Overlooking Burrard Inlet

Driving around on Capitol Hill gave me this view.

Overlooking Burrard Inlet from Capitol Hill - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

It was about 0C. I wore a scarf, a toque, and a hiking hat over it to block the sun from my eyes. I had on me 2 layers of socks, 2 layers of gloves on my right (non-painting) hand, 2 layers of pants and 2 layers of jackets that were covered in paint. I must have looked funny.

The wind blows over Fraser river

I walked up and down the river bank looking for a grand wide view that shows the expanse of the river, but I didn't find it, so I went back to where I started and did this. Sight-sizing has its limit. What you include in your frame is limited to the size of your canvas, and how close you are to the painting. In a comfortable painting position with a standard plein air canvas size, you get a pretty narrow field of view. But there are too many pluses with sight-sizing for me at the moment to give it up.

The wind blows over Fraser river - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

One of the reasons I like to paint is how everything is suggested, unless one is painting photoreal. Our eyes try very hard to construct an image with whatever clues we are given.
Here is a bunch of black patches that form an image. It's not hard for us to see that it's a picture of an Dalmatian.

Our eyes have such an ability to connect edges, sorting patterns and connecting masses, to try to construct a recognizable image. A lot of the times I find myself staring at the tiles on the floor such as this one, and see human faces on them.

Back to this painting, just a couple strokes of lighter blue across the water, with a couple vertical lines through them, and all of a sudden they register as smooth patches of water with the reflection of the poles.

fleeting patterns

The patterns of lights made me stop my car. I knew the shapes wouldn't last long, but didn't want to pass on this design either. I tried to mark down where the light patches were before proceeding my usual way. About an hour later the patterns were completely different and I tried to work from memory and where I marked them before, but it didn't feel authentic. I had to retouch it more back at home based on the photo I took. I believe in order for light and shadow to be convincing they need to be based on reality and not pure imagination.

Across from McGill park - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

Parked on a hill

I love to be on a hill, it creates a very special angle to me.
I have been plotting spots on Google map for painting purposes. If I drove by somewhere and liked the view I would go home and mark it on the map. This painting came from such method. Sometimes I also navigate around on Google street view and scout a neighbourhood before I drive out there. I have to say though, that just gives a general idea. A place can look completely different based on the time of day, the weather and season. That's why I have become more inclined to just drive to a general area and just look around as I drive.
When I got to this spot, I parked myself on the side of the road, and got out of the car to look at the view. It was quite cold mind you. I looked at the car and thought, why paint next to the car when I could paint IN the car. I climbed into the passenger seat and looked. The windshield did make the view a little darker, and dirtier, so I wiped it down with a paper towel. I don't remember the last time I wiped the windshield.
One problem with painting in the car was that I couldn't sight-size, so getting a drawing done first became important.

Mountain view on Gilmore - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

When I got home I made some changes to it, biggest change was to add the water. When I was painting, I couldn't see the water at all, it was completely blocked by the trees. That made it difficult to see where the mountain started and how low the road dipped.
I find when I get home from painting out, I usually see things on the painting that I didn't see before when I was painting it. Giving my eyes some break to look at the painting again, they reveal mistakes or areas that could be improved, and in that case photographs can be very useful. I should also find a small mirror to bring with me.

End of Gilmore

Sunshine!
The clouds were not hiding the mountains. I drove to the end of Gilmore and did the painting from a trail bench, it was a beautiful day with the sun shinning on my back... and the painting. I had to hold up an umbrella the whole time so the painting was in the shade. When painting outdoors, you always want the painting in the shade, because ultimately the painting will be displayed indoor. If you painted the painting in the sunlight, it would look way too dark when you brought it indoor.
So now I have used an umbrella for both rain and shine, maybe it's time to invest in an easel umbrella.

End of Gilmore - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

Fraser river timber rafts

It's always fun when the subject is different. This time it is the timber rafts on the Fraser river. All along the river you can see many of these, and sometimes a tug boat would be towing a row.
It was drizzling and I was home debating whether I should go paint. I had painted in the rain in the past but was always under some covering. People always said that it's fine to paint oil in the rain, so I went.
I set up along the river on a park bench. Right when I was doing the preliminary lines it started to downpour. I found I couldn't mix colours at all. Sure oil and water didn't mix, but the water acted as a separator between different oil colours, and I was not able to paint like this.
I took out the umbrella, held it in one hand and the brush in the other. By the time I was about done my umbrella hand was about to give up, and my brush hand was tremoring due to my illness. It was especially a pain for details that require precision such as the bridge and the branches.

"Fraser river at the end of Elliot" - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

Overall I find sitting down prevents me from back up more often to see the big picture but for now that has to do. This painting is a good candidate for me to try glazing since it has a lot of white. Looking at the paintings from Tom Thomson, I see that he seemed to glazed all of his paintings as a final stage, and it created a lot of texture.

Back to oil after 8 years

I got my pochade box last week. It's kind of wobbly on my cheap tripod, I need to stabilize it with the other hand if it gets too bad.

I did a couple paintings from my living room windows as try-outs, to test out the pochade box and get familiar with where things are. So the 2 paintings were horrible, and I scratched them. I remember I used to keep paintings that didn't work, but now I would much rather reuse the panel. I use a palette knife to scratch off all the paint, mix it up as a grey on my palette, wipe the panel down with turpentine, and it is ready to be used the next day.

For the first plein air painting with the Guerrilla pochade box, I picked a place near home, because I was feeling insecure and did not want to venture far. My illness now prevents me from standing for long so I found a park bench to sit on.

Carleton Ave. at Broadview Park - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

I used sight-sizing which Marc Dalessio explained here: Link
Sight-sizing worked really great for me, it cuts down the time that I need to get a perfect drawing done on the canvas before painting, it also makes it easier to compare values and colours as the painting and the view are side by side.

I tried to use very thin painting there, and with a dry brush other than for the sky and the road. It leaves some nice textures here and there. I thought about add some dramatics clouds in the sky. I don't want to change a plein air painting too much, so if I end up doing a studio piece with it I can do that!