Bygone Era of Taxicabs

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. On a visit to Manhattan years ago, it rained while I was on 5th Avenue and I took several pictures that I painted from when I returned to Denver. Today, taxi's are still a major part of the city traffic although they no longer display the iconic checker patterns. The older cabs with the checker design were retired because of their heavy weight which made them fuel inefficient. They still have the red light on the roofs which tells if they are available or if they have a passenger. In spite of heavy competition from Uber and Lift, New York taxi's have experienced a recent increase in trip volume. It appears people like the experience of the ticking meter, large back seats and actually hailing a cab. I did a whole series of Manhattan citiscapes that always included taxi's with the checkered patterns and red lights. I actually have a collection of ceramic taxi cabs in my studio, some were gifts and some I made in ceramic class at the Art Students League of Denver.

In this painting, I tilted the buildings slightly to give the impression of the traffic jamming into the city. It also added to the rhythm and noise that I wanted to capture. The trees from central park on the right are dripping with rain and I actually added a few strokes of pastel for this effect. You can also see where I used pastel along with the watercolor to create a wet appearance in other parts of the composition, especially in the center where the buildings fade into the background. The taxi, which appears to be pushing all the traffic in front of it, is embossed with the checkers that I did not know would become extinct. I am glad they were included because, in addition to adding pattern, it sets the painting in a special time in New York history.

For the taxi, I used mainly lemon yellow with cadmium red for the lights and black mixed with burnt sienna and French ultramarine blue. The trees are olive green mixed with different blues and the street is grays mixed with cerulean blue and orange. The buildings are grays along with earth tone mixtures of burnt sienna, yellow ochre, different blues and a liberal use of pastels. While I was painting this in my Denver studio, I closed my eyes and tried to remember what it was like standing in the rain looking up 5th Avenue.

If you have never used pastels with watercolor, you should give it a try. It is possible to create different effects that the mediums can't do on their own. This Fall in October I will teach a class called "Weather Elements In Watercolor" at the Art Students League of Denver. Happy Painting! Dennis Pendleton