Joliette Station, Green Line Metro, Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve

As I approach the end of the line, literally not metaphorically, the locations are getting less cramped than the stations in the downtown core. Joliette station is located along Hochelaga street, about 5 minutes from Olympic stadium park. There was nothing too remarkable about the station other than the muted yellow (ochre) bricks and the concrete overhangs. As I painted this, a large SUV, followed by a service truck, completely blocked the view of the entrance. In the last few stations I edited out the port-o-lets, but here it played a nice contrast with the blue and yellow. I did a drawing before this one, which was a good thing since the vehicles blocked the scene for most of the time!

8 x 10" cold press, watercolour, July 2020

The next  scene was the other entrance across Hocelaga street which had a very similar design, but with a large decorative structure with grey and yellow paneling on top. The structure actually had 3 tiers but I only included 2 because I had trouble with the perspective and proportions on this painting. The building to the left is a fire station. I managed to get 2 garbage cans on the sidewalk, they are an interesting burnt sienna colour. To get the yellow brick I used vanadium yellow, a touch of black, and some yellow ochre. The gentle shadow on the yellow brick was just a touch more black, then blended in while the brick colour was still wet. 8 x 10" cold press, watercolour, July 2020

With an overcast day like this, it is harder to make paintings that rely on detailed architectural drawings; without the sun there are few shadows to describe the shapes and distract the viewer. So for the third painting I did a close cropped view of some crab apple trees (?) against that great yellow brick wall, with a bus tucked into the background. I really enjoyed doing this one, although I was sitting on my little camping chair jammed in between two bike racks to get the angle. As usual the bus left and I had to do it by memory until the next one arrived. The buses are not all exactly the same though. 6 x 7.5" cold press, watercolour, July 2020

Here is the drawing, it was the first thing I did on location...I got there quite early after leaving the house around quarter to 6 in the morning, so the drawing was like trying to wake up the artist. 8 x 11" sketchbook, pencil, July 2020