Darkness on Ontario Street

 

Yes there is a prominent street in Montreal called Ontario street (and in Kingston Ontario they have a  street called Montreal street!). Ontario street cuts a swath from the Cartier bridge through the Latin quarter (Gay Village) and into the student Ghetto McGill area. I have sized up this location a few times before and not painted it until today when I finally saw the potential of the scene. Somebody lit up a charcoal bbq as I was painting, so kerosene wafted by, then a sooty smell, followed by burger meat on the grill. The ground floor of this corner house has a row of shops, with apartments on the top floor, and what looks to be more apartments up in the spooky attic. The painting was harder to do than it it may look, firstly the two-point perspective was strong, and I wanted the building to sort of jump off the page. Next, the whole scene was backlit and in silhouette, yet the colours still had intensity, green and black on the roof elements, and deep brick tones on the facade. The shade of brick changes, because they painted it over on the bottom to cover graffiti. The tree in the back and the shadow in the front complete the effect. It looks a little creepy which was intentional. For a point of reference, see Van Gogh's 'The Church at Auvers'.

Corner House, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2024 (No. 3820)

 

Just a block down from the corner house (you see it in the distance on the left) is a defunct bar and punk music venue called Katacombs. Painted entirely in black, it is adorned with a plethora of cool murals and graffiti art. As a business it went bust in 2019, and has sat empty ever since. The plan is to develop it into an affordable housing block for student rentals. I thought it would be worth painting it before it disappears forever, although there did not seem to be any indication that construction was imminent.

Katacombs, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2024 (No. 3821)