Biere et Vin Froid, St. Joseph St., Montreal, Canada

Here is a small painting done on location in the 'Mile End' area of Montreal. Little hole-in-the-wall depanneurs like this one can be found all over the town. A depanneur is a french equivalent of a convenience store, the biggest difference being the sale of liquor. Many of these stores advertise 'biere et vin froid' which means 'cold beer and wine', you can see posters in the window to this effect. Over top of the door is a porch from a second story apartment with a bike locked on the fence. The blend between commercial space and residential is what inspired me to paint this.


There is a strong shadow being cast from the porch onto the front of the store. Painting shadows like this is not too difficult if you understand the principle of a shadow. In the absence of direct sunlight, a shadow looses intensity of colour and picks up ambient light from the sky and from reflected sources. In this case the sidewalk is reflecting light onto the shadowed wall creating a luminous shadow. A similar effect was described in the blog entry for Cordoba, Spain. To paint this shadow, I use a multi layer approach. First I put down a pale wash for the bricks and the store front. Then I add the bluish/purple mix for the shadow on top of the the first wash. To the rest of the non-shadow wall I add a thin layer of bright orange to give the bricks that glowing luminosity. Finally, I add details on top like bricks.

Biere et Vin Froid, st Joseph St., 5 x 7.5" cold press paper, summer 2008 (No. 1078)