Train over Peel and Wellington

After doing a smaller study of this train bridge over Peel and Wellington, I wanted to do a slightly larger version so as to capture the full effect. It was quite dark by now, and the only nearby lamp was amber which made colours difficult to judge. The underside of the bridge, a smooth concrete, was reflecting the glow of the city, including lamps, traffic lights, and a multitude of cars. A passenger train rumbled by overhead, with people sitting comfortably in train cars. To paint this, I first established the main shapes with a small #2 paintbrush, then preceded to fill in the colour blocks, finishing with textures, car details and colourful condo windows. It definitely captures the moment. If you were standing here and turned around, you would see the Peel basin and famous Farine Five Roses in bright red neon.   

Train over Peel and Wellington, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4953a)

Evening scenes pops of colour

It gets so dark here, it could be 5PM and its dark already. Wings noodles was a famous Chinese restaurant that also manufactured fortune cookies and noodles for distribution. They are shuttered now, and the building's ownership is up in the air. The previous shopkeepers wish to make a museum there, which would be good for tourism. And the museum food would be fantastic. 

Wings encroaching condos, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4936b)

The buildings along main street Chinatown are of all different ages and architecture. The upper floors seem dark, with the occasional light on, perhaps there are apartments up there. The entire ground level are small shops selling art, noodles, souvenirs, and all sorts of things, this part of the street is still very active. 

Chinatown storefronts, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4934b)

Crescent street has a number of famous pubs, many of which I have been to once or twice. This one had red, blue and green lights decorating its facade, with a multitude of buildings and windows in the background. Its a striking scene in real life, and always busy with people around here. To paint something like this, the colour and light areas need to be done first, then paint around until it fills in. Once the dark sky is complete, the whole scene comes together. 

Crescent street colours, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4937a)

Autumn colours glass buildings

Earlier in the month the autumn colours were finally emerging, with red, yellow and shades of olive all over the city. This scene from downtown Montreal contrasts the towering glass and concrete buildings in the background with the delicate trees in the foreground. Its as if the trees are holding up the sturctures. In the foreground there is a bus stop, and a signature garbage can. To mix autumn leaf colours, I blend earth pigments with synthetic pigments... for example yellow ochre (PY43) with benzi yellow (PY184) or burnt sienna (PR101) with pyrol red (PR254). That produces about 3/4 chroma colours that are between being dull and bright. If you use pure synthetic pigments it looks unnaturally bright, while pure earth colours will look too drab. 

Autumn colours glass buildings, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4906b)

Illuminated night life, passing trains

About 10 years ago this area was very flat, just a bus depot and large parking lot, now its a teeming hub of city life, illuminated at night. Overhead, the VIA train and STM commuter trains go by, while underneath the city was fully lit up in yellow white and orange lights. The underside of the bridge, a kind of polished concrete, reflected the lights from the street lamps and passing cars. Just the bottom third had a daunting amount of detail to complete on location, with the top portion containing shapes and textures of concrete and a passing train. Passengers could be seen, comfortably seated. 

El train illuminated city (study), watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4932b)

With heavy overcast conditions, some buildings were projecting colours onto the cloud cover. The green was likely from the Dejardins building in place des Arts, which I painted up close the other evening near the skating rink. The top floor of this condo had interior magenta lights, while the other windows, and lights on the passing train were shades of yellow and pale orange. Its good to find as many light sources as possible at night to give some contrast elements.   

Cloud colours passing train, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4933b)

The train was rumbling by on the overpass to the right, while a converted-factory-condo building was illuminated by big flood lights on the left of the scene. I am standing on Wellington street sidewalk looking due south here, using the light from a white-LED streetlamp for illumination. I settled on this scene for its composition, the dark blue-violet sky made an interesting shape wedged between the two flanking elements.  

Condo convert near overpass, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4934a)

Finding lights on a grey day

Painting in poor weather is definitely a technical challenge, as well as a mental challenge, because you would rather be at home with a hot beverage and dry clothes than standing next to the Lachine canal in cold dark wet conditions. To do this painting I composed the 'hybrid trees' which have vertically textured bark on the bottom but horizontally textured bark on the top, along with the bike path and industrial scene in the background (the paper recycling factory). Its important to circle the light sources in a matching colour before starting, so as to keep that area fresh. There are two main lamps, several smaller lights, and a red light on top of the smoke stack. It was completed wearing the big oven-mitt sized gauntlet mitts due to wind chill. 

