black! To test the idea that shadows don't need blue, I painted out some examples as shown here. Ignore the crazy thing in the sky, look on the bottom two houses. For the first house, I used burnt sienna, plus indothrene blue for the shadow, while the second house on the right I used burnt sienna plus lamp black for the shadow. To my eye, the blue-containing shadow has a washed out look, as if it belongs to a overcast day, while the black-containing shadow looks bright and vibrant. The other flaw in the blue shadow theory is that yellow surfaces do not have green shadows!

The scientist in me wanted more evidence. For 30 years I faithfully added blue to shadows, avoiding black because Monet avoided black (Did you know Monet dropped out of art school?). I took a picture outside my apartment and performed a colour analysis. There must be blue hiding somewhere in the shadows. To my surprise, the hue of the shadow on a brick wall was not blue, or even purple, it was red! In fact, the hue of the shadow on a brick wall was similar to the bright red of a nearby car. In the diagram below, the shadow of the white window frame is indeed blue- its possible! But the shadow on the brick wall, seen on top, is a de-saturated, and very dark red. On the top right we see that the brick wall colour is a a partly de-saturated, grey-orange, while the car is a maximum saturation, high value red. I checked all the pixels and their wasn't a single blue one in the shadow on the brick wall. The fact is, blue light will only be visible in shadows on surfaces that are blue, white, or very near white like window frames, sun bleached sidewalks, white cars, pale white bricks, and the like. Any other surface with saturated colour, like an orange brick wall, will not reflect blue light.