Carleton Variety. 5x7 in Watercolour on Fabriano 

The second version is 5x7 in, Acrylic on Illustration Board 

I may continue to try small versions of this in Gouache and perhaps Oil paint. The atmospheric quality is there, for a cold wet Toronto afternoon just as the streetlights come on at dusk. Small convenience stores are becoming scarce in our city, much to my dismay. They promise a bit of respite from ______________- (fill in the blank: loneliness, thirstiness, cold, heat, hunger, alienation)

Carleton Variety

 The photo is poor, really. Taken through the car windshield and wet snowfall at dusk, it has a certain atmospheric quality I want to mimic, somehow. The lights seem switched on to over-glow and the colours are grainy and warm. 

Winter paintings I admire use soft neutral colour to get the low light areas. John Kasyn, for example, who often shows the unflattering back  side of the house on an overcast day. A certain charm is there, in the airing of the dirty laundry and the daily mundane.

Preliminary Sketches

First Washes

Colour development

Walking West

 Daily walks during COVID-19 been a mainstay for my daughter and I to stay sane while social isolating. Walking west in the late afternoon to avoid the heat of the long August days we make friends with cats and neighbours. With the sun though in the sky the dappled sunlight on the road stretched towards us and I asked her to take this picture for me.

Recently I was at Harbour front with urban sketchers (2 others) and was inspired by David Chen and his approach to  watercolours. We talked about the struggle with overdrawing and the need for spontaneity. I’m looking for a method that will serve me and be enjoyable while I’m painting. I also like the urban watercolour landscapes by Alvaro Castagnet. Here is the start with light hues and washes on a card.

The Harbour front drawings were an opportunity to experiment with my homemade black walnut ink.

Old Quebec City, 1640

 Longing for normality and remembering this great summer getaway back in 2018. We stayed at this inn right in the heart of the old city.

Sketch with blocked in shading

Original Photo (Can you find Joe?)

Watercolour sketch and blocking, thumbnail

Finished Thumbnail (4x6 in)

I always fall in love with the unfinished sketch or the first wash! Maybe I find it hard to finish paintings in general. Maybe unfinished paintings just have more potential. Maybe it has to do with the struggle to let go of fussiness and detail and control, which seems to be unavoidable in finishing the pieces.

Working out the composition and a plan of attack for handling contrast of light and shadow should help a lot. Watercolour can be so spontaneous, but perversely, it also requires some forethought. Reserved whites, for example.

There were soooo many great artists there, right in that district. Quebecqois love their art and music.

Thumbnails

 So enjoying the immediacy of watercolours! Swatching and charts of my palettes are a current preoccupation, because I want to buy some new colours and recently discovered a maker of paint local to Toronto. Before I do I need to know what would augment my collection of colours, and it is instructive to do. Here is a link that got me swatching-  https://youtu.be/obiKf0QGfjo

Here are my swatches... 

Here is a link that inspired me to look again at the photos I take for painting. I wish for stronger lighting effects also in these urban landscapes.   https://youtu.be/ZKllFTjg7k4. 

Here are some just started... more photos to follow.

"Happies"

 Inspired by an Instagram post by CEECEEsCREATIONS, I gave this a try. These are liberating- a lot like decorating flat pottery bowls. without all the angst of ceramics. Little designs with no other purpose other than the doing of it. It provides more familiarity with my pigments and brushes also. Aside from being relaxing, I mean.

Queensville Flats

 Most summers my brother takes one passenger per trip on a sunset tour in his 1966 Alpine Sunbeam with the top down. Last July 1, we toured the old town of Newmarket, Holland Landing, and the Queensville Flats. Mom is from Queensville originally, and family is buried there on a ridge overlooking the flats with lake Simcoe far in the background. 

This last photo was a reference for a digital painting in which I exaggerate the cool lilac water in the distance. Sometimes art gives me a chance to show the way things impress me, weighing the parts differently from the photo and emulating more of my memory of that place and time.