Grey bike path, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4932a)

I have seen this scene a few times, and decided to stop and paint it today, with not much light left at all. The sky was an odd colour, like patches of blue and pinkish orange interspersed with shades of grey. The commuter train went by a few times and I caught some of its detail and lighting effects. As with the other painting, all the white, yellow, orange and red areas had to be kept clear, while the greyish washes needed to stay put. This area, near Wellington, used to be a flat parking lot and bus depot, with single story buildings. Now, its teeming with soaring glass condos and busy commercial streets.   

Grey commuter train, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025  (No. 4933a)

In Old Port, the Ferris wheel was illuminated with tye-dyed colours which popped out of the gloomy greyish sky. I used combinations of indo blue (PB60) and pyrol orange (PO73). In fact, I used the same combo for the skies in the other paintings, but with a dab of raw sienna or yellow ochre plus water to neutralize and grey it down. As I mentioned once before, completing the 68 stations of the Montreal Metro series gave me an uncanny ability to mix shades of grey, mostly for concrete. In this painting, its more of a mauve and navy mix though, which looks good against the other lighting effects. 

Ferris wheel dark sky, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4936a)

 

Snowing in Montreal, industrial scenes

Montreal always has some surprises in store when it comes to the weather. Today was hovering around zero ℃ with snowfall that became rather wet. To paint this scene, I was standing up on the Glen hill escarpment behind the new hospital... there is an access road open to pedestrians and cyclists and a path that runs along a narrow ridge. Most of the view is st. Henri as seen from above. To paint the snow effect, I carefully brushed around little white spaces to give the illusion of snowflakes falling in front of the scenery. Its a daunting technique that requires precise brushwork. 

Snow falling vista, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025  (No. 4931b)

Down at the Atwater market they are selling holiday trees for Christmas, the whole parking lot area was full of them. I felt bad for the trees, technically they are still alive but disconnected from their root system. Sunlight was struggling through heavy winter clouds, creating an intense snow glow on the glistening asphalt. Snow came down the entire time I painted, making the results rather uncertain. At least I got the painting home without it smearing. Next time I should remember my 8 x 10" drying rack. 

Holiday trees snow glow, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, November 2025

To find shelter, I ventured into the Zen factory, an abandoned structure on st Patrick, despite all the warning signs, contamination and risk of collapse. Most of the flooring was gone, the stairs rickety, and electrical wires were dangling all over. I was impressed with the amount of graffiti inside the building, you can see some in the painting, which looks out towards the old Maltage building and pink house. Now, if I really was inside the building, you might be wondering why snow was falling on the painting. This could have been an egregious use of artistic license, I am known to exaggerate from time to time! 

Inside Zen factory? watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4935b)

I completed this painting on a previous trip downtown, its a massive excavation on the corner of st Catherine and st Hubert where a row of shops and apartment used to be. I am looking into the pit, with a view of the colourful construction fencing, and a variety of different foundations below. Some foundations were stacked stone, probably well over 100 years old, while other foundations were more modern brick or concrete. It was like an urban archeology site, one that will soon be filled in with new developments. 

Foundations, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4935a)

 

South Central, Molson, sunny day

Viger park is located on top of the underground autoroute 136, they covered the highway to create the park, some seating, and a dog area. I am standing in the park looking east towards the Cartier bridge, in the middle ground you can see a sliver of the underground highway, and the foreground has a little berm of snowy grass. There was a lot of detail here for a small paper, I used to number 2 brush to work up the outlines and fill. Its a such a good spot to stand, with good sun, I could go back one day and do a bigger version of this scene. 

