Champ-de-Mars Station has seemingly been under construction forever, the entire block was torn up for many years perhaps more than 5 years. As usual they ended up doing a good job, there is now a vast green space with delightful brick paths and connecting walkways going to Old Port tourist area. There were even places to sit and have a cold coffee (my field recipe of instant coffee, water, in an espresso cup). To paint this scene I was sitting in full sun, although cloud cover came in towards the end of the session. The structure to the right is the station, I embellished the coloured glass.
New Path, Champ-de-Mars Station, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2021 (No. 2765)
Across the street is the massive CHUM Hospital complex which reminds me a lot of Borg cubes from Star Trek. So I painted them with a menacing black mixture of carbon black (PBk6) indo blue (PB60) and some perylene maroon (PR179). I couldn't believe how black the paint dried, I anticipated it would loose about 70% of its darkness, but I think the addition of the maroon allowed it to hold the dark value. Always something to learn! And yes, the sign was crooked like this.
Borg Cubes, Champ-de-Mars Station, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2021
Next up was a panorama scene of the beautiful field of brown-eyed-susans and some garden pots which sit along a road that they have permanently closed to traffic. The field was in great shape because the pedestrian paths go exactly where you would expect which kept nature relatively protected from people tromping about. Since they went with wild flowers instead of grass, it also prevents people from sitting on littering or pets on the area. I was glad to have found this small oasis, thanks to smart urban planning, in the heart of Montreal.
Field of Brown-eyed Susans, Champ-de-Mars Station, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, July 2021 (No. 2901)
It was also a good high note to end my summer Metro Station painting efforts at Champs de Mars. The next station is Berri-UQAM which I painted before, then the remaining stations with terminus in Laval. It would be nice to do the rest of the Orange line in fall or winter. But then again I may just wake up one day and want to finish the series anyways we will see! There is a page dedicated to these paintings, you can find it on the web version under pages. I hope you all enjoy seeing urban paintings like this, they are very challenging but feel well worth it. Thanks for reading.
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