In the zone, downtown Montreal

You can probably guess which dépanneur brand this is, judging from the yellow and orange sign at bottom. A prominent ATM sign helped anchor the composition in the lower half. But the main interest was the distinct apartment on top, it looked like a retrofitted Victorian-era architecture sitting atop a busy street. I fit my bike between a sidewalk planter and the pedestrian thoroughfare, must have been a hundred people walk by and a few talked to me. It took awhile to do this painting but it was not hard. I established the outlines with carbon black, then worked through the various washes and textural elements. It was one of the scenes that was so good, all I had to do was get it down on paper. Funny thing, is that ATM is an English acronym, automated teller machine, it is supposed to be DAB in French distributeur automatique de billets.

Distinct apartment over dépanneur, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August  2024

 

When I took a little detour after working, I didn't expect to make this many paintings. At any rate, I discovered Hope Street and this cool mural across from Hector Toe Blake Park. The mural was marked with Roiks ?, Achoa ? and Peter-McGill who were presumably the artists. The question mark is because they used a small but neat 'tag' which is a graffiti artist squiggle that represents their names. Its not often I paint other people's art, but I wanted to understand the colour combinations, which were yellow, yellow-orange, violet (on the magenta side) and some darker blue-violets. The rest of the mural had a woman sitting on the ground, and she seemed to have some meaning. The rest of the scene was like blocks of lego. I captured the asphalt with the same purple mix used in the mural plus carbon black, and some blue for reflections. Actually, I echoed all of the mural colours in the rest of the painting by using muted or pastel version where possible.

Hope Street Mural, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August  2024

 

I was just hallucinating by now, and mostly because of the heat and humidity! The buildings were done in a semi-invisible way where the sides seem to melt into the sky. A few lucky backwashes made the bus seem to glow. To complete the painting, a large graffiti initial was added and some green-yellow grass overlaid on the mostly brownish foreground. I think the lightness of the buildings is neat considering how big and heavy they really are, and the foreground elements provide a chunky, textured contrast.

Cityscape with STM bus, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August  2024