Writing on the City, graffiti alley

A back alley that runs parallel between st Laurent and Clark in the Mile End has been designated a graffiti alley. At least, for most of the structures because I did see a few buildings like the bank that removed all the graffiti from the laneway. Every available surface has been marked up with paint, pens, paste-ups (thin sheets of art glued to wall) and wood-ups (art on wood fixed to wall). I even notice a wood-up similar in style to the one I say at the Independant building likely done by the same artist. In this painting, I depicted a wide array of graffiti along with a trash bin that practically melts into the background. 

Trash bin graffiti wall, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

It was a very quiet place to paint with few people around, on the weekends the tourists come here to see the graffiti and take selfies. Almost all of the graffiti said PJD25 which coincidentally, is my initials and the year! Actually, I just try to copy the style of the graffiti, but usually I can't read the letters so I use my own. Plus, I get a bit of the exhileration that the writers must feel. Writer is the street term for a graffiti artist.  

Graffiti alley yellow tree, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

If you want to practice brush work and detail, try painting pictures of graffiti on walls. If you look back to the first painting, the graffiti had been over-painted many times, and the wall textures had to come through. They also use shiny silver paint which needs a specific effect. In the above painting, there were faded letters on the brick from where the original sign used to be (STORAGE) with additional text. Somone named Cilei wrote her name at the top, and that pesky PJD guy wrote his initials at the bottom. 

Cilei + PJD, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

With the last of the sunlight I caught this scene of a yellow tree, the old warehouse, and the upper wall of the st Laurent underpass. Of course, the writers had done their work, including CRD! in Brazillian yellow-green and blue colours, with PJD25 in red white and black. I don't need to sign the painting when it looks like this. Perhaps its too incriminating through? 

Writing on the underpass, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025 

Night on the town, NDG lights

Down on Sherbrooke and Decarie boulevard there is a PFK fast food restaurant, that stands for Poulet Frit Kentucky, or Kentucky Fried Chicken in English. Actually, the chain is not allowed to use Kentucky anymore due to copyright infringement with the state of Kentucky, for real. At any rate, the STM bus went by, that stands for Society de Transport Montreal, which really completed the scene. All colours are represented here, with plenty of red, blue, green and yellow interspersed with dark purple, orange, white, black and brown. In the midst of painting, a cop car drove up and stopped nearby, they looked over at me for a few moments and I kept painting, hoping that it was okay to paint watercolours in the PFK parking lot at night. Needless to say it was fine, they pulled over someone who drove through a red light. 

PFK STM bus, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

Standing in the same spot, I made a painting of the gas station across the street. It was familiar because I have painted the autoshop across from our condo so many times at night that I knew what to do. It still took some time to complete this one due to the amount of detail. A large throw-up (graffiti art) was on the side of a condo, which I changed to my inititals and date PJD25. Since the cops were around, I felt pretty safe, and I got to do graffiti (in my paintings) and get away with it! 

Gas station Sherbrooke x Decarie, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

 

To the left and off in the distance you see the Turcot highway interchange, and in the foreground are some of the shrubberies lining the concrete wall of the bridge that spans Decarie expressway. The bridge runs along st Jacques, but I like to call it Oscar Peterson bridge because he deserves to have a bridge named after him, and the bridge itself looks like a piano when viewed from the side. Of course, he was a famous black Canadian pianist. Doing these paintings is tough, I put together a page on night painting, it covers technical things and shows some neat night paintings from over the years. Today I made a few adjustments... I brough fresh cut paper (not the backs of old paintings) so that the paint would absorb properly. I squeezed out fresh indo blue (PB60), pyrol orange (PO73) and carbon black (PBk6) to make it easier to make the paint concentrated. Usually I let the paint dry on the palette but then its harder to use at night. The adjustments seemed to work, especially in the first painting of the blog which I actually did last chronologically on the night. 

Today was nearly complete darkenss, with only about 1.5% illumination according to a website called timeanddate.com that I have been consulting lately to optimize painting the moon or sunset. About a week from now will start to have a strong moon again leading to a Nov. 5 full moon.  

