Caught in a rain storm

Optimistically, I headed out after work despite an ominous looking sky. Sticking close to home, I rode down the Terrebonne path to Girouard and got mostly through a few paintings before it really started to pour. Next to the local Domino's pizza, there is a small garden full of towering sunflower plants. At this point the wind was whipping up a fury making it hard to hold on to the paper and palette, and rain started to come down which hastened the speed of painting. Rushing the painting may have helped with the effect, you can practically see the wind, and literally see the rain since some drops hit the painting while it was still moist on location. 

Sunflowers stormy sky, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2025

Here is another painting of the so called 'demo mall' it was supposed to be demolished November 2024 but its still hanging around for awhile more. The painting was done just before the sunflower painting, and the sky was a mosaic of purple and yellow. The sun almost popped out for a second giving me hope, but it was soon clear that we were in for a deluge. 

Maurice Coiffure, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2025

 

Across the street there is a shuttered optician store that has a covered drive through area in the rear which offered nearly complete shelter from the massive downpour. Taking the opportunity to paint a few more, I did a scene looking out onto Côte st Luc road, which was covered in water and rain drops as the cars went by. I was just dressed lightly as if for a summer day, so the cold wind was like being in a cold shower. 

Cold shower on Côte st. Luc, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2025

With the rain storm continuing, I made another painting of the shuttered optometrist called Optica. Its closed for good, but the interior still had a lot of stock and other items lying around including a desktop computer, and products on racks and in display cases. I was looking through the rear entrance doors towards the front entrance doors opening onto Côte st. Luc. So its an unusual painting that I never would have done in a million years if it weren't for the rain storm forcing me to stand under the parking shelter. Okay, if I painted for a million years I might have got to this scene, its just a figure of speech. 

Optica Interior, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2025

Construction Site #3: Notre Dame and Dollard

Continuing my fruitless quest of painting all 44 construction sites currently in Montreal, here is number 3. Where highway 20 merges with highway 138 in st Pierre, there are soaring overhead highways going every which way. I have included them in many paintings over the years. In this case, I was featuring some of the imposing orange signs indicating construction ahead. Turn left, or merge, or right, or something something. 

Signs under overpass, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2025

Here is closer to the action, at the corner of Notre Dame and Dollard streets. The large arrow sign was blinking on and off, and there was one sign that had another sign inside of it. Genius, I thought, a sign within a sign, that costs at least four times more than just one regular sign. Cars and a bus were working their way through the pylons and confusing arrows, while the highway 138 ramp was still visible in the background.

Sign in sign, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2025

If you were driving and wanted a donut, it was not a simple matter. They did however, have custom printed signs telling you where to turn to get into the Tim Horton's. Somehow, a giant potato was growing in the background. If you look hard enough maybe you can spot Waldo too! Just kidding, no Waldo here, maybe next time.  

Donut anyone? watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2025 

Lachine old Dominion industrial lot

On the east side of Lachine there is a large, abandoned factory that used to be the Dominion Bridge plant according to the all-knowing internet. Actually, I found an article on the Heritage Montreal web site that talked about the plant which was built in stages between 1883 until 1947, presumably to make large parts of bridges. That explains the huge steel railing that run the length of the lot, they would have been for maneuvering massive lengths of steel. As you can see, steel rusts! 

Dominion Bridge plant, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2025

Here is a different angle, I am standing on rue st Louis, you can see the length and shape of the overhead steel spans. The actual factory is also enormous, I just showed a segment of it on the left. Apparently, according to the article, permission was not granted to demolish the structures, so now there is a 'for rent' sign. If anyone needs to make a bridge or two you know where to call. But seriously, the entire east area of Lachine is in the midst of a 20-year development plan that mostly entails condos. 

Overgrown lot, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2025

Just to make it three paintings, I did one more of these two trees with the factory warehouse, and some dry looking tall grass in the middle ground. It was nice and shady were I was standing on boulevard st Joseph. 

Two trees warehouse, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2025

Summerlea Park, rocky shore views

Things started off simple enough with a bike ride out to Summerlea park where I used to play with my family as a child. Most of the shore is covered in growth, which was done to protect the waterfront from erosion. I found a few spots to see through and make a painting or two of the rocky shore line. Today was the last day of my extended time off, of course its labour day too so everyone has it off. It was fun being an almost full-time artist for the past few weeks, I learned more about my limits. The main thing is my legs are in need of rest and recovery, or steroids... not too many artists would consider taking anabolic steroids just to keep riding. Just kidding though, some rest will do. 

