Downtown Montreal, bring on the heat

I thought this iconic milk bottle advertisement was gone, but there it was above one of the old brick buildings on Lucien L'Allier street. hidden behind all the new sky scraper condos they put in the old parking lot near the Bell Center. I did a winter scene of this milk bottle sometime around 1998, it was not surrounded by buildings back then.The weather today was far from being winter though, it was a hot sun, blue sky, with just a cool breeze. Bring on the heat I say.

Guaranteed fresh, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, June 2025

 

When I was painting the milk bottle scene, people kept stopping, talking, taking pictures, lingering around... but it wasn't on account of me... there was some fancy sports car parked behind me. I often see people stop and take pictures in front of Ferrari cars and the like, as if pretending to own the car, which seems lame but whatever. This car had GTR on the front grill, which I just looked up and its a Nissan, so like, a budget Ferrari. The funny thing was as I painted, I noticed a parking ticket in the windshield which I included in the painting, they were parked near a fire hydrant. 

Parking ticket GTR, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, June 2025

 

A bit further on, I painted a scene of the Montreal Canadiens sign high atop the Centre Bell. Next time I need to paint the red shape a lot thinner and leave more room for the blue line. Of course, there are only concerts there now, the Canadiens were eliminated in the first round against Washington.  To make the red brick, I mixed burnt sienna (PR101) with pyrrol red (PR154), its a scintillating mixture. 

Centre Bell rear, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, June 2025