Turcot Oscar Peterson bridge, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025 

Sundown on Notre Dame avenue east

Lately, I have been working in Montreal east, and by working I mean painting watercolours (working for me usually involves sitting in a cramped all-grey office without any windows). In this scene, I was on the way back from Hochelaga neighborhood and caugh a view of the Jacques Cartier bridge in the distance with some colourful fences and stroage areas behind the Hydro Quebec building. There was a wide gravel path here, and Notre Dame avenue immediately to my left which was rather noisy. Its interesting that graffiti artists (writers) put their name and artwork on the city, literally, whereas I pull images off the city and onto paper. But its the same idea. The late writer Scan got his name because he would constantly 'scan' the city looking for places to put graffiti. I constantly scan the city looking for scenes to paint like this one. 

Sundown Jacques Cartier bridge, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

The old Molson's factory is slowly being demolished. Its bright red signage is still visible from Notre Dame avenue, although grey lines are showing up in the letters where the bulbs have burned out. Soon enough the whole structure will be razed and replaced with an affodable housing and community project. 

Molson Factory last light, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025 

Hochelaga, Rouen Graffiti Tunnel

Riding out to Hochelaga took me to downtown east Montreal well past the Jacques Cartier bridge. I was out there looking for some graffiti by Scan, the NDG 'writer' known for making burners. Translation: the person nicknamed Scan was a graffiti artist who made incredible masterpieces with spray paint on wall. He passed away in 2017 and I made a painting of part of a tribute wall over in Sud West neighborhood. The above painting shows the sun going down over top of an old factory that was converted into affordable residential housing. Graffiti adorned the building but it was done in a tasteful sort of way. The sun popped out from the clouds for a moment, which is captured in the painting.

Sundown Hochelaga, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

Standing on the same corner (Moreau and Ontario street) looking south and there was a big brick-red factory with numerous metal chimeys. It is the Lallemand food company that manufactures micro-organisms on an industrial level... like edible yeast and bacterial products. You get the sense of the neighborhood, triplex brown-brick dwellings, small trees along the sidewalk, plenty of cars and people coming home from work, and active factories. There is a massive train yard nearby too, but not easily visible. 

Lallemand food company, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

Where Rouen street goes under the train tracks, the city has authorized graffiti in the tunnel. People were there spray-painting artwork as I went by. It was tempting, but I opted for a watercolour painting instead... a lot less work it seems. Coincidentally, all of the graffiti art said 'PJD25' just like my initials. I found a City of Montreal report on graffiti published in 2003 when graffiti was getting out of control. In the report, they identified needs of the youth and community, and decided at that point to make certain areas permissiable for graffiti, to sponsor 'mural festivals' in designated areas, and to provide funding for public wall art. In doing so, there would be an outlet for people. Having said that, writers (graffiti artists) will still view an illegal piece with more street credibility. But at least the amount of graffiti is down.... NDG used to be covered in it, now there are just a few graffitis here and there. 

On the way out I saw a massive burner (masterpiece) by Scan on the wall, untouched since he did it probably ten years ago. You can see it on google maps Rouen street, just west of the graffiti tunnel.  

Rouen Graffiti tunnel, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025 

Sports Field Rainy Night

Paint at night, during a rain storm? Why not?! The numerous challeneges of doing a painting like this on location include dressing in waterproof clothes, finding an overhang to block most of the rain, and keeping everthing togther. Just getting the painting home without smearing is a feat, luckily it worked out in this case. To find a spot with enough light I gravitated to the sports field adjecent to the research center, where there were really tall, bright lights illuminating the field. The overhang I found was small and ineffective, but it kept off the worst of the rain, allowing for just a few drops here and there to create the rain effect. So the rain effect is created by having some rain fall on the watercolour while still wet. In 2021, I was caught in a rain storm and made some cool paintings of some condos and cars, and did a few out in the Jarry area. That sky byt he way is indo blue (PB60) and pyrol orange (PO73) an incedible combination. A dab of phthalo blue at the horizon completed the sky effect. 

