Shopping on Yonge, April Rain

16 x 20 oil on canvas

 I've mentioned before that Yonge Street is a challenge to paint because of the colour scheme, but I keep going back. I like this busy melange of signs, people, and traffic. Also, I must like the challenge.

This painting is a repaint of one that I wasn't happy with. Sometimes I wonder if there is any advantage of doing a repaint since it takes almost more work than starting fresh. Just a slight change in colour temperature requires that the whole scene be changed. I've been leaving transparent oxide red out of my palette. It seems to have too much of an effect on colour temperature and almost appears like "mud" if I'm not careful. I make my greys with a mix of alizarin, ultramarine blue, touch of ivory black, titanium white and cad yellow deep.

Santa's workshop, Hudson's Bay Store, Queen Street

16 x 20 oil on canvas

Every year the One Of A Kind Show in Toronto holds a contest for all artisans and artists to participate in. This year the contest theme was "Santa's Workshop". The entry must be in the artist's style and medium. When deciding what to do, I thought a Toronto scene featuring the spirit of giving would be something that I could work with.

The Hudson't Bay Store on Queen Street always has their windows dressed up for the holidays. I decided to feature these windows with Santa ringing the bell for the Salvation Army donation drive.

Yonge Street, Evening Rain

24 x 24 oil on canvas

I usually work from photographs. I love to take pictures and I love interesting weather (some people call it "bad" weather). When I take pictures downtown in the pouring rain or a snow storm, I'm not really concerned with the photographic quality. I mainly need reference and atmosphere. So I take a LOT of photos. When I get home and look through the photos, sometimes an image will really excite me. Like this one. It had a lot of great things going on. Old dark buildings in the foreground, blue misty buildings in the background. Some great reflections.

I am planning to do another series of larger paintings, and I may choose this image to do in a 36 x 36. I don't know if I have conquered enough fear to go to a 48 x 48.....but soon I hope. The last one I attempted got wiped...and I can tell you, that is a lot of paint to wipe!

This scene is Yonge Street looking south with the Hudson's Bay store on the right.

Promise of Spring

8x8 oil on canvas

When I was taking photos in Toronto a couple of days ago, it was windy, rainy and cold. We haven't had a very nice spring here in southern Ontario, but we are hopeful that the nice weather will arrive. I took this photo in front of the Hudson's Bay store on Bay Street. The young lady was walking by the display window full of spring blossoms and pastel dresses.

Snowy Day Shopping at The Bay, Toronto

18 x 24 oil on board

Generally I don't like scenes that have too many colors. This scene had a variety of colors that I thought would be difficult to work with and still create some harmony in the painting. I did a value study using a mix of transparent oxide red and ultramarine blue in a loose wash and let it dry overnight. I then did the final painting using transparent oxide red, ultramarine blue, cadmium red, yellow ochre, titanium white. 

Sometimes I like the value study and am tempted to leave it as a finished painting.

This scene is of the Hudson's Bay store in downtown Toronto on a snowy day. The lovely white snow that had covered everything had been cleared and piled onto sidewalks and streets leaving reflections and a salty mushy mix to walk in.