Viger park bridge view, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4930a)

There was full sun today, with just a few clouds here and there. I had to remember how to paint sun lit surfaces and shadows, its been a long time painting night scenes and gloomy overcast scenes. The main structure here, which still has the iconic clock and MOLSON sign, looks like it might be saved from demolition, but its hard to tell what they could do with it, now that the brewery has moved. The plan was to build community housing, and to extend the old port tourist area. 

Molson full sun, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, November 2025

Viger park has seen better days, it looks like it was built in the 60's or 70's judging by the quality of the concrete. A large circular mosaic of blue and green slabs has crumbled and eroded to the point of being a work of art in its own right. A photo would have done it justice, but I took a crack at making a painting. The textured, gnarly trees completed this somewhat creepy scene. 

Broken tiles, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4931a)

Google maps says this is called Ancien hôpital de la Miséricorde, its on Rene Leveque and st Hubert streets. The whole thing is abandoned now and the graffiti people have started painting parts of the facade. After some reading, it turns out the whole structure is owned by the city and might be turned into affordable housing, and a clinic may open again. 

Abandonded hospital, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4930b)

On the way downtown I stopped at Place des Arts to take in the sun. A parade was going along st Catherine which blocked the whole north south transit. So I continued along Maisonneuve path until I got to South Central neighborhood to make the bridge and park paintings. 

Snow pile Place des Arts, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025  (No. 4929b)

Night skating downtown, pink and green lights

The other day I painted a scene of the city workers preparing the downtown ice rink, because I was wearing a neon green bib people thought I worked for them and asked me when the rink would be open! It got me thinking to try this scene again, at the end of the Montreal night colours blog you see an attempt from last year during a cold snap. This year, they doubled the size of the rink due to popular demand, it is located just south east of the spectacles park, along st Catherine. The lights were rotating between magenta and cyan, with shades of violet in between. Getting into the painting and the water started to freeze, but I was prepared with salt water and switched over to finish the painting. Another cool (freezing!) painting of a skating rink was skating rink in cyan. 

Night skating downtown in magenta, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, November 2025

Up and to the right, I saw a green glow from the Complexe Desjardins, it was like, who needs the Northern Lights when you have this to look at? It was a technical painting, done with salt water, the trick was in the timing of the sections so as to avoid wet-in-wet effects. It was quite fun painting a green sky like this, it reminds me of the Finland painting from my World Inspired Landscapes series. 

Green aura skyline, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4929a)

Sundown in South Central neighborhood

Apparently there is a neighborhood called South Central, its located east of the Gay Village and west of Hochelaga, roughly centered on the Papineau metro station which you can see in the foreground of this painting. In the background of course, is the other defining feature of this neighborhood, the Jacques Cartier bridge with the very last of the sun catching its top. With the wind chill, I did the entirety of this painting wearing the deer-skin gauntlet mitts which resemble oven-mitts. I've gotten a lot better at painting with these gloves on, I even used the small number 2 brush to do most of this painting. 

Last light Jacques Cartier bridge, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4927)

A gas station on the corner made good contrasts with the bridge in the background. Green and red will always produce some drama, and the angled bridge against the perpendicular gas station made for decent composition. In this case, I had to complete the fine details at home from memory because it was extremely moist on location and it was the last painting of the day. 

Bridge over gas station, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4928a)

This was the first painting on location... sometimes there is an adjustment period, in other words, the first painting sucks. But I kind of saw where the limits were considering the conditions, it was hovering around 0 ℃ with much colder windchill, and I could use fresh water today, no need for salt. Big wet washes simply wont work very well in cold humid conditions, its better to fill in areas with small brush strokes. Over the years, I actually developed a different technique for winter/cold weather painting as compared to summer. Quite a few people today took a look and congratulated/encouraged me to paint on a day like today. 

Bridge over Maisonneuve, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4928b)

Cool cat night in the city

With a cold and blustery late afternoon, I rode my bike along the Maisonneuve bike path heading downtown. This scene caught my eye, and when the cat walked along the train tracks, it all came together. Of course, the cat didn't pose for me, so I tried to memorize its shape and apply it first, then added the train tracks and rest of the scene, including the graffiti on the wall. In the background is the busy corner where Cavendish intersects with st Jacques. The treeline in the background is the upper portion of the Falaise escarpment forest. 

