Hey Lucy, King Street, Toronto

6x6 oil on paper

The colours of evening or night are always difficult to portray. What colour is night? Night is all about reflected surfaces. It is the surrounding lights and nothing maintains its daylight colour. I have had a difficult time with some sections of King Street. The mixture of greens and reds and yellows can make for a mud colour, so its important to avoid too much mixing. The red signage resulted in pink snow which worked well with the cool green streetlights. I am doing small studies almost all the time now before starting a larger version.. I have wiped so many paintings where the colour has just been WRONG! Its much easier to make mistakes on a small study.

Evening strollers walk past the Hey Lucy Restaurant on King Street. Part of the "cow" on the building is visible top right.

Umbrellas on King Street

12 x 12 oil on canvas

I take hundreds of photos on rainy and snowy days. Sometimes a really fun image shows up, and that was the case with this photo. Umbrellas are mostly black and boring so this scene provided a nice change. I often change things in my paintings and rarely paint the photo as is, but in this instance very little change was needed.

Red Lights on King, Toronto

12 x 12 oil on canvas

Red signage and pouring rain bathed this cityscape in reds on a cold rainy night in Toronto's Entertainment District. The Kit Kat Restaurant sign dominates the top middle of the picture.

T.G.I.F., University and King

8x10 oil on board

When I took this photo, there was some snow still left, with piles of snow on the streetcorners. It was very rainy as downtown workers head home on a Friday. This scene is at the corner of University and King.

Late Afternoon Light, King and University

24x24 oil on canvas

I did an 8x8 version of this scene and wanted to try it on a larger scale. I wanted to keep the looseness and spontanieity of the smaller picture. I tightened up more that I would have liked, but I'm ok with the result.

The late afternoon light is reflected off high rises, creating some shadows and highlights. The Union Building which is home to the Elephant and Castle is illuminated in the background.

(There is some glare on the picture, which I will correct when it dries and rephoto)