Paintings along the commuter corridor

This is actually a composite painting done on location at two different times. The first stage was in the late afternoon, I was able to get an outline made before the bus arrived and I had to leave. The second stage was early in the morning going the other direction, although I added the train from memory and embellished the presence of some stars. Eerie orange lamps illuminated the entrance at the bottom right.
I was travelling along the busy commuter corridor that connects Toronto to the suburbs.

Malton GO train morning, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November/December 2024

 

MC Escher made some famous illustrations of illogical, impossible buildings like a spiral staircase with no beginning or end. This is the scene walking down the ramp into the train arrival/departure area at Union Station in Toronto, it had a very Escher-like appearance from this angle. I moved some of the lines for artistic reasons, and it was a difficult composition to get right. To make all these paintings I had my painting shoulder bag ready to go at all times, and I can paint standing up wherever needed.

Union Station Escher-like, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, December 2024

 

With extra time to pass due to a train delay I made a few paintings in the station like the Escher-like scene. Here is a more familiar scene, people buying their donuts and double-double coffees at Tim Horton's, a famous Canadian-American-Brazilian owned franchise.  It started off as a business venture by hockey player Tim Horton, who passed away young and the company changed hands and is now in a corporate conglomerate. If it really was Brazilian then the coffee would be much better and the store would be more colourful.

 Tim Hortons waiting, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, December 2024

 

Who knows where Malton really is, its part of the sprawling Greater Toronto Area urban area, somewhere between Kitchener and downtown Toronto, probably near Mississauga. Just before the sun came up there were strong flood lights turned on at a warehouse across the tracks which created an eerie lighting effect. It is reminiscent of the surrealist painting by René Magritte's L'empire des lumières' which recently sold for an astounding $121 million dollars. He also painted the scene of the man standing with an apple blocking his face, and similar scenes. I wont charge that much for this painting, but I at least need to get the cost of the train ticket, which was $8.50 to Toronto.

Morning in Malton, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, December 2024