Sports Field Rainy Night, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

Tribute to Scan, a great Montreal writer

On Cabot street, part of the Sud-Oest neighborhood in Montreal, there is a long factory made of cinder blocks that has an enormous mural. It stretches about a city block, and looks to be at least 4 stories tall at least. I've often wanted to paint the scene because it appeared to feature a prominent graffiti artist, there is a large portrat of him holding a spray-paint can at the beginnig of the mural. Today I was on the location and noticed a big engraved metal plaque, the kind you see for historically important locations, and it told the story of 'Scan' who died in 2017, he was widely considered to be one of the greatest graffiti artist of all time and it seemed up to a hundred colleagues from Montreal, Canada and around the world had joined to make this monumental mural. Most of the wall is painted in turquoise, with white outlines and other designs throughout. To tackle such a scene I had to find a composition, and some kind of connection to the landscape... I rarely paint other people's artwork out of respect, so here I intgrated their ideas with my ideas. Graffiti artists put paint on the wall, but I put the wall onto my paintings!

When I saw the saturated red fire hydrant with yellow-green cap and orange-yellow snow marker (when the snow falls this allows the hydrant to be found in the winter if its needed), then I knew it would work, along with the cinder block textures, barred window, and one of many air conditioner units. Painting something like this on location leaves no room for errors, I had to establish the outline with a small brush, then fill in the details before applying a pale yellow wash, letting it dry mostly, then applying the turquoise layer which really pulled everything together. I added the letters 'SCAN' in the center of the composition which is barely discernable, but that was the idea. 
 

If you want to know more, or see the work of Scan, I found a link telling the whole story on a web site called wall-2-wall Montreal. Reading that link, I learned that graffiti artists prefer to call themselves 'writers', and they produce burners, tags, and throws. I don't know what those words mean but I'll look into it. Hey, if there were ever a wall to paint on (legally) I would be up for it. Check out The End of Art is Art (Ecipse Flowers). I did meet a 'writer' once, he was walking along the train track path when I painted Train Crossing, in fact, he talked to me for awhile and admired the painting and told me he paints on walls, I had included him in the Train Crossing painting, just a simple blue-clad figure in the distance. 

Tribute to Scan, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

Urban Montreal: Rue Cabot area

For some good scenery of urban Montreal, rue Cabot is an accesible location just off of the Lachine canal bike path near the Passerelle Côte-Saint-Paul bike and pedestrian bridge that runs next to the highway. For this painting, I captured the Lachine canal with its famous black railings, with elaborate concrete-work and pigeons. Oh yeah, and a few autumn colours with a yellow and a red tree growing out of the old stone wall of the canal. As usual, I converted the local Graffiti into my own initials and year (PJD 25). Its kind of fun trying to emulate graffiti artists, their work (vandalism) can be very elaborate. In doing so, I get to be a graffiti artist without wrecking anything! 

Yellow green and turquoise, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

As most Montrealers in the area know, some intrepid artists painted part of the old derelict malt factory pink with green trim. I did a good one on that location of the Old Canada Malt Silos, albeit without a view of the pink house. And earlier this summer, rather incredibly, I saw people sitting on the roof of that thing driking beers which seemed absurdly dangerous.  

Pink house blue-green factory, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

Most of the autumn colours are dark yellow, olive, brown and maroon this year, no spectacular oranges or bright reds. To make up for it, as you can tell from reading the blog post, I found colours elsewhere, like this giant violet graffiti tag. Its part of an abandonded factory that the city is planning to develop into some kind of urban resisdential area. I painted this location a few times, for example I did an interpretive painting on location last year called Zen Factory. 

PJD in violet, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

The whole area around rue Cabot, which I believe is part of the Sud-Ouest (South-West) neighborhood, are factories and warehouses with just a few houses here and there. It seems to be a graffiti hotspot, with many colourful tags, and entire walls covered in street art. The rear side of this factory was a fascinating tapestry of shapes and textures. It must have had large windows at one time that were mostly boarded up and painted over. Multi-coloured bricks were plastered with bubbly graffiti tags in blue, green, yellow, pink and black. I painted fast here because dry dirt was blowing and it didn't seem to healthy to be standing around for too long. Usually we only get dry dirt clouds in the Spring, but worry not, there are like 7 days of rain predicted for us. 

