Murphy's Law

Murphy's Law
Watercolour on Paper
34cm x 52cm (13.5" x 20.5")

I must have broken some law that prohibits you from painting pubs you haven’t drunk in.

This is Murhpy’s Law - an Irish pub close to where Lori and Peter live in the Beaches area of Toronto.

Its prominent location, the colours of the signs and the Guinness clock really make it stand out.

It looked very inviting on a summer’s evening. The roof top area looked particularly appealing, but instead of popping in for a pint, we went to the Ribfest in Woodbine Park. I know we should have made the effort, but there is always next time.

It may not be obvious, but I tried a different approach with this painting. I wanted to test the theory that if the initial drawing and design is good, the painting does not have to be that  detailed. I used bigger brushes than I normally use and tried hard not to correct or fiddle.

Ned Hanlan II

Ned Hanlan II

Watercolour on Paper

34cm x 24cm (13.5" x 9.5")

During our holiday in Canada, Elaine and I spent a sunny afternoon cycling on the Toronto Islands with Lori and Peter. The Ned Hanlan II was moored in front of the bike hire shop.  It is a Toronto Works Department tug and is named after a famous 19th century Toronto resident and world champion rower (thank you Wikipedia).

I set out to paint a stormy scene instead of the wonderfully sunny reality because I wanted to simplify the background and experiment with an inclement sky for some paintings I have planned for the winter.

Last week, I posted a work in progress (see Works In Progress). At the time, I thought it was going to be reasonably easy to finish, but it took more effort than I anticipated.

I wanted to darken the sky around the boats, but leave the top of the painting light and cloud like. Unfortunately, I ended up with an ugly dark halo around the boats (I’ve had this problem before - see Short Tempered Swan). I kept adding more and more indigo and eventually, I managed to get rid of the halo, but I had lost all the light from the top of the painting. Fortunately, I was able to restore this by adding washes of gouache and feathering them out with a hake brush – a technique I learnt from the books and DVDs of John Lovett (see http://www.johnlovett.com/default.htm).

It has ended up more of a nighttime picture than a stormy picture, but it is not too far away from what I intended.

One of the most important skills I am learning is not to give up on a painting - there is usually something you can do to salvage them. The discipline of blogging every Sunday is a major incentive to stick with a painting because I always need something to post.