…..downtown, phase 2
November 9, 2015
The Plaza Hotel (completed in 1928) is a five story Spanish Colonial Revival building in downtown Kamloops BC, Canada. It is listed as a cultural heritage site in the Canadian Register of Historic Places.
As is so often the case when seeking out subjects for painting, the postcard view isn’t usually very interesting.
The photo used for reference for this watercolour was taken from the rear alley of The Plaza.
In view is the old Fire Hall tower, with belfry, 73 ft, built in 1935 at a cost of $24,500, when Kamloops had a population of approximately 6,000 (population today is about 100,000). It remains a distinctive landmark.
The decision to cast the subject in Winter has to do with wanting to bring some drama to the scene due to there being an overly abundant amount of sky. Pigeons have also been added to give more visual interest.
Because the hotel is a very light orange, (which gives off a bit of a pink cast in late afternoon), the sky is a wash of quin red, quin yellow and ultramarine blue in order to help incorporate the tones of the building into the rest of the painting. So quin red and quin yellow will be used as the shade of the hotel as the painting progresses.
weisserwatercolours 
Thank you very very much, Robin!
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You’re taking us on a wonderful journey here – the composition has a lot of depth, love how the birds lead us into the background. Beautiful colors. Terrific detail! 🙂
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…hello Steve! How I love your posts. You uncover and reveal and celebrate plants and flowers like none other. It is a joy to see what you find and share with us.
The ‘quin’ mentioned is short for Quinacridone, a family of synthetic paints used in multiple ways. From wikipedia:
“Quinacridones are considered “high performance” pigments because they have exceptional color and weather fastness. Major uses for quinacridones include automobile coatings as well as other industrial coatings. They can also be used in artist’s paints, including oils, acrylics, and watercolors.”
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What is the quin that you mentioned?
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…..I am VERY glad to hear you enjoy the architecture paintings, Barry–your own work incorporates objects and positions them in playful, tactile human contact–hands grasping cups, fingers wrapped round objects, objects wrapped around space, and space played with as though dancing
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…thank you Catherine–I am now a new follower of your visual and literary blog!
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I am so happy you are doing more architecture. Even though I love nature, “urban nature” has a place on canvas.
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That’s great. I like the mood of the sky.
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