Rear Factory tapestry, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025 

Frédéric Back Park, Autumn Views

When I was looking into places to see the stars in Montreal at night, I read about Frédéric Back Park up in Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension. I rode my bike there today and made some paintings of the unusual landscape and scenery. This park used to be a massive quarry which became a landfill for Montreal's garbage for decades. It has now been covered up and a park was built. Dotting the landscape are these spheres with one quarter cut out, a glass window on a curved door invites you to look in. In fact, they mowed paths so that people can walk up and look and take pictures. I put a yellow smiley-face behind the glass window to suggest someone is in there!  I got that idea from my Lemon Sunset abstract paintings, but the rest of the scene is pretty much how I saw it. Planes were going by on their way to land at the airport. 

Sphere and plane, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

Here is the view that welcomes you upon arrival to the park from Rue Paul Boutet. The trees were all manner of yellow, with a bit of red and olive mixed in. I used a lot of Bismuth Vanadate yellow (PY184), its an opaque paint good for bright yellow or chartreuse (lime) colours. 

Viewpoint Frédéric Back Park, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

Just beside this park is the massive Cirque du Soleil office and warehouse where they presumably make and store all the circus supplies. In the background of this painting, behind the trees you can see part of the structure. I was walking with my bike down this path, when the curved tree caught my attention, it really made the composition work. The quarry wall was done with a mix of wet in wet and dry brush technique. It may look all brown, but I varied the hue angle (colour) of the neutrals according to what I saw. This is a neat one, and reminiscent of Van Gogh's Tree Roots painting which I have always admired and tried to find similar scenes.  

Trees on quarry wall, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

I didn't paint as much as usual last week due to a grant that was due... more of those deadlines! When I got back to the blog, suddenly I have hundreds of views! It seems to have stemmed from the Jacques Cartier night scenes blog, a lot of people looked at that one which feels great. Of course, thousands on thousands of people have probably seen me painting in Montreal as they drive or walk by... I'm the guy standing next to his bike painting out of the rear bike bag. As mentioned, Frédéric Back Park was a landfill, which creates large amounts of methane. To make the area safe for people, they encased these methane pipes in the spheres... there were hundreds of them all over, sitting in amongst some beautiful fields of wildflowers and trees. I may have embellished this one a little... 

Another arrival, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

On the way out I rode around the entire quarry on the bike/walking path and saw this view of the far quarry wall and a very old pylon sitting up on the ledge. There is a fence in between me and the scene which I omitted. Never has one brush stroke been so important in a painting... after doing a thin outline with a paint brush (I don't use pencil or pen at all), then I applied one brush load of pale red-orange (pyrol orange PO73) to the pylon. Since the rest of the painting is brown and dark yellow it is the only source of high-chroma colour (bright). Anyways, I've painted a lot of pylons before but this one might be Montreal's oldest pylon.  

Old pylon quarry view, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

Belvédère Outremont sunset view

To better paint the night sky including moon and stars I did a little reading on astronomy and stargazing in Montreal. The fact is, Montreal is in a high 'light pollution' area rating a 9 out of 10 on the scale, making it one of the worst places to see stars at night. But local astronmers listed two locations where the view was a bit better including this spot, called the Belvédère Outremont, and the large park that used to be a landfill in the north east of town (Frédéric Back Park). Today I went to Belvédère Outremont after work and found a large clearing with rock slabs, chairs for lounging, and a wide open view to the west northwest direction. Its one of the few places that the city clears trees around the mountain, so as to not block the view. Several people arrived and snapped some pics with their smart phones. 

West view sunset realist, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

In the first painting I used a realist approach by painting the background, letting it dry, then over-painting the clouds and trees. In this version, I used an impressionist technique where I painted the trees first, capturing all the detail in the branches, trunks and leaves, then daubed in the surrounding sky and background vista. In the winter I will have to paint something like this most of the time since the paint wont dry fast enough. Even today, I did the background of the other two paintings, and did this one while they dried. 

