Sunflower and mist in Cabot Square

Cabot square is a local hangout and occasional site for festivals and gatherings, its just across from the old Forum building and includes an access point for the Atwater station. These sunflowers are probably nearing the end of their blooms, they were struggling to find enough sun with the tree cover. I composed them to look as if they are jumping out of their box. 

Sunflowers Cabot Square, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

At the center of the square there was a mist machine spraying cool water to help the locals with the oppressive heat. A few pigeons were enjoying it too. I wasn't sure if I could paint this effect because the bakground scenery was quite complex, and and the mist created a pale blurry cloud surrounded by crisp, high contrast elements. I had to paint as much with my brain as my brush which is unusual, I prefer just to use the brush. To finish the painting, I casually walked through the mist cloud with the painting in order to literally get mist on it. I think it turned out all right, and the pigeons didn't mind at all. 

Mist machine pigeons, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

There is a metal box, like a small store front, closed off for now. Indigenous art, probably done by an Inuk artist, adorned the exterior of the box. I saw them painting it a few weeks ago. In the upper left quadrant there was a view of Mount Royal with the General Hospital visible on top. I forgot to paint in Mount Royal though, it is behind and above the hospital. Lately I have been putting a lot of detail in the paintings, such as the Fiat car show in Little Italy. I can do this in the summer when the paint dries and its okay to stand around and paint. 

Painted box view of mount royal, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025 

 

 

Little Italy Fiat show, tomatoes and signs

 Making it out to Little Italy and I found a sidewalk sale/festival with live music, food booths, street shopping, and a cool car show. It was featuring the Fiat 500 model, a common utility car made up until about 1975. They look very small, like they barely stand a meter off the ground and are about 3 meters long. The owners must take really good care of them, they were very shiny and well maintained. I just painted the last three on the row, there were about a dozen lined up beside each other. The cars were a major draw, people were stopping and taking pictures all the time, so I had to find a spot right next to a bike stand behind a tree and look on the angle like this. The sidewalk sale is visible in the background. The painting started with a painted outline using a sharp number 2 brush, then the blocks of colours and textures were filled in one by one. People were stopping and commenting on the painting, so it must be a good one! 

Classic Fiat 500 show, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

I talk a lot about my palette, and the same word is used to describe a wood surface used to move cargo, like the blue ones in the front. When you see that shade of blue, kind of a blue-green, its actually cyan. Cyan is what you see when the blue cone and the green cone are activated simultaneously in the retina. I used phthalo blue sapphire (PB15) and some phthalo green viridian hue (PG7) to make the colour. For the tomatoes, I used a mix of pyrol red (PR254) and pyrol orange (PO73), then perylene maroon for shadowing (PR179). The hard part of this painting is actually the middle ground, I had to fill it with people, produce, and some abstract structural shapes to give the ambiance. 

Tomatoes cyan palette, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

As I looked around for a third scene to paint, nothing was grabbing my attention until I saw this scene of all the signs around the parking area. I instantly thought 'there is your painting' and set about painting the outline for all the signs and the structure. Its not even an exaggeration, the scene was literally just like this, no artistic license needed. One of the most viewed blogs was a similar scene of train crossing signs...Montreal loves its signs especially when it comes to parking. Several apps have been invented to help drivers determine where it is okay to park. 

Parking signs, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025 

Mile End toasty grass

Right around the old warehouse in the Mile End neighborhood, avenue Van Horne merges into boulevard Rosemont which elevates over top of st Laurent street and the train tracks. The city is renovating the whole area around st Laurent street and the highway overpass, for example this triangle of land was turned into a small park area, complete with mounds of grass to sit on. Today the grass was toasty and yellow looking. An airplane went by in the distance. 

Dried grass mound, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Worse than dried grass, now its fried grass. I captured the colour with yellow ochre (PY43), a touch of burnt sienna (PR101), and some shades of light green for the weeds that are still growing. Its easy to see how wild fires start, this grass was dry and crispy looking. The overpass supports have been covered in street art, it looks a lot better in in real life, here I just wanted to get the flavour of the colours and patterns, along with PJD on one of the posts. 

Fried grass next to overpass, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

There is a difference between street art and vandalism. This water tower is an iconic structure that defines the entire skyline of the Mile End neighborhood. I moved there in 2004 originally, and not once was there any graffiti on the tower. Now its all over the top and front of the structure. I decided to paint it real quick,  mostly because there was a shady spot to stand and nothing much else to see. I hope the city can do the right thing and clean this up, and better yet, make some plans on what to do with the structure. 

