Purple sky snow covered night

Thick blankets of snow covered everything in Montreal including these pine trees near Decarie expressway. Nearby lamps were casting an amber tint over the snow, intermixing with purple from the sky. Getting the subtle tints right was the challenges, for example the pine trees go from orange to grey, and the snow had variations of orange and caramel tones. 

Pine trees near Decarie tint, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025

Strong white flood-lights illuminated the local skateboard park which was blanket in snow. In the background is the local school with a few orange lamps. It was very quiet here, almost silent due to the time of day and the snow, which absorbs sound effectively. To do the glow-effect of the lamp, a series of rings are made wet-in-wet starting with greenish pale yellow, then merging with the soft purple sky. 

Snow covered skateboard park, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 

First snow, heaps of it!

The snow finally arrived in large amounts, covering Montreal with a thick blanket. With temperatures slightly below 0 ℃ the snow accumulated all day leaving most things completely covered. In this scene, a fire hydrant, shrub, car and trees were barely visible under the piles of snow. Since the leaves had not completely fallen off yet, it made many tree branches bend and droop downwards. 

First piles of snow, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025

A large tree on Somerled accumulated snow on all its branches, with some yellowish leaves poking through. A traffic sign was plastered in snow making it impossible to read, while cars went by also covered in snow. Painting watercolour, or any colour, in these conditions is difficult to say the least but I have been doing it for years, or decades rather. I built a drying rack, its a balsa-wood frame, sized to the paper (6 x 7.5") that I place on top of the paper and use elastics to fasten it to a stiff piece of cardboard. This device will protect the surface of the painting from smudging when it goes back into the bag, and makes it easier to handle in rough conditions. I made a second drying rack this season so I can paint two at once. Its possible to reload it on  location with fresh paper, but keep in mind, I am wearing oven-mitt style gloves for the entire process. I think today's paintings have the most amount of detail possible to do while wearing oven-mitts in the middle of a snow storm! They are not really oven mitts, they are dear-skin insulated gauntlets from Canada Outfitters, where I also got my wool base layer. 

Snow covered tree Somerled, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 

Train bridges thinking big

Down at the Peel basin the ice fog created an eerie glow penetrated by the orange-yellow light from a lamp. The bike path runs under these bridges, and in the background is the new graffiti by SLUK, a massive piece up on the new Maltage silos. A train rumbled by overhead. 

Train bridges ice fog, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025

Light rail overhead and commuter trains on the lower rails were crisscrossing with a rattle and rumble. New construction had a greyish chartreuse, while the old bridge was painted in a bluish charcoal. In the bottom right corner is a small piece of the obsolete train bridge, it is a rusted iron structure covered in graffiti now. 

Two trains bridges, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025

Somehow, this writer (graffiti person) got on top of an enormous 20 story silo and rappelled down the side, making a large piece with paint rollers. The writing looked to be about 7 stories tall, located on the upper portion of the structure. It wasn't there last week, so it must have been done very recently. The actual name was mentioned in the first painting, here I changed it to my initials. Although graffiti is illegal and there are enormous amounts of it now, one has to admire the audacity to do something like this. It made me think about my paintings... I need to go bigger and more impressive... but on paper and not with spray paint! 

Thinking big, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025

 

Ice fog Dorchester square

With ice fog in the forecast, it made for some interesting scenes where the tops of skyscrapers were obscured by cloud. In the foreground, is a war memorial, in the background is the mighty Place Ville Marie building shrouded in clouds. Things worked better with a small brush, but the paint was pretty soggy and unpredictable today. 

Ice fog downtown, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025

At the tops of these yellow trees at Dorchester square there was a large squirrel nest and squirrels hopping around the branches. Thick ice fog enveloped the buildings in the background, and a thin layer of mist was everywhere. 

Living high life, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025

This old artillery piece, likely from world war II sits next to the war memorial. One day before remembrance day, we remember those who lost their lives in the war. Once again the paint was being stubborn today making details elusive. At the illusion of fog is quite authentic. 

Artillery ice fog, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 

Brief snow storm downtown

Across from Cabot square sits the old Forum where the Canadiens used to play. Nowadays its a mall with several street-level shops and restaurants including a dollar store. The dollar store is barely visible in the painting, just a streak of yellow off to the bottom right. I was mostly standing on this location because there is a wide ledge overhead which provided some shelter from the brief snow storm that hit Montreal this afternoon. People even had umbrellas, and I was wearing a combination of winter wear and rain wear. For a more pleasant view of this area check out the sunflowers that were growing in Cabot square this summer. 

Old Forum corner,  watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025

To complete this painting, I stood next to a bus stop shelter which blocked the direct wind and snow which was coming down close to vertically. The old Forum building is in the background, with the Cabot square paths and landscaping in the foreground. There were a lot more trees than this, but the conditions precluded any overlay detailing. Its always an adjustment period going into the winter. The truth is, that I enjoy painting in the winter, in fact I did a few on a trip out to Montreal in the 1990's, I will paste one below...

