Pink house orange sky Lachine canal

The pink house sits atop an abandoned malt factory... its actually some kind of control tower that some local artists painted pink and added green shutters, flowers, a door. It looks terribly dangerous to be up there but today when I was painting I noticed at least two people sitting in chairs on its roof, apparently having a beverage and taking selfies. Today was a surreal day... an orange sky from the wild fire smoke, and people walking around on top of the old malt factory. 

 

Over the pink house, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025 (No. 4631)

 

In this view, you see the whole factory across the canal with the pink house on the center column, and the adjacent red house to its right. I noticed more people coming out of the red house, and the people atop the pink house started walking around and posing. If anyone fell off it would have been over, that is like 20 stories high up there. Its fenced off poorly, so people can easily get in. To make matters worse, there is a beer patio (st Ambroise brewery) right next door. 

Orange sky over malt factory, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025 (No. 4632)

 

Further down at Atwater market, there was this neat scene of the orange sun reflecting in the canal. The rest of the canal was a weird neutral mauve, I made it with dark blue (PB60) and burnt sienna (PR101). To compose the scene I included a segment of the canal fence in the foreground, part of the restaurant boat in the background, with some people sitting on the wharf to its left. 

Orange reflection in canal, watercolour 6 x 8" cold press, August 2025 (No. 4633)

Surreal or real? Fire smoke orange sky

Last month I wrote about the fire smoke palette, where I made some adjustments to account for the amber tint from wild fire smoke. Today the smoke cover was extremely heavy in Montreal, it was so dense that the sky looked overcast despite the absence of clouds. I set out around mid-afternoon, and the sky was already looking like a peach-orange sunset. For this painting, I used the full range of the smoke palette to evoke the thick amber atmosphere and its surreal effects on the landscape. With orange-yellow light, the blues turn grey, and greens tend to pop out more. The brick red walls seem to glow.

Orange sky warehouse flowers, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, August 2025 (No. 4867)

This location represents the last remnants of Otter lake, which was drained in the 19th century to make way for highways and the Lachine canal. Its just a drainage ditch now but I like to make paintings of it for posterity. It was the first painting of the day, I was not quite aware of the smoke warnings, although earlier I noticed that the light coming in the apartment was orange-yellow. The horizon had a dirty orange tint, while the upper sky was a pale, neutral blue-violet, almost grey. 

Remains of lake haze, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025 (No. 4629)

Here is a view next to the canal bike path, you can barely see the downtown city scape on the horizon, and the light/shadow effects were bizarre. Normally, shadows are infused with blue at this time of day but today the shadows were dusty light purple, and the white highlights had orange tints. I used a lot of the raw sienna (PBr7), yellow (PY154) and orange (PO62), and the bright yellow (PY184) for pops of colour. Yellow ochre (PY43) was used to neutralize and tint the shadows and grey areas. 

Loading docks haze, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025 (No. 4621b)

Along the Lachine canal there are what I call 'hybrid trees', they have a vertical bark skin on the bottom, but more of a horizontal, birch bark pattern on the top. Today, the orange light cast an eerie glow on an already eerie tree. I went with the surrealist vibe here and embellished the highlights to create the spectacle. While these paintings are slightly exaggerated, looking at them now reminds me of the reality. Its like something for real that belongs in my curio folio collection.  

Hybrid tree orange sky, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025 (No. 4630)

Curio Folio: D'Oh Moon

Believe it or not, I went out to paint a picture of the waxing gibbous moon tonight but instead I saw the most unusual thing in the sky. The moon was partially covered by a rare comet called Simpson's 56223 which only orbits earth once every 310 years. The Simpson's comet is unique in that its surrounded in an elaborate halo of sprinklets... that's the technical word for small debris that orbits a comet, kind of like sprinkles on a donut. I thought this painting would make an excellent addition into my Curio Folio, a collection of oddities that no person has ever seen before. I was lucky enough to be standing there at the exact moment that the Simpson's comet and its halo of sprinklets passed between the moon and the earth, creating the fantastic eclipse-effect you see in the highly accurate painting. I also took a picture with my smartphone camera but it turns out that the combination of comet aura and partially eclipsed moonlight can not be photographed with conventional camera technology. So this painting is perhaps the only image of what many astronomers call the D'Oh Moon, at least for another 310 years. 

