Looking back: London Ontario ducks, campus, The Bay

Going back 20 odd years, and they were odd indeed, here is a scene of some ducks on grass in front of what I suspect is the Thames river in London Ontario. I was there at University of Western doing a bachelor's of science followed by a doctorate, making paintings along the way. These paintings are done sometime between 2000 - 2004. The signature is in cerulean blue so its probably 2002. 

Ducks near Thames, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 200x 

I know this scene very well, I walked past it hundreds of times on my way to the research laboratory in Robart's Research Institute. For some reason there is what appears to be a Hungarian flag in the background. 

Walkway overpass, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 200x

Perhaps too honest of a depiction, here is an empty parking lot and the Bay in the background. I actually remember doing this one, towards the end of my stay in London, its probably 2003 or 2004. The clouds are neat.  

The Bay empty parking lot, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press,  200x

 

Happy Canada day, stormy day

Down in st Pierre the city has nearly finished the massive road work project, most of the road is paved and sidewalks fresh concrete. Near the old disused train tracks, a group of tents were set up, one had a faded Canada flag, the other a Mohawk flag which I recognized. Cars were all around, do people wonder what I am painting?

Tents Canada and Mohawk flags, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

Somehow evoking the Group of Seven, this painting shows a concrete factory under a stormy sky. I had to paint the underlayers first, do another painting, and finish it when dry. 

Concrete facotry stormy day, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

A looping gravel path connects the bridge to the bike path next to the canal. You have to be careful zooming down this path with oncoming bikes in both directions. A large tree grows here, its a great tree to paint, large chunks of bark and subtle orange-olive colouring. 

Path to path tree canal, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

This old bridge is still really active, at one point in history it could raise and lower, hence the large counter-balance. Now its fixed in place because only small recreational watercraft are allowed on the canal. 

Bridge green reflections, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

Waiting for the concrete factory painting to dry, I turned and did this one quickly, just trying to see if I could get the car right and capture its rare olive-orange colour. I still have some work to do, of course, cars only sit there for a few seconds, and I am not working from photographs.  

Lemon lime car, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 

Jazz Festival dancing shapes night lights

Getting down to the Jazz Festival at Place des Arts and the rain held off thankfully. I found a good spot to paint from, using my bike, with a good white light overhead. People were walking past and looking, taking pictures, making positive comments as I painted to the music. 

Yellow spotlights, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

A tree in the midst of all the music and action seemed to be dancing. Stage lights shifted to blue and magenta. 

Dancing tree, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Billows of stage-smoke were released into a pale blue spotlight, creating this eerie, magical effect. Creating a silhouette line accentuated the musicality of the crowd shape. Let jazz course through your veins when painting at a festival. 

Blue stage smoke, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

The question mark signifies an information kiosk. Stage lights cast angular shadows on the pavement. An array of street lights and festival decorations provided interesting shapes. 

Cross shadows question mark, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Finally, a scene of a bar stand, accentuating yellow with a purple contrast in the background. It started raining a little and I packed up happy with these results. The rain held off on the way home too.  A good time was had by all. 

Jazz Bar, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 

Jazz fest: red umbrella, stage, quartet and more

I managed to walk my bike around the Jazz Fest today, the early day crowd was sparse enough to allow for a few paintings. Remarkably, this lady was hanging around the main stage, and she had a beach towel and umbrella placed front and center as she waited in the shade. As people milled about, she hopped up, went over and set up a small chair and popped open her red umbrella and sat expectantly. A crew walked by and called her a warrior for waiting so early, the show was not set to start for several hours and no other people were there yet except for me!  

Prepared for concert, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

The crew was running light tests on the main stage, getting all the strobes and bulbs working in multi-colour. It was partly cloudy, so the artificial lights stood out enough for me to see their colours. There is 1000 times less ambient light when overcast as compared to a sunny day. That's another factoid from Handprint.com. 

Main stage light test, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, June 2026

A little farther into the venue, and there was a small stage with a Jazz quartet playing to a crowd of mostly families with children. It was a very energetic and tactile sort of performance, as much a physical performance as an auditory one. I let jazz rhythm flow into the painting, not worrying to much about details. By now, I had been exposed to quite a bit of 'wacky tabacci' if you know what I mean, its aroma was wafting strongly in the air. 

Jazz quartet, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

With my blood pressure pills, its not a good thing to eat large amounts of sodium, which precludes one of my favorite things, the Jazz Fest sausage. Standing near the food stand, I made a painting from the rear, where I could stand in shade.  To show the wieners, I had to use artistic license and turn around the barbecue grill, you can see the staff inside a booth, with customers waiting out in front. My blood pressure probably went up a few points just smelling this! But it was totally worth it. 

Jazz Sausages, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Upon arrival it was full sun and steamy hot, I had to find shade to paint under having forgotten my sun hat. This view was the first painting, you see a variety of colours, they like to combine lime green with red, and put blue next to red and orange. The white spheres actually have a question mark on them, I believe they have a QR code with a map printed on their pedestals for people to get information. The signage contained the main sponsor TD bank and other slogans, which I changed all to PJD to put my stamp on the artwork. 

Jazz fest entrance daytime, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Tour around canal, Sud Ouest, Verdun

Down by the Renaissance donation center where I started my bike ride by dropping off some items for donation, there is a data center surrounded by small hills and an assortment of trees. I have painted here quite a few times in the past, not knowing what exactly this thing is, although Google maps had view points within the structure and there are racks of computer servers. 