Cat along tracks, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4921b)

In st Henri the train goes by frequently at this time of day. A subtle pastel sky played well against the dark green pine trees and subtle blue-grey foreground. Some textures in the foreground completed the illusion of depth. I thought about touching this one up at home, but preferred to leave it as is, with a soft dreamy quality. 

Train crossing pastel sky, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4925b)

This scene shows one of the footbridges that goes over the canal, along with a pastel reflection in the water. The classic black fence in the foreground provides necessary contrast. It was almost dark upon completion of this painting, but I forged ahead anyways. 

Canal pastel reflections, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4926a)

Standing on the corner of Wellington and Robert Bourassa looking north west... there was this view of Place Ville Marie building in the background with its characteristic pink lights on the top. Traffic was pouring out of the city along the street which created a variety of light and dark contrasts. Hundreds of other lights could be seen in building windows, and artificial lamps in yellow, orange and white. It was a grueling painting to make on location, with a strong, cold west wind pelting me, and some damp conditions. After doing this one, I had another piece of paper ready to go, but passed on a few scenes in order to go home and get a hot cup of tea and see my favorite person in Montreal. 

Robert Bourassa Place Ville Marie, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4926b)

Winter and everything Montreal

Downtown near the Park du Quartier des spectacles, there is a large skating rink they were preparing today. It seemed wishful thinking that the rink would stay frozen for any amount of time, it will continue to get warmer next week, although tonight it will be below freezing. A small Zamboni was zooming around the rink making the surface ready for skaters. 

Ready the skating rink, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No.4925a)

Painting orange and purple pylons, a protest went by... something to do with PEQ. After some internet research, it turns out that PEQ stands for Programme de l'expérience québécoise, it was a program meant to fast track permanent residency for foreign workers or students. It has been cancelled now, and presumably, these protestors were people who would have been otherwise eligible for the program. Several of my graduate students used this program to gain residency after they graduated. Those students I supervised at the University all have jobs now in the high tech sectors, biomedical and pharmaceutical research, and a few in medical school. 

Pylons and protestors, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4922b)

Even though the temperature was slightly above zero ℃, the windchill felt significantly colder, and it was wet wind. Along st Urbain there is a police station, and many cop cars and SUV's park on the street. Last time, the vehicles were under yellow trees, which created neat reflections. There was also a scene of cop cars parked up and down Berri for the Palestine protests, as seen in the last painting of this blog from September. Painting vehicles is tricky due to their odd shapes and perspective. The perspective makes it so the front of the car is about half the size as the back of the car, but it depends how far away the car is. Sometimes you just gotta paint and not think about it. 

 Cop SUV snow, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No.4924b)

Snowfall on Chinatown

Chinatown in Montreal is located along Rue De la Gauchetière between Rue Côté and Saint Dominique. The streets are lined with small restaurants and shops, with plenty of pedestrians including locals and tourists milling about. With snow in the forecast, I headed out there by bike and got a few good paintings in before the wind and cold finally got to me. This scene shows one of the trees with red lanterns, and the facades of a popular row of Chinese-style restaurants.

Snowfall on Chinatown, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4920a)

The sky today was painted with a dilute mix of pyrol orange (PO73) and indo blue (PB60), this combo can be used for night sky, or for a pale periwinkle (powder blue). Searing through the gloom were a row of bright red lantern spheres with yellow tassels. I did this painting while the background of the first painting was drying. Then I could overlay the tree on the first painting, and come back to this one for details. In this way, I can do several painting on location in cold wet weather. 

Red spherical lantern, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4919b)

The graffiti morons got to this mural... in the old days it had a large graffiti by SCAN, so when the city painted over it with a mural, I think the graffiti people must have felt obliged to paint over the mural. At any rate, the effect is pretty neat, with a porcelain-like background of a writhing dragon, the local cityscape painting in the middle, and a shiny graffiti name outlined in yellow and black. That PJD25 guy need to be busted. On the roof, there is some kind of patio bar. 