West view sunset impressionist watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

This painting uses a surreal, colour-splash technique to create vibrant colour and energy. Its never clear how it will work out, in the midst of painting, I really thought it was a disaster and a waste of paper, but then I recalled the Cloud over Trenholme park painting, one of my favorites of all time. In today's painting, surprising colour blooms formed in the clouds and trees which added a mysterious texture to the scene. So I used three different treatments today of the same scene, realism, impressionism and surrealism. If I can make it back to this location in the winter I think it would be a good one. 

West view autumn sunset, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025 

Gravel field botanicals

Painting around the gravel field, I found an old disused asphalt road that stretched for several kilometers to the east. The road was surrounded by fields of dry grass and aspen tree saplings, with thousands upon thousands of small white daisies and other occasional purple or yellow flowers. I stopped to make a painting of one small yellow flower and a star-shaped green plant, with a small bee on the flower. The two plants were growing out of a pothole in the asphalt, which I depicted in black and white. 

Yellow flower green plant bee, watercolour 7.5 x 11" cold press, October 2025

There were thousands upon thousands of these, so I made a close-up of just one plant at the same location. This time, I filled in the gravel and asphalt with a grey wash toned blue to yellowish, then daubed in the yellow centers (PY154 + PY43), followed by some foliage and shadow detailing. I dont often paint botanical close-ups, but today the scenes at the gravel field were all pretty much similar, it was just interesting to see nature coming back on its own. I did another one of cosmos flowers in the gravel field.  

Daisies asphalt, watercolour 7.5 x 11" cold press, October 2025 

Old Turcot trainyard gravel fields

Down where the old Turcot trainyards used to be, there is a great expanse of gravel stretching from the Rue st Jacques bridge all the way east to the Turcot interchange, a distance of about 3 km. I painted a few scenes there back in June when there were thousands of yellow flowers. Today I headed back down there and made this panorama scene of the gravel field with its natural regrowth, and the highway and train in the background, with NDG up on the escarpment. The city has a massive plan, with Federal funding, to renaturalize the whole esccarpment area including these gravel fields. I found a link to the full plan in a gazette article, it was a 75 page pdf document filled with maps, pictures and plans. 

Gravel field panorama, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

Ever wonder where Concrete dividers go when they die? I never did, but got the answer today! In the gravel fields there is an area filled with rows of neatly stacked concrete dividers, with a tall pile of the broken ones lying at the end. A pylon had also passed away. Getting the concrete to look heavy and textural took many different techniques and layers. It does truly look like a pile of concrete dividers with a pylon. 

Concrete divider pile, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025 

Here is another scene from the same location, but looking towards the neat stack of concrete dividers. The sun was coming down from left to right here, which cast a neat blueish shadow on the sun-bleached rocks. The plan for this area is to turn it into a forest with some wetlands, and a meandering walking path. It sounds fine, but I don't mind it the way it is, silent and no people around. Given enough time, a forest will grow up, I saw thousands of aspen trees probably from the canal trees nearby. 

Concrete divider stacks, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025  

Vacant lot renaturalization project?

Along st Jacques street, which runs parallel with the NDG escarpment, there are many autoshops, light industrial, and parking lots, not to mention the Enterprise car rental. Nearby, a large vacant lot has been growing wild for a few years now. I did a sunset scene there, and a few scenes just after the snow started to thaw. In the last painting on the snow thaw blog I did a scene of the adjacent lot which was full to the brim with trucks and dumpsters. Today, the main lot was really overgrown with a small forest almost, while the adjacent lot was completely cleared out of all trucks and dumpsters and trash. The city recently got 25 million to renaturalize the escarpment forest and I suspect this is part of the plan. In the painting, I showed the bright sun hiding behind a tree, with the golden-green field that is coming up through the gravel and asphalt. Of course, it could just be another condo project, time will tell!

Sun on vacant lot field, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

In the background of this unusual scene you can see a very weird condo they built to kind of look like a castle, with an even weirder truck in the middle-ground. The truck was some kind of heavy utility truck with a lot of hydraulics, it may have been for cutting down tall tree branches, or lifting components on construction yards. On the right is the overgrown vacant lot, which has filled in to become a field with a small forest in the middle. I also stopped by Terry Fox park and pulled more creeper vines off the trees, they are doing a lot better now, I cut a lot of the creeper vines over the last few years. 