Rocky beach, watercolour 6 x 7.5" hot press, September 2025

In this section there were large boulders in place to protect the shore from erosion. This painting was actually done on the front of an old painting I cut up.. sections of the original just had some bland washes on them which I could over-paint. The yellow leaves were done with bismuth vanadate (PY184) yellow, it is so thick that I can apply it like acrylic over top. The watercolour police might be upset through, its not 'transparent' Whatever, they haven't arrested me yet. 

Rocky shore, watercolour 6 x 7.5" hot press, September 2025

A launch wharf was here, part was wood the other part was some kind of floating plastic. Most people were just pushing off their kayaks from the rocky shore though. On the top right you see the end of a very small island, from Google maps it is called Dixie island. 

Rocky wharf, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2025 

A few scenes along Wellington east

Heading back home along Wellington I stopped to make another painting of the sunflowers on the corner of Robert Bourassa boulevard. Last year around the same time, I did a painting here and called it Sunflowers in the City, so I decided to go with the same name here but its the 2025 edition. This time, I reduced the amount of foliage so that the cars could show through a bit better since its an important part of the theme. The way that the yellow, brown and olive colours of the sunflowers play off the blue and grey glass buildings in the background adds visual interest. I like how the sunflowers were reflecting off of the passing cars which you see in the lower left. I omitted the traffic light in the background just to avoid too many distractions in the composition. If you want to see distractions, check out the construction site paintings I posted recently. 

Sunflowers in the city 2025, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, August 2025

Wellington begins (or ends?) at McGill street downtown, where there is a large manicured park full of interlocking bricks and concrete planters. There is also a very old, circa 1960's brown concrete tube-shaped platform with a staircase winding up to the top. I lugged my bike up and made a painting of one of the alleys looking downwards, its probably rue de Soeurs-Grises, and the park in question is Charon Brothers park. Definitely religious sounding names. Most of the city is in shadow at this time of day, just the building in the background was catching a bit of sun, and the headlights from a passing car illuminated the alley. 

Illuminated alley, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Water paintings Port of Montreal

Down at the Port of Montreal, which is adjacent to the Old Montreal area, there are often boats moored along the narrow spit of land that houses Habitat 67. In this case, it was a massive 3 master that looked heavy duty, maybe it was a fishing or research vessel. I was looking down on the ship which gave a good view of all the details of the bow. I really just wanted to paint water, and there was plenty of it in the background. 

Sedna V, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, August 2025

Further towards Old Montreal and there sits the Daniel McAllister, a retired tugboat. According to the all-knowing internet, this vessel was built in 1907 which would have been during the time the Lachine canal was an active shipping and receiving conduit. Its been preserved for tourism now, lots of people like to take pictures of it, and today I did a painting. The main theme was water and how it reflected the background elements. 

Daniel McAllister tugboat, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025
 

Continuing on the water theme, here is a view of the massive cruise boat docking tower in the background, with an old fashioned lamp and concrete blocks in the foreground. The water had a pale turquoise appearance with variations of green ripples from the tower's reflection. The Cartier bridge can be seen off to the left center. The aft of a boat can be seen to the lower right, its part of the health spa on the water. 

watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025
 

Construction Site #2: Courcelle street

 

The corner of Courcelle and st Jacques street down in st Henri has been undergoing a seismic construction for the past few months. Mostly blocked off there are still some passages to get through by foot, car, or bike as the signs would seem to indicate. I changed the walking sign to a jumping character, like you have to jump over things to get across! Today I adjusted the orange mixture to contain more PO62 pigment so it scans more accurately. For some reason the scanner and computer monitor make fluorescent orange appear to be too red. Book idea: The science of painting construction signs by PJ Darlington. 

Construction signs Courcelle, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025
 

At the same site, which was wonderfully silent and free of traffic today, I found a good view of the giant pit they are digging. I changed the colours to be molten red, orange and yellow giving the impression that some deep layer of the earth's crust has been breached. There is a mysterious box in the middle of the wreckage, and the signs are a ? of confusion. 

Pit of construction, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025
 

Next to the giant scooper machine, a narrow path allowed people to cross over st Jacques and into st Henri. A person hit the fence and fell off their bike here but they were going slow and seemed to be okay. The more of these construction site paintings I do, the more exaggerated they become. In this case, the vehicle occupies about 75% of the scene. 

