Verdun Metro Station, green line, southwest borough, Verdun

Verdun was a working class neighborhood that had a big expansion in the post war era. Since then it has slowly gentrified, that is, more condos, restaurants, new developments. To my eye it seems to be always under construction. At least the metro station was not surrounded by barriers like the previous station Jolicoeur that I painted. The first view was looking eastward along Rue de Verdun with the station framing the left part of the painting, and a depanneur in the background. If you didn't know better you would assume the depanneur was the station! As usual bike racks are tough to paint, but I had confidence from Amsterdam bike racks, a painting done of hundreds of bikes. I did the Verdun set last weekend when I had more time for painting. 7 x 10" cold press, watercolour, June 2020

The next view was looking at the back of the building at a sealed off door that was badly marked up and dirty. I studied the scaffolding design in more detail here, it is a double layered nest of tetrahedrons. Sitting up on a grass embankment, I could see my own reflection in the left window and captured it in the painting, but it wasn't as detailed as this self portrait. Next to me there was a large air vent and I could here the metro cars underneath stopping, starting, and whizzing by. 5 x 6.5" cold press, watercolour, June 2020

Time for one more painting, I wanted something natural, and showing off more of the large park behind the station. The big curved interlocking brick walkway made for interesting shapes and curves in the foreground. An empty fountain provided a splash of blue from its tile-work. I really like the colour register of these three paintings, they are black, blue, green, dusty rose, with splashes of brown. It was neat to compare these three to the previous three paintings from Jolicoeur station which have a totally different vibe- more bright, black purple orange green and contrast. 7 x 10" cold press, watercolour, June 2020

I made two sketches, the first one is looking across Verdun street at the secondary entrance to the station  (most stations have 2, or even up to 4 or more entrances). There were interesting reflections in the dark glass, and great contrasts with the tree and neighboring brick buildings. 8 x 10" pencil, sketch book, June 2020

And this one, which was a preliminary sketch done for the painting. The composition was inspired by a painting I did at Beaver Lake awhile ago. Hiroshige and Vincent Van Gogh used this kind of composition, where the walkway occupies half or more of the design, making the viewer feel like they are walking down the path. It is a very immersive element, you always want the viewer to feel like they belong in the landscape and the visual information will make them feel that way. In pandemic blues series I cut off the visual spaces to create tension of being locked up, in this series, it is important for the viewer to feel like they are walking up to the station enjoying a nice day.

 8 x 10" pencil, sketch book, June 2020