The painting that took a week

I live in such a beautiful place, too bad it's also on the ring of fire.
This painting took a lot longer than a usual one. I went out a week ago and was only able to complete half of it before the light changed too much to continue. However I saw some nice effect as the shadows got longer, and wanted too incorporate that when I work on the other half.
I painted in the car because it was FREEZING out there with the wind howling. I went outside the car to get stuff out from the trunk and in a few seconds my pants were ice cold, reminds me of Toronto.

I waited and waited for the sun to come out without cloud covers, and that took a week... 
When I was sitting there I heard the crows around me start to making warning calls, and a second later a raccoon walked across the street right in front of my car and past me. A nice surprise for painting outdoors.

Dundas St. due east - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

Road near Iona beach at sunset

This is my first attempt at "painting into effect" explained here by Marc Dalessio.
In short, it's a method to capture a view at the golden hour that only last all but a few minutes.

You arrive early. In this case I arrived about 2 hour before the sunset and started to fill in the painting with what I was seeing. As the light and shadows moved and colours changed, I continued to add the new effect into the near-completed-painting. I would just keep chasing until I arrived at a moment that I was happy with.

You can see in the sky there were actually clouds to begin with, but at the end they disappeared and I liked the simplicity of the warm sky so I just covered them up with paint. The mountain was more blue, around the edges you can see how I painted over it with purple. The trees and grass also had their colours changed gradually to this warm saturated golden colour.

It's important to keep the initial painting thin. If you painted with impasto in the beginning you will have a hard time painting over it with new colours.

Road near Iona Beach at sunset - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

I love learning about new methods and trying them out myself. Marc's post really helps me understand how to approach this kind of painting en plein air and give me more confidence to do another one!

Empire and Oxford

I am slowly learning about using thin paint and smaller brushes and taking my time.
One thing I need to do more is comparing value. As you paint you want to compare the value of the new area to an area that has been established as correct. If it's not done enough, when you are done with the painting you might find the panting does not work due to incorrect values here and there. This is what I want to work on the most, but easily forget as I paint.

Empire and Oxford - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

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.