Remember when I said I wanted to try my hand at painting architecture more often (which is entirely reasonable because I’m surrounded by it all the time)?  Well, I came to regret that impulse while painting this piece.  It absolutely kicked my butt!  Who knew there were so many vents and pipes and satellite dishes on a typical Montreal rooftop?  Anyways, in case you were wondering, I see this view every day as I leave my office – the North side of Mile End, with Mount Royal in the distance.

And it’s a view from my livingroom window (minus a high-rise or two off in the distance)!  Work with what’s available, right?  I found I really enjoy painting snow on rooftops – it’s almost like icing a cake.  Ask me how I feel about that after another 3 months of winter… 😉

I’ll be honest: 2019 was not the easiest year BUT I did get back into art-making, and that’s got to count for something, right?  I hope everyone has a lovely holiday season with family and friends, and may 2020 bring joy to all of you in large ways and small!

I’ve fallen a bit behind with my landscape studies, and just when I had turned a corner with them, too!  At this point, they were getting more and more complicated, and more than one lunch-hour to finish.  Even so, I made a conscious decision NOT to fuss with the reflections on the water in the foreground.  The result is what I like to call “good from far, and far from good”.  I am very happy with the blue shading on those mountains, though!

Now THIS was some stunning scenery!  We went camping there in the summer of 2018, and everywhere we looked was another beautiful vista.  I think I read somewhere that these are the highest peaks in Canada East of the Rockies.  Well worth a visit, but keep in mind that it’s a little cut off from civilization.  In fact, you’ll lose internet access 20 min. before you’ve even reached the entrance to the park!

With this piece, I began to wonder if I might want to reconsider limiting my Photoshop brushes because there just HAS to be a better way to paint masses of trees.  Also, the driver was in need of updating.  See how the brush marks on the clouds are all one thickness?  That’s because the “pen pressure” option wasn’t working, and that was a sure sign that my Photoshop driver was out-of-date.

That blue-green mountain in the background may be too saturated to make sense, but it just makes me happy!