Gas Station #19, St. Laurent Blvd, Little Italy, Montreal

Gas stations are seldom thought of as artistic subjects although there are some notable exceptions such as the painting called "Gas, 1940", by Edward Hopper an American oil painter. He captured the nostalgia of a vintage gas station at twilight, with an eerie loneliness under artificial lights. Recently I discovered Hiroshige, the Japanese master print designer from the 19th century. His work along with other prints were collected by the French impressionist painters including Monet, who appreciated the excellent compositions and colours of the work, hanging them in his drawing room at Giverny where the prints still hang. So I had this idea to work on a series of paintings based on "19 Odd Gas Stations of Montreal" inspired by Hiroshige's famous series called "The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō". In fact there are a lot more than 19 gas stations in Montreal but I wanted to aim for something doable in one year. Gas station # 1 was the gas station across my street, and #2 was the one by the NDG Canadian Tire. I skipped the naming to #19 for this one because it is all the way across Montreal in Little Italy, so maybe it is the last in the series geographically. 

Gas Station #19 features a Petro Canada landscaped with shrubberies and an emotive tree hanging onto its leaves- one of the branches leans down to use the gas pump! Integrated with the background, the gas station blends with a church making it look like the stained glass windows and spires are part of the petrol pump. Bitter cold wind and a blue sky frame the scene.

5 x 7" rough press (block), watercolour December 2019