Right around the old warehouse in the Mile End neighborhood, avenue Van Horne merges into boulevard Rosemont which elevates over top of st Laurent street and the train tracks. The city is renovating the whole area around st Laurent street and the highway overpass, for example this triangle of land was turned into a small park area, complete with mounds of grass to sit on. Today the grass was toasty and yellow looking. An airplane went by in the distance.
Dried grass mound, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025
Worse than dried grass, now its fried grass. I captured the colour with yellow ochre (PY43), a touch of burnt sienna (PR101), and some shades of light green for the weeds that are still growing. Its easy to see how wild fires start, this grass was dry and crispy looking. The overpass supports have been covered in street art, it looks a lot better in in real life, here I just wanted to get the flavour of the colours and patterns, along with PJD on one of the posts.
Fried grass next to overpass, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025
There is a difference between street art and vandalism. This water tower is an iconic structure that defines the entire skyline of the Mile End neighborhood. I moved there in 2004 originally, and not once was there any graffiti on the tower. Now its all over the top and front of the structure. I decided to paint it real quick, mostly because there was a shady spot to stand and nothing much else to see. I hope the city can do the right thing and clean this up, and better yet, make some plans on what to do with the structure.
Vandalized water tower, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025
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