Monday, March 31, 2014

Yonge Street Tattoo

8x10 oil on canvas
I like to do images that evoke a mood or feeling and I also like to do imges that are "anecdotal", depicting narrative incidences. This scene definitely tells a story...but what will happen will always be a mystery.
These young poeple stand in front of Yonge Street Tattoos.

Thanks to Ben Roffelsen for the photo reference.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Taxi,Taxi,Streetcar

8x8 oil on canvas
We often get a rain/snow mix at this time of year providing some nice reflections. The night colours of the city seem to be getting more predominately green as the type of light bulbs are changing. There used to be a lot of yellow, but now there is always a greenish shade showing up, making for some almost "garish" colour schemes. Streetcars used to have three yellow headlights...now they are yellow and greenish. I knew this would be challenging with the blue green colours everywhere.
The Beck Taxi dominates the foreground on this rainy night on King Street in Toronto. The Golf Town store canopy is visible in the background.

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Queen and St. Patrick, Afternoon Sun

8x8 oil on canvas
I'm spending some time doing small paintings, deciding which ones will work well on a larger scale. Its good to work out color palette etc on a smaller scale before moving up. Plus painting smaller is fun. Results happen faster...good and bad.
This is the same corner as the previous post, but here a streetcar dominates the scene. I love these old buildings on Queen Street. So much character.

Monday, March 17, 2014

Queen Street Shoppers and March Sun

8x8 oil on canvas
Even though we have lots of snow and cold weather, when the sun comes out the stronger light reminds us that better weather and spring is on the way.
These young ladies walk down Queen Street on a late afternoon in March. Posters cover the lamp posts providing some interesting colours.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Morning After the Storm

8x10 oil on canvas
This is one of those pictures where its difficult to know what is being portrayed. The town I live in is in a valley, so we are surrounded by hills and the Niagara Escarpment. When I looked out my front door this morning, the trees and snow on the hills were all lit up by the morning sun. I knew it would be hard to do, but I thought I would attempt a small rendition anyway. I would have liked to work outside, but at nineteen degrees below zero (celcius) I decided to take a photo and do a quick study from that.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Toronto's Finest

8x10 oil on canvas paper
This is a study for a commission I am planning to do. The photograph had a lot of atmosphere, but not a lot of detail, so I thought I would see how it looks on a smaller scale before doing a larger one. I used canvas paper for the study. My palette consisted of ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson, terra rosa, yellow ochre light, cadmium yellow med, transparent oxide red, cadmium red.

Monday, March 10, 2014

Night Lights on King

12x12 oil on canvas
I've been wanting to add some different colours to my palette. One of the great things about the internet is that we can study other artists and often find their colours of choice.I noticed that when Marc Hanson does nights scenes he adds some pthalos and Quin colours. I looked through drawers of paints that I have accumulated over the years and found a quinacridone rose and a phthalocyanine blue and green. I also added cadmium orange. 
I took this photo on a very crisp cold evening, where the sky is a stunning blue (don't know why that happens). With the light bouncing off every object, nothing had the colour we would have seen in daylight.
The sign for the Kit Kat Restaurant is visible above the streetcar.