Curio Folio: D'Oh Moon, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025 (No. 4628)

Bellechase bike path, dépanneur, construction

The Bellechase bike path runs north of the train tracks, it goes along Bellechase street all the way past Maisonneuve park. Today I got about halfway along the path, but without my tube repair kit (I wasn't expecting to go so far) I turned around for fear of a flat tire. My tires are actually fantastic, I got the teflon ones that cost a lot but nearly never get flat. Even so its nice to have a tire change along with me just in case. There wasn't much to paint along Bellechase, so I stopped in some shade and painted one of the many corners where they installed flowers, in this case, tiger lilies. Completing the composition is a red stop sign, and a school crossing sign in neon (PY184, dab of PG36). 

Tiger lillies signs, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025 (No. 4624)

You know I like to paint convenience stores (Dépanneur in Quebec french) but it has to have some kind of unique story or feature. This one had an outrageous (tacky) green facade with red paint and signage, and a sloping roof. It was fun to paint although the traffic here on D'Iberville street was pretty heavy. 

Dépanneur Laura, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025 (No. 4625)

Even the construction is stylish and colourful in the Plateau. They are tearing up parts of the bike path, you see the crumpled asphalt and yellow paint, but the interesting part were all the construction markers. Pink fencing, blue and white barriers, and orange pylon poles with magenta bases. A couple of people went by and probably wondered what I was painting. So was I. 

Colourful construction, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025 (No. 4626)

 

Finally, on the way back I stopped in the Mile End neighborhood, my old haunt. There is a lady there who owns a whole block of Bernard avenue, she uses the storefronts and sidewalk to sell flowers in the summer. Paintings like this have a lot of detail, its a little bit like doing a puzzle, I have to paint it piece by piece and hope it all fits together. I was actually looking for flowers today and found quite a bit of subject matter to paint in this scene. If I feel up to it, I may go paint the moon tonight. Yesterday it was half moon, today it is waxing gibbous (sounds like a rock band).

Wall of Flowers, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025 (No. 4627)  

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 (No. 4621)

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 (No. 4622)

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 (No. 4623)

Crescent moon over Homer's donut store

Homer's donuts is one of the most popular new stores in NDG, they literally sell out every day and there are people going in all the time, often with a line up. I just liked the lights and colours, and how the soft pastels contrasted against the dark blue, green and black of the background. To make really dark black, such as in the bottom right, I mix black (PBk6) with maroon (PR179). Light sources tend to glow, so I outlined the street light with pale yellow, and used concentric brush strokes from light to dark around the moon. Magenta and blue colours were reflecting on the facade from the illuminated signage. 

Moon over donut, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, July 2025 (No. 4619)

This was my first try at the scene from across the street, in fact, I wanted to set up closer to the store but there were people sitting all around and I waited for them to leave. The composition here was not tight enough, although I figured out a few things. The whole way back from down town I was waiting for a good scene with the moon, but nothing caught my eye until I saw the donut store and thought of a few paintings I did last year called supermoon over a pizza shop, and Pizza 88 under moon, It seemed fitting to paint a crescent moon over the popular Homer's donut store on Sherbrooke.

Moon over donut far, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, July 2025 (No. 4618)

Sunset on Berri and a protest

After doing a few paintings in Old Montreal I headed up the Berri bike path to a park/gathering area called Émilie-Gamelin Place. I caught this view of the sunset on Berri looking northwards. I had to paint fast to capture the effect, and make sure to get the metro sign in there! The clouds were purplish and fluffy looking, with a background of blue-orange-red. 

Sunset on Berri, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, July 2025 (No. 4616)

A group of people were gathering at Berri metro station, they were waving Palestinian flags and beating drums. Cops were everywhere, on motorcycles, bikes, cruisers and on foot. After awhile the group started walking west... they usually go down st Catherine street and end at Cabot square. Its a regular occurrence in Montreal. I did this painting not to be political, but to convey the city and everything it brings. In the background is a prominent cloud with a salmon-orange highlight

Protest Berri station, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, July 2025 (No. 4617)