Graff on mural, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4923a)

Unfortunately, Chinatown is suffering from neglect and decay, with a large number of buildings boarded up and shut down. Developers are licking their chops to knock down structures and build shiny glass condos, but the heritage status and importance to local history, and the boon to tourism has kept things in place. By the looks of it, hundreds of million of dollars would be needed to update and revitalize the existing structures. 

Sundown on Chinatown, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025  (No. 4923b)

CBC ran an article about Wings Noodles, a popular restaurant of 75 years in Chinatown that has closed down its business. By coincidence, I painted these signs today, including the Wings sign, which you see on the right side of the painting. Hopefully something can be done to reinvigorate the neighborhood. We talk about Quebec culture, and Chinatown is part of it. In the 19^th century this was a Jewish neighborhood, which gradually gave way to a Chinese community throughout the 20^th century.  

Wings Noodles sign, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No.4924a)

Sun struggling through the clouds

Parts of autoroute 136 are covered, I painted one of the entrance tunnels the other day on a cold afternoon. Further east, the Viger square park stretches over the autoroute, providing some much needed open space and places to sit for the locals, complete with a dog park. Apparently, its also a good spot to make watercolour paintings, and to roll funny smelling cigarettes. You can guess which activity I was doing. Small patches of snow were still hanging on, but with above zero ℃ temperatures it will melt soon. Having said that, snow is on the forecast for tomorrow. 

Viger square park, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4920a)

An arched bridge crosses over the Lachine canal on Mill street, connecting the Bonadventure expressway 10 with Old Montreal. A bike path also goes underneath. Our new Mayor of Montreal said they will not remove any bike paths, but might slow down the development of new ones. In this painting, you can also see a new condo building they completed last year, it is clad in blue, with a pale grey circle in the middle. The sun was struggling to get through the clouds today. 

Arc bridge, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4921a)

Every so often I take a crack at this scene, it gets slightly better each time. I was rather hoping the tourists would be absent this time of year, but it was still full, and several people had to talk to me, or give a running commentary to their friend or child as to what I was doing. Its okay being an entertainment product, there is not much to do around here after labor day. The pigeons didn't seem to mind. 

Bonsecours Market pigeons, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4922a)

Silo #5 scenes

In Old Port Montreal where all the tourists tend to hang out, there is a prominent factory in the background which has been shut down for a number of years. Its called silo #5 and it used to be some sort of grain storage and elevator system, involved in the malted barley (beer) industry. A dirt road provides access to the nearby Bota Bota Spa... its a spa on a boat with attached restaurant, and the road loops around silo #5 to a small outcrop of land. On location there were big, sweeping views of the st. Lawrence river and distant Jacques Cartier bridge. Looking west gave this neat view of the rear grain elevator system, and a giant chunk of twisted metal and gears in the foreground, covered in graffiti. 

Silo #5 grain elevators, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4880)

Looking from the front angle, there was a small bridge connecting two of the massive structures. To malt barley, the seeds have to germinate, then get dried out when the sugar content is maximum. Part of this factory was probably for germination, while the silos were for storage of the finished grain. Then, it would go off to the brewery to become beer. Historically, this malting industry in Montreal supplied most of North America. Cheers!

Silo #5 cross bridge, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4919a)

 

 

Snow pile commuter train

At the end of the Rona+ parking lot there are some good views of the local scenery, and in the winter they pile snow up here. One day in 2023 there was a big pile of snow that blocked all the view, it was a small mountain of snow! Today, the snow was piled up but melting fast, and the nearby tree had dropped yellow leaves on top, which is an odd thing to happen. Usually all the leaves fall off, then it snows, but this year the leaves took a long time to change colour and fall off, many trees still have leaves. As I painted, the commuter train rolled by. There is a new style of train, it has a large blue or teal circle on the side... its easier to paint than the other one that has a wave pattern. 

Snow pile commuter train, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4918)

Snowy night intense purple sky

An old bridge next to the autoroute 15 overpass is now reserved for bikes and pedestrians, it can be seen toward the right side of the painting complete with customized graffiti. In the background, is a large factory on st Patrick close to av de L'Eglise, now its a mix of different kinds of businesses like gyms and studios.  A yellowish lamp was illuminating the fresh snow and concrete embankments of the bridge head and canal. It was a tricky painting to pull off on location especially considering the wet snow constantly falling. Both paintings today were completed on location... I have some really warm and waterproof clothing to make it possible. 

