Oscar Peterson Metro Station, green line, south west borough, Saint-Henri, Montreal

Oscar Peterson was a great Canadian pianist who was born in Montreal and helped define Jazz, and what it meant to be a black Jazz musician for a generation. He is a real unsung hero of Montreal and yet only a few memorials are present in the city, including the Oscar Peterson Hall on Concordia University's west campus (where I work!). For those of you who know which station lies between Charlevoix and Atwater, you know it is not called the Oscar Peterson Station. I've been reading about some of the controversy surrounding the actual namesake, and the move to change the name which goes back to the mid nineties and had had renewed calls for action. There is an article in the CBC today written by Sidhartha Banerjee talking about the issues, and a petition to call the station Oscar Peterson Station. Using the powers of my artistic license I call these paintings the Oscar Peterson station.

The first painting was of a bone-dry large area of grass, only the weeds and some little yellow flowers could survive and stay green. A now familiar grey port-o-let was situated prominently in the design of the picture. To the right is a side view of the station, and the construction barrier surrounding it. I left out the fence and the wood and other signs of construction, not wanting to repeat the construction barrier I painted at Jolicoeur. 8 x10" cold press, watercolour, June 2020

Sitting in one of the few places I could sit, I got this view of the same side of the station seen in the first painting but on a front angle. The rest of the station including the huge park I saw on google map satellite was completely blocked off for renovations. Gee, I picked the wrong summer to do a '27 stations of the green line metro' series. Like Robin Williams joked in 2006, 'you have a beautiful city here in Montreal...when its finished.' There were a lot of folks hanging out at this station, one fellow was singing Bob Marley songs and it sounded just like him. The musical legacy of Oscar Peterson belongs here. 
8 x10" cold press, watercolour, June 2020

To complete the trifecta I found one last nook to sit in, under a tree and between two converging sidewalks, and immediately saw this scene of a bunch of seagulls stalking around the rooftop of the station. They wouldn't stay still for a second so I tried my best to get their likeness. I have a feeling its not the last I will see of them. The concrete dried darker than I thought, it should be half a value step higher. A person was curious about what I was doing and asked me in French and I tried my best to give an answer in French. Even in English I'd have trouble explaining what I'm doing. 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, June 2020

Finally, a sketch I did, actually it was the first thing I did on location. In the painting I omitted the random poles that were in the lawn, and the seagulls which wouldn't stay still. They were all staring at me waiting to see if I had any food for them. The nearest one looked pretty angry. For the most part the first painting follows this drawing. 9 x 11" pencil, Sketchbook, June 2020