Laurier bike path, yellow and turquoise

The Plateau is a sprawling neighborhood to the north east of down town Montreal, as its name suggests, the Plateau is very flat. They installed a dense network of bike paths throughout the area which is nice when I get the chance to go out there and ride around. Today I went east on the Laurier path to Papineau, then switched to the Bellechase path. Finding subject matter is not easy, there is a lot of residential and light commercial with plenty of roads and cars. One neat thing about the Plateau is the people who live there are very adamant about their community... when a vacant lot comes up they fight to prevent condo developments. For instance, this old lot was turned into a minigolf course with flower boxes. Its called Minigolf des Jardins Petit Laurier. The yellow metal box was reflecting light and textures from its surroundings. 

Yellow metal flower box, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Just to the side of the minigolf there was a 'green alley' (rue verte) where the city comes in and installs planters and takes out some asphalt to grow plants, trees and flowers. Some artistic local painted the top of this sun-bleached tree stump turquoise. Everything else in the alley was neatly manicured and stylish. 

Turquoise stump, watercolour 6 x 7.5" rough press, August 2025

The turquoise theme continued with this scene of a car wash on Papineau. I noticed that the small sign to the left of the main sign said 'Terrain a Vendre' which means land for sale. Of course, the developers want to raze the car wash and put up some condos here, but I wonder if the locals will try to fight it. It would make a good mini-putt golf course perhaps. Most of the paintings today were on 300 lb rough press, the back of an old painting I cut up. I kind of like the added texture for certain scenes. 

Car Wash Papineau, watercolour 6 x 7.5" rough press, August 2025