Berri-UQAM Station, Green Line Metro, Ville-Marie

Getting back to the city was a bit of a shock to the system- even though I only spent a few days in the wilderness it brought back a lifetime of memories. Berri-UQAM was the next stop on the green line after the very unique Saint Laurent station. Berri-UQAM is on Berri street and integrates with University of Quebec and Montreal pavilion, the Grande Bibliotec (Big library), and all three metro lines intersect, green, yellow and orange. As such, it is a very complicated station with at least 5 outdoor entrances that I could identify, and countless indoor connections and passageways. Usually I omit cars from my paintings, but in this case the car was an STM (Societe de Transport de Montreal) utility car that thankfully remained parked the entire time. I actually spent the most time fiddling on my palette to get the brown right. 8 x 10" cold press, watercolour, July 2020

I felt unsettled this day, even during the first painting which turned out pretty well I had a mini panic that the whole thing would be a disaster, that I would have to start over. The second painting was down Berri street, it is the main entrance building to the station, a 4 story art deco monument with a lot of concrete and windows. The pride flag is off on the right by the post, I got to use all the colours to make the rainbow! This station is on the edge of the latin quarter which is also called the gay village on google maps. I think the painting worked well, it captures the moody grey and threatening rain clouds. These are by the far the most dramatic metro signs, rising well above the sidewalk. 8 x 10" cold press, watercolour, July 2020

I found a good view on the third entrance, looking up on a steep angle, the sun was peeking up over the clouds on the top right. The interesting brick colours and reflections in the windows really carried the design, the station entrance and sign is just hastily sketched in the bottom. The angle on the top part of the building that I painted was not steep enough, it was more like a 70 degrees slope and I got it at 50. But who cares! Look at the pretty reflections. 8 x 10" cold press, watercolour, July 2020

So far I have been sticking to 3 paintings per location but I knew Berri-UQAM would probably warrant more. To be honest the location was unpleasant to paint, maybe it was the weather or the vibe, or the lack of sleep the past few days due to heat. It was hard to find spots, since there were either pedestrians, cyclists, or local people wandering around everywhere. The fourth painting depicts even steeper angles on the perspective including several buildings, the bike path, the road, the trees across the street. There are actually two station entrances on this scene, one in the middle ground, it is the same as the previous painting, and the other is below it and to the right, just a speck of blue, it is the first entrance I painted, the one with the car. 6 x 7.5" cold press, watercolour, July 2020

Undaunted, I tried the main station again with a different design idea, instead of trying to capture all the architectural detail, I would abbreviate the detail and show the station dwarfed by the surrounding skyscraper condos. I also fit in more of the park that sits behind the station (most of the park was under renovation so could not be accessed). For this painting I was sitting in the exact same spot as the last painting, just looking more to the east. It was a good place to sit, set back slightly from the main road, but still in a safe feeling location. I may have run out of steam here the results are a little sloppy but there is still a lot to like. 8 x 10" cold press, watercolour, July 2020

Before doing the paintings I made two sketches of the other entrances, the first one was the St. Denis entrance, there were no shaded locations to sit except here, but the whole scene was obscured by posts, signs and construction barriers. So I just stood up and made this quick sketch. 8 x10" pencil, sketchbook, July 2020

The second sketch was at the Maisonneuve entrance situated in Place Dupuis, it just didn't have a great place to sit and was rather uninspiring. There was a nice concrete flower pot filled with bright flowers, and some interesting shadows. The big windows had a minty green tint. 8 x10" pencil, sketchbook, July 2020

After the session it occurred to me that the theme of Berri-UQAM station was 'perspective'. I plan to do bigger versions of each station, if possible. I would like Berri-UQAM to show at least three entrances in one design, with a long perspective looking down Berri. I am noting the idea down here so I don't forget.