Just a quick ride down Sherbrooke brings you to Radisson Station which is named after a French explorer, not a hotel. In fact there was a hotel across from the station but ironically it was not named Radisson. At first glace this is the smallest station on the green line, one tiny rhombus with a door and a few windows. At second glance... same thing. Oh, but there are two identical structures on either side of the street. There were an impressive numbers of trees planted around the station considering it was on the edge of two busy streets and a shopping mall parking lot. 6 x 7.5" cold press, watercolour, July 2020
Seen from the side view, the support structures cut a steep angle against the design. There were lots of interesting angles and perspectives here. The road and trees on the right should have been about 2 inches lower though. The texture of the old concrete was amazing, it was full of layered browns, greys, and black pock marks. I brought along my new umber paint from ShinHan PWC company, and it was the ideal colour for this concrete. 8 x 10" cold press, watercolour, July 2020
The last painting was a neat scene I found sitting among the trees on a small hill. The shape of the tree seemed to be the inverse of the shape of the structure. Painting these overlapping motifs was very challenging because watercolour is not meant to be overlapped too much. To keep the leaves looking yellow, I put them in the concrete while it was still wet (dry-in-moist!). The sun was fading fast and I was sitting in complete shade making the execution harder. The painting finally came together when I got the bus detail in behind the station on the right, and finally the metro sign hidden behind the trees which I did not even notice until the last moment. 8 x 10" cold press, watercolour, July 2020
Here is the first thing I did on location, a sketch of the entrance on the south side of the street. The left part of the structure was actually covered by a bixi bike stand which I omitted, so I had to fill in the lines by guesswork and trying to peer around the obstacles. The way the angled supports connect is very elaborate. Combining this drawing with the first painting, and elements of the other ones would be a nice way to create a completed work. 8 x 11" sketchbook, pencil, July 2020
So I turned my bike around one more time to head home, looping through the parking lot, when I saw that there was a lot more to Radisson station than meets the eye. Set back from the street was another entrance, situated in the middle of a bus terminal. In contrast to the relatively boring concrete bunkers on the main street, this station had neutral yellow bricks in an ovoid tower lined by aluminum and turquoise decorated window panels and doors. The setting sun was casting yellow-orange and dusky blue shadows over the curved brick, and artificial orange light was illuminating the metro entrance. Sounds too good to be true... what I actually saw most of the time was a bus parked right infront of where I was sitting (safely on some grass on the other side of a short fence). I managed to look through the widows of the bus to try and paint the scene. Once the bus left, another one parked there. Anyways, I love the pastel colours here, and can visualize the scene. Maybe I can catch it again on the way back out there for the grand finale Honoré-Beaugrand station. 6 x 7.5" cold press, watercolour, July 2020
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