De l'Eglise Metro Station, green line, Southwest borough , Verdun

Last weekend I got up early Saturday and Sunday to complete my tour of the Southwest borough's metro stations in Lasalle and Verdun. Considering how early it was there was a surprising amount of noise, starting with a sidewalk cleaning truck that had the decibel level of a helicopter, then a street washing truck, then a construction project. I brought earplugs as usual when I'm out in the city but it still created a lot of anxiety. The station is very narrow due to problems they had during construction from the unstable ground underneath, so the architect stacked up the elements like stools under a table. This view gives the appearance of a castle, my notes said 'concrete castle'. The shadow from the sign really grabbed my attention, and the morning shadows on the sidewalk. 8 x10" cold press (block) watercolour, June 2020

The next paining was a frontal view, in fact, the seating options were limited on this dense corner on Wellington Street so I settled for a more conventional angle here. Superimposing the tree and the cylinder (which had the name of the station and some adverts or COVID-19 information) was a challenge against the jigsaw puzzle of a background. The concrete colour was tricky too, in the changing light its tone was getting warmer, so I did a thin wash of isoindolone yellow, as seen in the recent palette clean #2 blog where that colour was used at near full strength.8 x10" cold press (block) watercolour, June 2020

Hoping to find a interesting angle, I investigated the back of the station which was a wide laneway, and found this interesting scene of the backlit walls and a metal structure meant to keep people from climbing onto the roof. The morning sun was striking the background tree and building. At the last moment a pigeon showed up, if you look carefully you will find it! By the now the sun was almost completely up and I was sitting in full frontal sunlight. It was time to go home! Maybe I can call this one 'pigeon's concrete castle' 5 x7" cold press, watercolour, June 2020

After the first painting I also did a pencil sketch of the main architectural elements. There are about 5 pieces as seen from the side view. I liked how the two metro signs (with the down arrow in a circle) were visible at different angles. I just noticed the sketch says Charlevoix in the title, but it was definitely de l'Eglise. Guess my brain was not working so well at 6 AM! 8 x 10" pencil, sketchbook.

These works are part of
'The 27 stations of the green line metro, Montreal' series. I completed Lasalle and Charlevoix stations on Sunday and will post about them this week.