Édouard-Montpetit station, Blue Line Metro

 

Today I was on the home stretch, just two more stations to complete the 68 stations of the Montreal metro. There were actually four more stations on the blue line but I already made some decent paintings of the Université-de-Montréal Station last year, and Snowdown station back in March. I knew full well that Édouard-Montpetit station was under construction, it had been for several years now. In this painting you see the sweeping curve of the road flanked by the iconic cyan construction barriers. There were little pops of colour here and there, like green, orange and yellow-orange. The construction crane was done with a mix of cobalt blue (PB28) and indothrene blue (PB60), and a touch of black (PBk6) for the shadowed parts of it. The composition was very good here, and I had a safe place to stand behind a barrier.

Édouard-Montpetit station, Blue Line, Crane, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2021 (No. 2946)

 

There were a few angles to choose from, I settled on this view of the station with Mount Royal in the background. To avoid it being overworked I painted fast and applied big blocks of colour. The detail work was laid over top, for example the interlocking brick effect. This painting was done on a 8 x10" piece cut from a cold press sheet of 140lb Winsor and Newton. The paper absorbs paint like crazy, which makes it dull an grey when dried. Aware of this problem, I applied the paint with more intensity and higher contrast than normal. It worked out well, you can really get that feeling of a cold winter atmosphere. I wonder if a vertical composition would have worked better?

Édouard-Montpetit station, Blue Line, Panorama, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, December 2021 (No. 2958a)

On the sunny side, I found this challenging scene of the curved, reflective window and metallic roofing eave. I liked the blue, orange and silver pylon. To begin I established the sweeping curves of the wall in perspective, and then filled in the colour areas starting with the sky. At last, I painted in the mirror-effect window, basically replicating the scene, but a bit more wobbly. The illusion worked well, you may even notice the background building reflecting in the metallic eave, and my signature hidden among the cracks in the road. I like this painting, I will remember the moment whenever I look at it.   

Édouard-Montpetit station, Blue Line, Reflections, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2021 (No. 2947)