Old brick red building

 

This is the lower portion of an old warehouse-style construction supply building that might be derelict now, although it shows up on google maps as a bedding store. Long shadows were being cast across rue st Patrick from right to left. For the brick colours I used burnt sienna (PR101) with pyrol red (PR254/PY57) and some pyrol orange in places (PO73). After all the strong green from the last painting I posted, it was nice to paint one with all the reds. I am planning a bigger bike ride this coming Saturday across the bike path on Champlain bridge in order to paint the st Jacques river. In preparation I will likely take a few days off from painting and cycling to charge the batteries now that my bike is all fixed up. 

Old brick red building, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, July 2025

l'Ancienne-cour-de-triage Park

The other day I tried to paint during a massive rain storm, the second scene was this view of a turquoise bench in an adjacent park. After work I picked up my bike from the shop and rode off, with a new chain, rear cassette and pedals, and rode over to the same spot where I waited out the storm previously. The tea-coloured sky seemed to tint everything with a yellowish glow. After some research, this is called l'Ancienne-cour-de-triage Park. It was once a train yard, heavily contaminated, now its the Fresh water public works and this leisure park. Go figure. Before it was a train yard, there was a river called st Pierre river here. It would have run just about where you see the sidewalk in this painting. When it was pouring rain, I remarked that this sidewalk looked like a river with the amount of water coming down... how right I was! Of course, the actual river was buried a long time ago. 

Turquoise bench haze, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, July 2025

 

According to an old faded  heritage sign here, this low stone wall and path would have been where the st Pierre river once flowed. I was trying to find local rivers on the island of Montreal and there seems to be almost none, now we know why. In the background, you see the Lachine canal. 

Old river line, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, July 2025

Maybe it was the yellow haze but the grass seemed unusually chartreuse. I used copious amounts of bizmuth vanadate yellow (PY184) and touches of phthalo green yellow shade (PG36). There were a lot of people around, lounging, biking, and jogging, although I left them out of the painting this time. 

Bright chartreuse grass, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, July 2025 

Cazelais park summery scenes

Where Cazelais street meets st Rémi street near the autoroute there is a very small sitting area surrounded by some gardens and landscaping. A circular brick patio is at the center, I saw it on google maps from the year 2022 and there was no paint on the patio bricks... some intrepid artist coloured them in very tastefully. And it wasn't me using artistic license this time, the bricks really were those colours. The very center-most square stone was black, so it was surely done by an artist with a plan and not an amateur vandal. The main subject matter here were the tiger lillies that come out briefly in the summer. I will just call this area Cazelais park for lack of a better term. 

Tiger Lillies Cazelais park, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, July 2025

 

It was such a nice location, in the shade, cool breeze, that I made a another painting. Speaking of amateur vandals, there was a seriously crunched up metal bin overflowing with trash. The brick patio was simplified into a grid this time so as to not distract too much from the focal point (the metal bin). Metallic colours are best made with quin purple (PV55) and viridian hue green (PG7), then adjusted with yellow ochre (PY43) or better yet, raw sienna (PBr7). Leaving areas blank on the metal surface, and adding some thin blue/violet mixes (PB15, PR122) completes the effect. Someone had scribbled names on the bin in a black sharpie, so I added my initials instead. I once called this kind of painting 'still life on a sidewalk', that description certainly fits the theme here. 

 Crunched metal bin, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, July 2025

 

 

This was the first one I did, kind of a warm-up painting to get dialed into the conditions which were hot and muggy, with an orange-yellow (amber) haze in the sky. I had just dropped off my bike at the shop for some major repairs so I was on foot the whole time, using my bike bag with a shoulder strap to paint. Standing under the overpass in the shade, on a slight incline, this view shows a triangular patch of land filled with wild flowers, next to a construction fence. 

 

Triangle patch of flowers, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, July 2025 

Summer Smoke Palette 2025

 

Its been an odd summer with dry and rain spells, and a yellowish haze over everything due to the wild fires in Central and Western Canada. Earlier in June I made a series of paintings featuring the hazy sky, and since then noticed a orange-yellow haze that is prominent on the horizon, but also tints everything with a subtle amber hue. I recall the pandemic when there were  no cars in Montreal, after a week or two the sky became a crystal clear 'true blue'. Now, I can see the subtle variations in atmospheric colour changes from a painters perspective. About a month ago I instinctively added a blob of raw sienna (PBr7), cadmium red hue (PR254/PY53) and bismuth yellow (PY184) to my palette, as seen above in the painted sketch. The other day, it occurred to me that those three colours provide the amber tint caused by smokey skies. Its an unfortunate adjustment for the sake of realism. The rest of the palette is pretty much the same as before, pigment codes are scribbled on the sketch. My paints are made by various companies: Holbein (Japan), Daniel Smith (US), Schminke (Germany), Da Vinci (US), Shin Han (South Korea), and Winsor and Newton (UK/US). I buy them from Avenue Des Arts, Kama Pigments, and DeSerres. 