Weird truck condo overgrown lot, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025 

Autumn views from Glen hill

Standing up on Glen hill behind the mega hospital provides excellent views of Montreal and the southern neighborhoods. In the foreground, there were a variety of trees with different autumn colours ranging from green to red to orange to yellow. The cars were moving along the highway like red blood cells travelling through a blood vessle. To create contrast I did the cars with a black, white red and green colour scheme which popped against the earthy and warm surrounding elements. 

Highway panorama autumn, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

From the same location looking east there is a good view of the curving highway and downtown core. Last time I was here the hill was overgrown with wildflowers and blue butterflies, today it was mowed, and only a few butterflies were left over. The weather has been furtunate although still a little chilly lately. Yellow and olive are predominant, there is not much orange or red this autumn. 

Downtown highway Glen hill, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025 

Jacques Cartier bridge night scenes

It gets dark so early now its night by 7pm. The other day I read about twilight and found out that there are three phases of twilight including astronomical twilight, nautical twilight and civil twilight that differ by the number of degrees below the horizon the sun is at. Technically it is night in this painting since the sun was well under the horizon and there were no discernable traces of the sunset remaining. To do the painting I set up near Notre Dame avenue and captured the Jacques Cartier bridge illuminated with funky fiber optic orange pink and yellow lights. It was noisy and still a lot of traffic was on the road as you can see. 

Jacques Cartier bridge lit up, watercolour 7.5 x 11" cold press, October 2025

Looping around and then riding up the Jacques Cartier bridge on the bike path, I found the small viewing platform and made a panorama painting of the city at night. In the foreground is the st Lawrence river, then the train yard, then the down town core. Off to the left is old Montreal and the ferris wheel illuminated in pink light. 

City night panorama, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

Still standing on the viewing platform, I did this painting looking back towards the brige, omitting all the fences. The carzy lights and geometric patterns with the cars roaring by made for a hectic scene. At the bottom left you see a sliver of the river, and a bit of the traffic going by on Notre Dame av. Finished in 1930 it was originally called the Montreal Harbour Bridge, its clearance over water is about 50 meters, and its highest point is about 100 meters. It is around 3km long, although I was only a short distance along the bridge where the first viewing platform is located. 

Disco bridge, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

Aspiration trees, colourful inventory

After work I picked up a few things at Snowdon bakery on Harley street then made a couple of paintings down the street at the field. The field is an undeveloped plot of land that Reno depot (now Rona+) donated to the community and now its a community garden, flower area, and they recently planted several rows of trees. In the background, you see the tree line that grew up along the fence next to the train tracks, while the newly planted trees are seen in the foreground. The new trees are aspiring to be bigger!  

Aspiration trees, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

Next to the field is the loading dock and storage area for Rona+. The fence has vines growing on it, which were painted last after the colourful inventory was completed in the background. Of course, I fit in a small neon orange pylon on the bottom left. Pylons are practically my signature by now, although I added PJD25 for good measure. The pylon is done with a mixture I call "Montreal orange" after all the pylons they have here, its mostly benzi orange (PO62) with a dab of pyrol orange (PO73). 

Rona+ inventory, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

Dusk on the Lachine canal

After the sun had set, the sky turned a cotton-candy pink with big fluffy violet clouds streaked in red. The artificial lights were prominent against a darkening sky and surroundings. Pink, violet and orange light reflected off of the rippling water. To paint something like this in watercolour it is important to keep the light highlights free of paint... the white areas are simply paper. Creating the illusion is the greyish background, even thought is colourful its a middle value. I also composed one of the clouds around the lamp to give even better contrast. For the lights along the other side of the canal, I surrounded them in lime green, then a near-black green to give a glow. Finally, the dark condos (PBk6 + PR101), and dark lamp post and railings complete the effect. 

Dusk on canal with lamp, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

Just after the sun set, before I did the other painting, I did one of the train going over the bridge. In the background is a sprawling industrial complex turned into condos. Some of that structure used to be the Coleco factory that made toys until the 1970's when production went over seas. I swung by the glass factory after dark but the scene was not impressive, and I saw another good painting along the canal, but decided to save a few things for another day. 