Vandalized water tower, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025 

The real sturgeon full moon

Today, August 9th,was the official full moon, its called a 'sturgeon moon' since those fish apparently are abundant at this time of year. They could call it a 'pylon moon' instead, because construction pylons are abundant at this time of year too. Using my shoulder bag to paint, I set out onto Somerled Avenue hoping to catch a good view of the moon. Since every painting of the moon lately was 'Moon over something' I thought this scene would be neat, its the moon in between wires. Painting the pole and wires elevated the difficulty of the painting. I paint from this spot frequently because the Metro grocery store has strong white lights overhead. 

Full moon between wires, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

 I painted a similar scene of the pharmacy at night back in 2021, so it was interesting to see if I could do any better. The 2021 painting had stars visible, but tonight it was too hazy and no stars were visible. The main improvements here are a better moon effect, cleaner colours, and more elements included in the composition such as the under-hang light, the parking lot lights and the building off to the right with lit-up windows. If you are an artist you know the feeling when you do a painting that is better, then the old painting ends up looking terrible in comparison. Then you wonder if the old painting was terrible to begin with! The pharmacy on a wet night is still my favorite. I enjoy blogging to show all the paintings and write a few things down. 

Full moon yellow sign, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025 

Reggae Festival

The old pier at the Peel Basin is used for food and music festivals during the summer, and this year they let cars park on the open area under the highway. Standing on the east side of the basin looking at the pier, I got a decent view of the main stage and could obviously hear the host talking and the reggae music quite loudly. The show has a long history going back to 2012 apparently, and just came back this year after a hiatus. I did a night painting from the other side when it was the food festival in July. 

Reggae stage, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

The lights and colours of the reggae festival complimented the odd shapes and tints of the condos in the background. I let the music and the aromas wafting over the basin seep into the painting. I mentioned this before a few times... the reason location painting can be better than studio painting is the total immersion in the moment. 

Reggae and condos, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Back on the bike path looking towards the festival, I found this neat scene of the elevated highway with all the pointy tent tops underneath. This Lachine canal and basin has certainly been a boon to the people who make and maintain bridges. The Griffintown condos also make a great background for any painting in the area. Not too many artists feature condos (and dumpsters) quite as much as I do perhaps. 

Reggae under highway, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025 

Searing in the City

Today it was searing hot in the city. I thought about how to convey heat in a painting and tried to just channel it into the painting. In the top left, the sun pierces through a hazy blue sky. Everything else is bathed in an amber glow, like french fries under a heat lamp. I just tried to stay in the shade as much as possible and also wear my boonie hat which covers a lot and has a neck cover. The further away things were, the more grey and hazy they appeared. 

Searing in the city, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Here is a painting of the iconic Farine Five Roses sign, you see why they city has marked it a heritage object. I have practiced painting this sign on location several times this year and each time its gets a little better. At least I got all the letters on there. The corner I was standing on, Peel and Wellington, seems to be one of the hippest corners in Montreal. The old guy painting next to his bike fit right in. 

 Farine and condos, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Looking west along Wellington, there is a prominent new hotel clad in green-tinted glass, its called the Griffintown Hotel. Cars were driving every which way. I start by painting an outline of the streets and buildings then fill in the blocks of colour, and finish with details. The new bike bag worked great today. Whoever designed it really though of everything, its just what I needed to set up my bike-studio. 

Griffintown Hotel, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025 

Toasty grass new bike bag

 

With the arid weather lately most of the grass around the city is a toasty yellow colour. I painted this scene down by the Lachine canal using raw sienna (PBr7) and yellow ochre (PY43) for the grass, with some daubs of green where weeds were still surviving. The pole is a dark neutral yellow with brown and black details. I liked how the dark blue water of the canal was so cool, the perfect contrast to the toasted appearance of the foreground. 

Toasty grass canal, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Here is a picture of my new bike trunk bag to replace the old one which I had for well over 10 years and it had started to disintegrate.  The new one required a different rack system which took some fiddling to get the old one off and new one on. Its a great product from Topeak, over-engineered as they say with a mechanical track and lock system, and lots of neat features like handles on top and extendable pouches on the side. In all it can hold 20 L of stuff. There is a velcro divider which was perfect for keeping the water cup from spilling. I made a bunch more paintings today with the new setup. Best of all, the zippers opened and closed easily, the old one needed safety pins and the zippers were falling off. I also got a smaller version of this bag which also clips in.