Summer Smoke Palette 2025, sketch book paper

Action at Vendome Station, sort of

While painting this patch of Queen Anne lace in the parking lot across from Vendome station, I heard a lot of commotion, fire trucks going by. They had stopped in front of Vendome but there was no smoke or fire to speak of. Staying focused, I finished the painting, probably spent too much time on the SUV in the background, although it looks pretty realistic, then turned to paint the fire truck scene. 

Queen Anne lace parking lot, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, July 2025

 

The bike path is visible in the bottom right, a bus was in the foreground, with two firetrucks in the background. Getting the perspective correct and proportioning the buildings was key here, I held up the brush on an angle to get it right. With all the heat and humidity the paint was tacky and messy, which made the detailing especially difficult, but I got it done. In the background you see the crane where I painted the sunset smoky sky last month. 

Bus and fire trucks, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, July 2025

 

The fire trucks were sticking around long enough for me to get a painting done before they left. Most of the detail on the truck is close to the way it was, although the truck took off before I could really complete it so I finished from memory. In the background is the mega hospital, while the main entrance to Vendome is in the middle ground. The red is called cadmium red hue, a convenience mix meant to replicate cadmium red without using cadmium pigments which are toxic. I bought the tube about ten years ago before I knew about pigments, now I know its a mix of pyrol red (PR254) and yellow nickel titanium oxide (PY53). Titanium oxide pigments are white, then they add a metal ion like nickel to give it a yellow tint. When mixed with pyrol red, it gives a slight warm red. Really I just want to use up the tube and completely switch to pyrol vermilion in the future (PR255). 

 Fire truck Vendome, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, July 2025 

Curio Folio: Solar Wind

 

Its time for another edition of the Curio Folio, the serious series where I paint things that no person has ever seen (or heard of) before. In this case, its a painting of something that people have heard of before, the solar wind. In fact, a group of solar astronomers at the university heard about my famous Curio Folio and asked me to help them out with a project they were working on with Federal funding. They built a solar wind tunnel in the Astronomy and Solar Science (ASS) building and had difficulty in obtaining photographic evidence of the solar wind. Any camera that got near the solar wind was instantly erased and drained of battery. Hearing of my ability to paint incredibly realistic and accurate watercolours of various phenomenon, they asked me to stand in the solar wind tunnel and make a painting for further scientific study. For protection I had to wear a welding mask and lead underpants, but it did not bother me. It was quite a sensation, kind of a mixture of being hot or ticklish, but I got the painting of solar wind done, which you see above. The solar scientists made statistical analysis of the painting and asked me to do more with various settings of the machine. Apparently the data is so good, it will published in a prestigious journal called "Sceince". 

Curio Folio: Solar Wind, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, July 2025 

Rain Storm!

 

After visiting Cilene and Fritz, Cilei and I rode our bikes home trying to beat the rain storm. At the canal, I stopped to do a few paintings and said to Cilei to try and make it home before the rain... the last thing I said was I would probably regret the decision to stay and paint. I was about half way through the painting above, the buildings, the old chimney, the canal and clouds were all in, when the rain just started dumping. I found shelter under a tree and tried to finish it, then the rain got even worse and I found shelter under a small overhang at the water facility. Getting the painting into the bike bag was tricky and I had no idea how it would look until it dried out at home. Its an interesting effect. If you want to copy this effect, the instructions are simple: start painting, wait for rain, try to get out of rain, finish painting, let dry! 

 Canal rain storm, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, July 2025

 

As I huddled under the small overhang slowly getting soaked and cold, I noticed that there is a landscaped park with trees and benches next to the water treatment plant. It would make a great location on a nicer day. With the rain reduced to a steady drizzle I eked out a painting of the scene featuring a turquoise picnic bench and a curving sidewalk. When the rain was at its strongest, that whole sidewalk was like a fast flowing river. In the background is the Lachine canal and footbridge. The weather actually improved considerably after this but I was soggy and miserable and headed home to paint another day. 

Turquoise bench rain, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, July 2025