Walking path, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025
 

44 Construction Sites of Montreal #1

Recently, Mobilité Montréal announced that there will be 44 new construction projects on the roads of Montreal this fall. And I was just saying how the number of projects seems to be down compared to previous years... looks like they were just saving them up to do all at once. The ministry even warned car drivers to consider public transit or riding a bike instead of driving around Montreal. This gave me an idea for a new series, although not one that I am likely to want to finish... 44 Construction Sites of Montreal. Well I did one today after painting up at the Chalet, then taking it easy up at Beaver pond for an hour, I zoomed down the south and east side of Mount Royal on my bike and came upon the massive project going on at the corner of Avenue Parc and Rue Mont-Royal. Let's call it site #1. The sign on the left said complete 2025, but I changed the date to 2029 in the painting just to be sure. 

Av Parc Turn left, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Rue Mont-Royal looked like an archeological site, they were digging down for artifacts. The orange of course, is Montreal orange, a blend of PO62 and PO73 to create the perfect fluorescent orange for signs and pylons. There are many kinds of pylons, I am getting to be quite the expert on the matter. 

Dig down rue Mont-Royal, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

What construction site would be complete without a dumpster? This one was a bright neon yellow which contrasted nicely with the blue-violet shadow. The rear end of a bulldozer could be seen, in fact, the whole painting was composed around the small orange triangle on its back which I made using the Montreal orange blend and overlapped with strips of pyrol red (PR254). The olive greens and dark yellow complete the warm colour-scheme. These projects might be bad for cars, but for an artist it gives me a safe place to stand and no traffic to block the views. 

Yellow dumpster bulldozer rear, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025 

Views of Montreal from the Chalet

Taking the opportunity to visit the Chalet viewing platform on Mount Royal on a weekday, I got to make some paintings with a relatively subdued crowd. On a weekend, this location is nearly impossible, just getting close to the railing takes some time, and with a bike it would be rather crowded. In this view, looking south, you can see the st Lawrence river and south shore in the background, with the jumble of buildings and sky scrapers in the foreground. All the buildings look straight up and down which is good!

Downtown view from Chalet, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Through the trees there was a view looking east, you can see some ships on the water, and the downtown east side of Montreal. In the foreground, sumac trees had bright red cones, and some foliage was already turning yellow-orange. 

East view Chalet, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Back in 1997, getting on for 30 years ago, I painted a winter scene up at the chalet looking south, there were a lot less sky scrapers back then. Recapturing the scene here, in the summer, I used a similar strategy of abbreviating the crowd of people and using a variety of colours. The idea was to keep it light and breezy. 

Chalet crowd, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Like many dépanneurs

Like many dépanneurs its name was not clear, so I looked it up on Google maps and saw that the proper name is Dépanneur Metropolis. A fitting name for a convenience store at the heart of Montreal. Most of st Catherines street east is permanently shut off from traffic, its now a pedestrian only zone which is good for business and gives the locals more space to hang out. It also gives me more places to set up my bike/studio and paint pictures. There were a bunch of a signs jumbled up here, the top one said Rooms and Studios, just underneath it said Madona Tabagerie (tobacco store), then the dépanneur sign, with the bière et vin reminder (beer and wine). I liked the combination of maroon, yellow, orange and dark brown. It would be worth doing a bigger painting of this, but the weather was not looking good today and I just made it home in time before the rain hit. 

Dépanneur Metropolis, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

This hole in the wall was the entrance to an art school called Syn Studio, although I see on google maps that it moved to a bigger new location out on Ontario street (not the province!). As I painted the scene, I noticed that there was an image of a mouse, like the kind attached to a computer by a wire, along side of paint brushes, pencil, pen and paint splashing. Kind of neat, that even a decade ago or so, digital art was accepted as mainstream. No technology used for this painting, it was done on location with watercolour as usual. 

Syn Studio art school, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Down near China Town there is large vacant lot that the developers want to build on but the city has prevented it for now because the Chinese community likes to use it for festivals and celebrations. One can only hope the city can preserve the space. A large wall here serves as a canvas for local artists. It appears that there was an official mural done, in the center is a landscape painting of the main street in China Town, surrounded by a cobalt-blue dragon. Then some graffiti artists added to it with their initials, which in this case is PJD25. The graffiti was done in silver spray paint which can be difficult to depict, I think it almost worked here, the background wall colour just had to be half a shade darker to make the silver pop a bit more. I copied the graffiti style, silver lettering with black outline with yellow outline. 

Art wall, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025 

Downtown jigsaw and reflections

Painting at the heart of downtown Montreal I saw many tall buildings fitting together like a jigsaw puzzle. Built during different eras, some were short and brick, others tall and clad in glass. The central building has shiny pink/yellow tinted glass which contrasted nicely with the gloomy sky. Getting the buildings to look straight is harder than it looks, I had to practice a lot to paint the straight vertical lines perpendicular with the horizon line. 