Train over canal sundown, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

Autumn tree colours make an appearance

Autumn leaf colours have been hard to find this year so far. Like here, you can just make out some bright yellow looking under the bridge. In the foreground, there is an old industrial building painted magenta and brick-red with graffiti, and a curving bridge off to the upper right.  

Trees through bridge, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

Getting a better view of a red tree with a squirrel nest at the very top, I made this painting and included a yellow tree and an olive-coloured tree. The red is fairly high chroma but slightly neutralized, and more orange toward the bottom, greyish at the top due to the sky effect. The red is pyrol (PR254) with burnt sienna (PR101) in the middle of the tree, with orange (PO62) mixed in at the bottom and dilute blue (PB60) dabbed in at the top. Subtle variations like this are barley perceptible but still give a sense of atmosphere. 

Red tree squirrel nest, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

The back side of a long factory-turned-residential structure is covered in creeper vines that turned a bright, dark red with some yellow and green trees in front. To make the creeper-vine red I mixed perylene maroon (PR179) with a touch of pyrol red (PR254). The tracks were a simple combination of burnt sienna, carbon black (PBk6) with a greyish background (PB60 + PR101). 

Yellow green red leaves near train tracks, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

I took another crack at the El Pro factory, also turned condo a long time ago, and got some decent results. There were actually about 20 windows going across in the view, but I only painted about 7 across. If the paint was drying better I could have squeezed in more detail. On the way back, this structure is more impressive with lighting at night, especially in the back where I painted the other day. 

El Pro front side view, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

City scenes lights and flags

As I slogged up Peel towards the downtown core, I caught a good view of the sun peeking out from behind one giant glass tower and reflecting on the adjacent one. The view is looking up, in the direction of st Antoine west, the tower on the left is probably The Canadiens tower 3. Today, I brought along some old paintings done on 7.5 x 11" pieces of cold press paper, there was nothing on their backs until now! So there is still writing in pencil at the bottom here, it could be easily erased if needed. 

 Sun reflection glass towers, watercolour 7.5 x 11" cold press, October 2025

Usually its geese honking as they fly south, but today it was hundreds of cars honking their horns on Rene-Leveque boulevard, while waving Palestinian flags. Cop cars were interspersed in the traffic, they had red, white, and blue lights blinking (although no sirens). The whole spectacle looked like some kind of bizarre parade, but it obviously had something to do with the situation in the Middle East. One can only hope a sort of peace can be enacted to end the violence. Last night, I read parts of a Monet art book and he painted The Rue Montorgueil in Paris which depicted French flags on a narrow city street, that event was meant to celebrate 'peace and work' in France in 1878. 

Lights flags honking, watercolour 7.5 x 11" cold press, October 2025

Train yard flowers highlight

Making my way over to the train yard viewing area, which is a new bike path and benches installment at the south end of Point st Charles, I saw thousands of colourful wild flowers growing near the fence. In the background were the parked VIA and commuter trains that I painted before a few times. Although the weather today was a balmy 29℃, it was incredibly windy on this location once again. Obviously, there is a wind-tunnel effect here due to the train tracks that run east/west. Painting this one was a physical challenge as much as an art challenge, I had to keep everything tight with the strong wind while manipulating teeny-tiny brushes with accuracy. I'm glad I hung in there and the painting didn't blow away, its an instant classic! 

Flowers and trains, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

At the end of the trail, there is a very high, over 10 meter, berm of earth covered in wild flowers and a narrow goat-trail (no goats though). I marched my bike up to the top where there was a wide 2 x 3 meter flat dirt area where I could stand and paint with a good view of the train yard. The sun was reflecting off the train tops, creating a highlight at the center of mass. I started with concentric rings of light and colour, then over-painted the whole train scene. The wind up here was even stronger but I held on to everything and got the painting done, although I forgot to initial it as I made a hasty retreat down the hill. 

Train yard highlight, watercolour 7.5 x 11" cold press, October 2025