Data center hill trees, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

This old metal tun has a draining funnel and pipes running in and out, it may have been used once for brewing, or some chemical process who knows. It looks rusty, and it covered in spray paint so I doubt its still functional. Next to the Lachine canal path, there is also a good view of the hazy downtown skyline in the background. I stayed away from downtown today with all the construction blockage and extra traffic from Jazz fest. 

Elevated rusty tun city view, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

There is also a massive cardboard and paper recycling facility nearby, here is a side view of the huge piles out back. I am standing in a grassy area next to the canal bike path, looking east. Not many artists get the chance to paint paper recycling on location, I feel lucky sometimes. 

Paper recycling stacks, Rewatercolour 8 x 10" cold press, June 2026

 

Same location different view, this one shows the chimneys letting out steam from paper recycling. If you are downwind it smells like wet cardboard. If I go back to the gravel fields in between the highways, I can smell it there. I am waiting until it gets really hot to go out to the gravel fields, because I like the feeling of being in a sun-baked desert. You have to spend some time here in the winter to understand this. I actually like the winter, at least there are less people around when I am painting. 

Recycling paper chimneys, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026 

  

Along the canal there is a long drainage ditch, once a lake. The water's surface, seen on the bottom of the painting, was a pea-soup green. The embankment was all sumacs. I'd like to get a better painting of this, to see the shape of the ditch a bit better. 

Green swamp, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026 

 

In 2020 I painted down at Jolicoeur station, it was under construction then and remained so for many years, even last year I went by and it was still surrounded by fences. Today I came upon the station, and found it to be complete! Not a single pylon in view. Large garden planters will filled with yellow flowers and decorative grass, while tall brown glass walls gleamed in the sunlight. Its actually in Cote st Paul neighborhood.

Jolicoeur station complete, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

 

The last two paintings were kind of neat, in Verdun near the aqueduct, they bulldozed a large square of factory warehouses, and dug an enormous foundation pit, about the size of two football fields. With all the rain and the low land here, it completely flooded the foundations leaving a nice lake. I call it lake Verdun! 

Lake Verdun horizontal, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026 

 

Looking down into the lake from up on the sidewalk, here you see reflections in the murky water, with ripples. They should have built a pond here, wetlands, it would have been a huge success. The plan seems to be community housing and some shops. There was a huge fence here by the way, I left that out to create a sense of danger. I'm a dangerous guy. 

 I scanned the backs of several of these paintings, they have scenes from London Ontario I painted 20 years ago, will post those later. Looks like tomorrow will be nice too and maybe I can get to the Jazz Fest at night with my paints soon. 

Lake Verdun vertical, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026  

Benches summer Montréal, Sud Ouest

I got around for a nice bike ride today along the canal and aqueduct paths through Sud Ouest and Verdun. The sun was really cooking and I went through all my water, filling up at a local park. This scene shows some recreational canoe paddlers on the Lachine canal with a suspension bridge in the background. In the foreground is a picnic bench I was sitting on to eat some lunch. 

Red canoe on canal, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Somehow I wandered around and found Campbell's park, a sports park in the middle of Sud Ouest neighborhood. It was an old park, worth doing a painting of this field and soccer goals. Fitting considering the world cup is playing. Canada goes tomorrow for knockout game. 

Campbell park Sud Ouest, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

I had turned down Briand street to start this adventure, and found this small park that connects to Monk boulevard, its called Passage Albert-Millaire. There was lots of shade, a permanent table with a checkerboard on it, and a few pigeons milling about. A cool dépanneur was across the street but it was in shadow and I passed on it this time. 

Passage Albert-Millaire, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

 

Along Bd de la Vérendrye there was a small park called  Park Springland with pine trees, shade and sturdy concrete-topped benches. I started to run out of yellow today. You see how bright the grass was under the sun. I did a lot more today, will post later. 

Park Springland bright grass, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Digital Thursday: kinetic energy

I've got a folder full of digital sketches I can share from time to time. Its fun to make these because as a painter, its very difficult to produce neon-effects on a dark background. After stamping a group of neon-green rectangles onto a black background I was stumped for awhile, then came about the textural grid. Surprisingly, the grid took on a glow of its own, and I finished with reflective elements. 

Neon interior structure, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

 

After making a group of purple pastel brush strokes I left this one for awhile. Trying a few things, I drew lines over top using the 'multiply' function where colours turn "tye-dye" hippy when they overlap. The shapes were drawn not stamped. By draw, I mean with my finger on a cell-phone screen.  

Scintillation exposure, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

 

The idea here was to stamp every textural feature in the app! Varying from white to black gave a volume feeling, and I spray painted areas for a complete explosion/smoke image. It would be cool to animate this one, but I am not sure how. 

Snap explosion, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

 

Watching the 'Great Baking Show' and we see them making mirror glazes and dragging a toothpick across to create that rippled-effect on cakes. I went for that in the background using smear tools, then overlapped squiggly lines with an eye-pleasing yellow red and green combo. 

Mirror glaze, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Whatever was in the background I didn't like, so I smeared it out, then drew my initials with a highlighter pen, actually the neon tool. Some brushes do not completely cover the background, so they look transparent. Most tools have that as a feature you can adjust, its called 'opacity'. 

Highlighter smear PJD, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000