Looking for places to put my initials

 

Here is the old Théâtre Cartier in st Henri, it sat unused and covered in graffiti for many year until this year, it was bought by a new owner who wants to relaunch it as the Theater Colas. I think it will do well, since the neighborhood is picking up and its a very popular place to live and to dine. If its up and running next year I would like to go. Next time hopefully there will people in a line up going to see a show! The Marquees on the theater was blank, so I decided to fill in my initials and the year 24. Today obviously was the last day I will initial paintings 24. Next year I may go with 25, or initial as PJDART42 my social media tag. The reason I put the year is to remember when I did them, in the old days I lost track, although that was before the blog.

Old Théâtre Cartier, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, December 2024

 

This is the train bridge going over Notre Dame in st Henri, they dug the road under it so as to allow unfettered traffic, something they aught to do in NDG more often. The actual tag on the bridge was MONET, who is a graffiti "artist" in Montreal,  but all they can do is put big ugly block letters on things not very impressive considering their namesake. I took the liberty to put my initials instead.

Train bridge setting sun, watercolour 5 x 7.5" cold press, December 2024

 

This old building had about 2/3 of it renovated to be a modern commercial shop. On the bottom it looked like a spaceship, on the top it was vintage Montreal. It was a lot harder than I thought to do this painting, normally I stay away from architectural subjects but the sun was just perfect and the new sidewalk in st Henri gives plenty of space to set up my bike/studio.

Old and new building, watercolour 5 x 7.5" cold press, December 2024

 

Good way to end off the blog for the year perhaps, this is a painting of the Bar Notre Dame sign, which seems like a contradiction in terms. To get the graphic design to pop, I started with a pale yellow rectangle and let it completely dry before overlaying the bar font with ferrari red (PR255) and outlining the beer mug in carbon black (PBk6). The yellow beer was just yellow ochre (PY43) with benzi yello (PY154). With the rest of the painting in a slight blur, it gives the sense of a photograph almost. Funny enough, I could not see at all where the bar was, maybe it was closed and they just left the sign up. Cheers!

Bar Notre Dame, watercolour 5 x 7.5" cold press, December 2024