Canadian Landscape Series - Painting 3 of 13: Niagara Falls, Ontario

This is a post about Niagara Falls in Ontario - 1 of 13 paintings in my 2024 Canadian Landscape series. If you would like to read about the series as a whole, you can find that post here. ​

Niagara Falls, Ontario

Niagara Falls, Ontario (2023), part of my Canadian Landscape series

​Niagara Falls, Ontario was the third painting I completed from my Canadian Landscape series. It was completed in June 2023. ​My goal for this series was to capture the essence of each province and territory in a painting.

I had a difficult time deciding what to paint for Ontario because the province is significant for a few different reasons. ​One the one hand, Ontario is known for being Canada's main economic hub. It is by far the most populous province in Canada. Ontario is home to both Ottawa - the nation's capital and where the Parliament of Canada is located; and Toronto - the biggest city in Canada. For these reasons, it would have made sense to paint Parliament Hill or the Toronto skyline. 

But on the other hand, Ontario is also home to Niagara Falls - one of the most famous and beautiful waterfalls in the entire world.​

Photo Credit: Edward Koorey

In the end, Niagara Falls won (mostly because I was excited to try painting a waterfall!). ​I had also just finished painting Old Quebec City, so I wasn't ready to paint another cityscape yet. 
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ICYDK: Niagara Falls is also known as Horseshoe Falls or the Canadian Falls. It is located on the border between Canada and the US, and it is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Canada.

I like to ensure that I get the scale right in my landscapes, so I often use reference photos (or compilations of photos) to sketch the "bones" of my paintings. For Niagara Falls, I used a reference photo from Unsplash taken by Edward Koorey. 

This painting came together relatively smoothly from start to finish - especially considering it was my first time attempting a "barcode landscape" waterfall.

​When I initially sketched the outline onto the canvas, I drew smaller bubbles and it didn't look right, so I decided to erase them and draw larger bubbles instead. I'm glad I did! Nothing good ever comes from me ignoring my instincts. 

This was one of three paintings in this series that I did on a larger 24" x 36" canvas (the other paintings were done on 18" x 24" canvases). 

​My Niagara Falls painting features a double rainbow in the sky, which can often be seen above these iconic falls. ​

Niagara Falls, Ontario (2023)

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​The next painting I completed in this series was the Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick. ​

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