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

Going even further east, this station is on the other side of the Olympic Stadium which you can see looming in the background. I arrived on location around 6AM on Saturday morning and actually got slightly lost at first but quickly found the station because I had looked at google maps the night before and remembered the orientation of the stadium relative to the station. I have not been bringing my smartphone on location because my bike pack is very cramped, and it is not smart to bring a smartphone on location, something I learned in São Paulo where you don't go around using a smartphone in the city to avoid unwanted attention. It was a very tricky painting to get the proportions and perspective correct. The warm concrete tone was achieved with my new raw sienna paint from Daniel Smith company. When it dried there was a surprising granular effect that mimicked the texture of the concrete. 8 x 10" cold press, watercolour, July 2020

For the next painting I really wanted to frame the Olympic Stadium with the metro station tucked away in the bottom corner. The street, Pierre-de Coubertin Avenue, is very wide so there were plenty of places to set up my camping chair and paint. The early morning sun had a characteristic warm glow which highlighted the stadium's structure. To make the stadium really 'glow' I used a very pale blue outline to do the drawing, that way it blended into the sky. The sky was a hazy overcast all day. 8 x 10" cold press, watercolour, July 2020

Looking eastward, the Maurice Richard Arena can be seen in the background. This was an intimidating structure to paint, I started out with an outline and realized midway that the whole thing was slanting. It took a lot of work to get all the lines correct, but I was determined not to give up on it. The other challenge was the rising sun rapidly changed the shadows on the arena. 6 x 7.5" cold press, watercolour, July 2020

The first thing I did on location was this sketch, it shows the front of the station looking eastwards. There were complicated concrete support beams under the overhang, and part of the building was covered up by the blue tarpaulin and plywood boards for construction purposes. Since I arrived so early on location, this was an attempt to wake up. I may have been partially asleep during all the paintings!

8 x 11" sketchbook, pencil, July 2020