Darlington park Darlington street

Darlington street is in NDG, on the east side of the Decarie, its within the sprawling Côte-Des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-De-Grâce neighborhood. The name of the street and nearby park came from the city in the north part of England, that's where my family name came from too. I have rode my bike through this area many times usually on the way to or from the north east parts of Montreal and thought it would be a good place to paint. There are rows of shops and yellow ochre-brick condos along a very steep road.

Shops and condos, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2024

Darlington park is a long narrow park with some playgrounds and walking trails and flowers growing in old stone walled gardens. A delicate lilac coloured flower tends to grow in the fall, I am not sure what it is, but its all over Montreal, and there was some growing wild around the garden, it wanted to be with the other decorative plants and flowers.

Darlington park, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2024

 

This produce store has pale green shingles, and a red and green coloured facade. I composed the scene with a close crop to bring the store to the front and maximize the interesting line of the roof. People were walking by probably wondering what I was doing, if they only knew it was Darlington painting on Darlington street.

Produce store, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2024

 

Most of the Condos along the street had shops on the ground floor. These bricks were a kind of raw sienna or burnt umber mix, and the detailing was faded red. There was a convenience store, known as a dépanneur in Québec, and a barber next to it.

Condo and barber, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2024

 

And the dramatic corner view of Darlington street, I decided to add more colour to the scene and give it some energy. The sun was about down which created some interesting shadows on the yellow ochre-brick building. I've used this composition more lately, its a good way to show off a corner and some of the surrounding areas by using perspective. It is called two-point perspective but the way I do it, it is almost a curvelienar perspective, which is like a fish-eye view, or like a long lens view from a camera.

Darlington Corner, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2024