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 

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

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

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 

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

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

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

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 

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

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

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 

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

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

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

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

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 

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

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

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 

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

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