Downtown jigsaw, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

This was the first painting I did today, being on the back of an old painting I cut up, the paper is sometimes unpredictable. In the old days I soaked the paper in water and let it dry before using it, which removes most of the sizing. Unfortunately, that also makes the paint absorb deeper into the paper which dulls the colour. I really noticed it here, the first pass was all grey and washed out, so I had to go over it a second time. Soon I will switch back to using new paper instead of old cut ups. 

Place des arts angles, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

After painting the sky reflecting off three busses, I learned more about painting complex effects. In this example, the top of the glass facade was a transparent green-tinted glass, and the building across the street was visible. Another building, behind me, was reflecting off the facade glass. Its still a major challenge to paint these complex effects. In this case I used a three layer technique... the green tint first, the background and interior elements second, then the reflected building and highlights to complete the scene. 

Glass facade reflection, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025 

End of summer scenes along the Peel Basin

With the leaves starting to fall off and the squirrels running around digging, we know the summer is drawing to a close. Typically we get a long warm September and last year, we got several months of Autumn or so it seemed. This scene shows the Lachine canal on a windy day, the water was rippling and reflecting the sun. The canal bed is a brown sludge, and that colour comes through the waves especially near the shore. To paint this, first I applied the blue with a few white spots showing, then over-painted waves using short impressionist-style brush strokes.

Lachine canal windy day, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

These towering condos in Griffintown are visible from the Peel Basin, they make for great background elements. Today they were reflecting the nearly setting sun as a commuter train rolled by. Under the bridge you see some pedestrians, they would be walking on Peel street right next to Wellington street downtown.

Commuter train condo highlight, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

In the background is the famous Farine Five roses, nowadays a Malting company. Several photographers were around here taking shots of the panorama. Mostly, I featured the highway overpass in the composition, leaving the Farine sign unseen off to the left. Its a little cliche to paint the Farine Five roses building, but then again, there is probably a masterpiece somewhere on this location. 

Peel basin panorama, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025 

Busses, self portrait, flower corner

Dropping by the bulk store in Little Italy gave me the idea to drop by the parking lot near the bus depot and try the reflections again. After last time, I was thinking about how to better paint this difficult effect and settled on a four layer approach. Layer one was the window tint and sun highlight, layer two was the interior elements and background busses, layer three was the blue sky/clouds, then layer 4 was the windshield wipers and some dark highlights to make the whole illusion pop. The further away the bus, the more sky was reflected. The clouds were also depicted in the sky of course, and the windows of the building in the background. I think trying to paint something like this takes some practice and I am getting better at it, one of the bus drivers walked by and nodded... he saw me there last time painting too. 

Three busses cloud reflections, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Its not often I do a self portrait, and this was more or less the way I saw it in the same parking lot. I just added some rust-coloured freckles to complete the effect. Pareidolia is the tendency to perceive inanimate objects as human faces, as you can see the back of this loader truck appeared to have two eyes a nose and a grinning toothy mouth. 

Self Portrait, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

The bike path that runs along the train tracks in the Mile-End/Park Extension has been landscaped here and there. This corner had flowers growing, and a sign that said no dogs, no walking, no garbage. In fact, it was well respected, despite the prolific graffiti on the wall behind. 

Flowers on corner, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025 

Restaurants in NDG new and old

Down on st Jacques there are a few fast food restaurants including this A & W hamburger joint. I have tried painting it before, this time I got closer and emphasized the entrance. Bright orange was the main colour, and pale pink flowers adorned the foreground. The orange was mostly done with chormium orange hue (PO62) from Schmincke. 

A & W entrance, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

How many artists have painted the McDonald's drive through? That's probably what the people driving through were thinking. Yellow was the main theme colour here, it was in the golden arches, the brown-eyed-Susans, and the signage on the garbage can. It was a happy looking garbage can, I enjoyed painting it quite a bit. The brown sides were done with burnt umber (PBr7) and indo blue (PB60), the top reflection with dilute sapphire blue (PB15) and green umber (PBr7). A lot of pigments have the code PBr7, it can describe anything from greenish beige all the way to super dark chocolate. 