Passerelle Côte-st-Paul night snow, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4917b)

The first layer of this painting was done at the location, but it quickly turned into a mushy mess because wet snow was coming down strongly onto the painting. Since I had the second wood drying rack, I could put it back into my bike bag and move to the next location (seen in the first painting of the blog). When I finished the bridge painting, I then finished this one... just standing next to my bike. I really thought it was a disaster, like a waste of paper after the first layer got soaked, but the main shapes and colours held up, and the sky got an incredible wet and windy texture. The graffiti was all done by my crew, FITZ, CILS, DYER, PJD25 and DDAWG. 

Silo dumpsters snow storm, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4916b)

Purple sky snow covered night

Thick blankets of snow covered everything in Montreal including these pine trees near Decarie expressway. Nearby lamps were casting an amber tint over the snow, intermixing with purple from the sky. Getting the subtle tints right was the challenges, for example the pine trees go from orange to grey, and the snow had variations of orange and caramel tones. 

Pine trees near Decarie tint, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4916a)

Strong white flood-lights illuminated the local skateboard park which was blanket in snow. In the background is the local school with a few orange lamps. It was very quiet here, almost silent due to the time of day and the snow, which absorbs sound effectively. To do the glow-effect of the lamp, a series of rings are made wet-in-wet starting with greenish pale yellow, then merging with the soft purple sky. 

Snow covered skateboard park, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4917a)

First snow, heaps of it!

The snow finally arrived in large amounts, covering Montreal with a thick blanket. With temperatures slightly below 0 ℃ the snow accumulated all day leaving most things completely covered. In this scene, a fire hydrant, shrub, car and trees were barely visible under the piles of snow. Since the leaves had not completely fallen off yet, it made many tree branches bend and droop downwards. 

First piles of snow, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4915)

A large tree on Somerled accumulated snow on all its branches, with some yellowish leaves poking through. A traffic sign was plastered in snow making it impossible to read, while cars went by also covered in snow. Painting watercolour, or any colour, in these conditions is difficult to say the least but I have been doing it for years, or decades rather. I built a drying rack, its a balsa-wood frame, sized to the paper (6 x 7.5") that I place on top of the paper and use elastics to fasten it to a stiff piece of cardboard. This device will protect the surface of the painting from smudging when it goes back into the bag, and makes it easier to handle in rough conditions. I made a second drying rack this season so I can paint two at once. Its possible to reload it on  location with fresh paper, but keep in mind, I am wearing oven-mitt style gloves for the entire process. I think today's paintings have the most amount of detail possible to do while wearing oven-mitts in the middle of a snow storm! They are not really oven mitts, they are dear-skin insulated gauntlets from Canada Outfitters, where I also got my wool base layer. 

Snow covered tree Somerled, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4913b)

Train bridges thinking big

Down at the Peel basin the ice fog created an eerie glow penetrated by the orange-yellow light from a lamp. The bike path runs under these bridges, and in the background is the new graffiti by SLUK, a massive piece up on the new Maltage silos. A train rumbled by overhead. 

Train bridges ice fog, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4914a)

Light rail overhead and commuter trains on the lower rails were crisscrossing with a rattle and rumble. New construction had a greyish chartreuse, while the old bridge was painted in a bluish charcoal. In the bottom right corner is a small piece of the obsolete train bridge, it is a rusted iron structure covered in graffiti now. 

Two trains bridges, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4912b)

Somehow, this writer (graffiti person) got on top of an enormous 20 story silo and rappelled down the side, making a large piece with paint rollers. The writing looked to be about 7 stories tall, located on the upper portion of the structure. It wasn't there last week, so it must have been done very recently. The actual name was mentioned in the first painting, here I changed it to my initials. Although graffiti is illegal and there are enormous amounts of it now, one has to admire the audacity to do something like this. It made me think about my paintings... I need to go bigger and more impressive... but on paper and not with spray paint! 

Thinking big, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4914b)