The day started out with breakfast with Erika and Isabelle. After I organized my equipment and set off. I had to collect a painting from the Tulip Festival. It was very windy and the bike ride was exhausting.

I arrived at the location early / mid morning. I took out my paints, chair, and equipment and felt it would be a waste not to show the painting I had submitted in the Tulip Festival.

I used a pencil and draw out the basic elements of the landscape. Ad quickly started to paint.

The location captured my interest for a couple reasons: the way the skyline funnels down the buildings to the horizon line, the structures on top of the buildings and how they stem into the sky, how the walk space continues behind to the right of the triangle hut box on the street, the number of Canadian flags, and the yellow traffic lights and how they balance with the flags.

At lunch time the street was absolutely packed with a mass of people. I was still just putting down paint and getting large
structures into place. The overwhelming amount of detail in the buildings was arduous and really slowed me down. The day was moving along and the painting was inching forward.

I had lunch and dinner / take out in front of the restaurant I was parked outside. The staff and owner were very positive and receptive to my presence.

The night was approaching and my efforts were to complete the skyline before it fell into darkness. The light was changing
dramatically in small amounts of time during this time of the day.

No working from photograph and having to work on the composition over the day and into the night... parts of the painting are 2 o'clock, 7 pm, 9 pm, 11 pm, 1 am, 3 am.

By the time I was ready to paint the walk / street... there were not people on the street... it was too late. The painting is a late day painting, not night, but completed at night. I felt it was important that there was light not night. I wanted to work to open up not collapse into itself. Already the buildings were an overpowering dominating feature and if the sky was dark I felt that the painting would sink.

As always the police stopped me as I was making my journey home. Lights flashing, ID requested, questions... in short I was annoyed.

The day was very long. I did not anticipate the painting to take so many hours. It was 3:36 am when my head touched the pillow.

Thank you