At the end of Casgrain, just off of st Laurent, there is a dense urban area with green space around it, between the Rosemont elevated highway. I could see an enormous mural on one of the buildings, after looking at Google maps that building is on Gaspé street but the resolution was not good enough on street view to see the name on the mural. It was clearly an indigenous mural based on the symbols and art style. The female figure was holding a paint brush which was cool, although she had it in the other hand, I wanted the brush to show in my painting. Usually I avoid painting other people's art, but in this case it really was a defining feature of the urban landscape and a fantastic mural. My clumsy rendition does not quite do it justice. I will try to find out more about the mural, and next time I am around there I will get a look at the name of the artist(s) who did it to give them proper credit.
... update, I found a curated site that mapped out all the murals, Dailyhive.com, including the one on Gaspé. the name of the mural is “Walla Volo” (2019), it is known to be the biggest mural made by a woman in Canada, it covers 15,000 square feet! The artist is Ola Volo. She is a Kazakh Canadian artist who used Eastern European folk art themes, which is why I though I was seeing indigenous themes.
Ola Volo Mural with yellow trees, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024
No glamorous murals here, just a graffiti on an autoshop with a pile of tires next to it. Its the kind of building that you can come back to next year only to find a hole and a condo development. But this is Montreal, an old building probably post WWII construction in the 50's that has repaired thousands of cars and changed millions of tires, complete with a vintage condo on the top floor. It was a good day, cool, sunny, and standing here was quiet and pleasant.
Auto shop pile of tires, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2024
No comments:
Post a Comment