McDonald's drive through, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

I had a request from one of my 'super fans' to paint the front of the Chalet Bar-B-Q, a chicken rotisserie that has been operating since the 1950's, well before Swiss Chalet existed. Its is still more or less the same thing, albeit with higher prices now than in 1950. There are several unique elements to the scene, including the A frame overhang, the tiled facade, the golden window frames, two rooster-themed wall mosaics, and a hanging chicken-themed ornament, not to mention the over sized sign. I consider this more of a study since I would like to go back on the weekend and do an 8 x 10" when there is less traffic in the way. I think I'll crop the top windows more and zoom in the facade next time to get the details.

Chalet Bar-B-Q study, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025 

Community garden, seats, auto shop

The field at the end of Harley street has been preserved thanks to some intrepid locals who fought for it, including a woman named Cynthia I chatted with one day while painting here. Today I did some paintings in the area, this one shows a turquoise painted planter box in the foreground with beans, and other boxes strewn about the garden area. 

Community garden turquoise box, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Another 'in the field' installment... people keep putting chairs, and now benches in the field. These ones are off to the side near the fence under the trees. Instead of re-arranging the chair, either physically or artistically, I painted them just as they were. The blue chair was prominent in the middle, with the black pleather chair just behind it, an office chair to the right, and two flanking benches. It was a lot of brushwork for this one, but I have more time off from work and can continue to paint more or less full time for a little while longer. 

Three chairs and two benches, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Turning to Raffi auto, I painted a scene of the garage door open and a car inside being worked on. The car in the foreground almost looks perfect, just the back end is mashed like a potato. I guess it needs some body work in the auto shop too! A mechanic stood near the door talking on a phone, perhaps it was Raffi. 

Raffi body work, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025 

Water Lilies and scenes of Lachine canal

Where part of the st Lawrence river funnels into the Lachine canal there is a large bay full of seaweed and water lilies. You always have to think of Monet when painting water lilies, he painted them almost exclusively in his final years at Giverny France. Painting lilies in oil paint has the advantage of over-painting the highlighted elements, whereas in watercolour one has to preserve the white and yellow areas while painting around. At least if I need to practice more I know where to find water lilies. Park Angrignon also has quite a few in the central pond area. 

Lilies near shore, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

This small bridge is for pedestrians and cyclists, it connects Lachine to the narrow spits of land around the old canal. The walls of the canal look pretty old and in disrepair, you can see the concrete peeling and cracking all around, with large plaster squares where they made repairs. I suppose these various channels were for ships to wait their turn to enter the canal, now they are just for the odd canoe or kayaker. There is also a huge iron gear embedded in the ground around here, which means there used to be a rotating bridge long ago. I will try to dig up some old images to see what it used to be. 

Lilies under bridge, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Way back in April, I painted the freshly cut tree stumps along the canal bike path, the wood was toasty yellow with signs of worm holes. Today I went by and noticed that the trees have grown out of the stumps creating spherical foliage that look like manicured shrubs. Given enough time, these trees might be able to grow back, although one wonders if they will meet the same fate. The coolest thing about this painting is the shine on the bike path asphalt, I did it with a mix of blue (PB60) and raw sienna (PBr7), then blue (PB60) and maroon (PR179) near the foreground. Keeping the value contrast going from middle grey at the bottom to near white at the top gave the impression of recent rainfall reflecting off the asphalt. The yellow lines were a mix of yellow (PY154) with orange (PO62). 

Stumpy trees, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025 

Rain and sun on the st Lawrence river

There was a brief respite from the rain today so I rode down to Lachine to get more good views of the river, then it promptly rained as I arrived. Luckily it was just light rain for ten or fifteen minutes, which is what counts as a 'rain storm' these days with the arid conditions. I stood under a big tree and painted the rainy river scene using a mix of dark blue (PB60), dark magenta (PV55), and raw sienna (PBr7). A few streaks of dilute blue sapphire (PB15) was added to the sky, and a pale orange wash added to the water to signify the clearing sky on the right. 

Rain on river, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

A few moments later and the sun was on the river creating an illuminated glow on the tree line across the river, which belongs to the seaway on the left, and the south shore in the background on the right. It was a rather simple painting, so I embellished the colours in the water with impressionist-style brush strokes. Overall, it created a nice sparkle effect and conveys the dramatic difference with the gloomy first painting. 

Sun on river, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Seaweed washes up on the shore here, when fresh its a bright green-yellow, then it turns brown the longer it stays in the sun. Kind of like Kermit the frog getting a sun tan. To compose the beach scene I used a strong triangle on the bottom, and only showed water in the upper portion of the painting without a horizon line. This makes the viewer look down and examine the rocks and weeds. Closer to the shore the waves get a caramel tone from the river bed. 

Weedy beach, watercolour 6 x 7.5" hot press, August 2025