Cabot square snow storm, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, November 2025 

  

Here is one of the old paintings I did on a trip to Montreal in 1997, it was the first one I remember doing on the trip, which probably makes it the first location painting I ever did in Montreal. Prior to that, I had been painting on location in Ontario for a few years. 

Big Bottle, Winter,  watercolour 5 x 8" cold press, 1997 (No. 1056) 

First snow of the season, wet

Going out into the uncertain weather today, I found a ledge along st Catherine street with some shelter from the cold wet snow. You have to be really committed to your art, in more ways than one, in order to paint on a day like today! The roads were slick with an icy snow layer and light rain. Together with the construction pylons it was so Montreal. 

Wet snow construction, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025

Looking west, and there was a view of an old building that the city plans to renovate, or perhaps demolish, I believe its the old Packard building, based on some google searching and a fuzzy image of the logo over the front door. Its all shuttered now, but it used to have shops on the ground level and studios on the top levels. Despite the shelter, snow still pelted down onto the painting. 

Packard building profile, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025

The entire upper two floors of the building are encased in a re-enforced black mesh to prevent debris from falling onto the sidewalk. It was once a glorious building it would seem, hopefully they can clean off all the graffiti and bring it back to life. For the first painting I had salt water, but the temperature was slightly above zero so I switched to fresh water for the remaining paintings. Salt water wont freeze easily, but it makes the paint dry a lot slower. 

Packard building front, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, November 2025

 

136 east tunel under Montreal

The 136 highway goes underneath Montreal, here is one of the entrance ways off of Rue Notre Dame. In the background, you see one of the enormous glass towers they completed last year over on Robert Bourassa. The building angles outwards from street level, that way more square footage can be created from the same plot of land, several newer building use this design. Because of the perspective, it looks like this massive skyscraper is sitting right on top of the tunnel, with a few delicate trees in the middle. I liked the dramatic contrast between vertical and perpenicular... with cars driving into the tunnel. A few yellow signs provided more depth, and importantly, they connect the various layers of the compoisition by overlapping the horizontal elements. I learned that trick from studying Hiroshige the great Japanese print designer. This would also be a cool scene to do at night, although we are expecting 10cm of snow tomorrow, which will hamper my bike ride/painting trips. Will go on foot if needed. 

136 east tunel under Montreal, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, November 2025

Scenes at the heart of Montreal

If you have been downtown Montreal anytime lately, this kind of scene is all too familiar. I call it Montreal orange, that particular shade of the construction sign that I mix with pyrol orange (PO73) and benzi orange (PO62). The numbers in parenthesis are the pigment code of the paint colourant that I use. To establish this painting I applied a faint outline with grey paint and a number 2 round brush, then started to fill in the colour blocks, with layers of texture and detail. Planning out where the paper would show through was essential to get the signs to pop. My intitials are hidden in one of the signs. 

Peel street Montreal orange, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025

Concordia University has been in the news again for all the wrong reasons...they want to postpone the sabbatical for professors, which is a professional development year, and eliminate all the limited term appointment teachers. Even the pigeons were disgusted, they flew away from under the yellow trees at the downtown Campus. 

Pigeons under yellow trees, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, November 2025  

 

In my authorotative Curio Folio series, this museum has come up a few times, its called MARMALADE. Since you may not believe everything I write in the Curio Folio blogs, I decided to make a painting of it just for evidence that it exists, really.   

MARMALADE, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025

Rustic scenes from Lachine canal

The old abandoned Maltage factory down by the Lachine canal is a boon for artists, including myself as a watercolour painter. It provides an endless supply of industrial motifs and no trespassing required! At the rear of the factory, there is a corrugated metal structure with a funnel, it must have been where the malt trucks would fill up back in the day. From the looks of it, a person would have worked up there. It must have got hot in the summer, being a metal box. As usual recently, I replaced the graffiti with my initials PJD25. When composing a scene like this, the small apartments at the bottom left are important for creating the sense of scale. I did a night scene here with the pink house on top with a similar compositional idea. 

Maltage corrugated structure, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025

Next to the locks, there is a water chute that allows the Lachine canal to continue flowing. One of the better paintings from all of last year was a similar scene of the water cascading under bridge, although today I wanted to feature the wall more than the water. Someone made a painting of a pylon on the stone platform above the wall, I though that was funny. 

Water chute locks wall, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025

The locks are very old, and for the most part they are slowly disintegrating. It makes for some interesting, rustic colours and textures to paint. I generally start a painting like this with a thin outline using a brush and dilute grey or brown paint. I fill in the main colour blocks, making sure to leave space for lighter elements, since there is no white paint you have to plan ahead. Then I apply layers of texture using various brush techniques, followed by more detail with the small number 2 brush to finish. You can see the JD CD construction company working on a new building in the background, while DYER left her mark on a billboard. PJD25 was at it again, putting his throw on the staircase. 

Locks rustic, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 

Office tag blue yellow red

Due to the achromatic (pale beige) nature of my office, I made a special painting with maximum colour brightness to spice things up. Being on a graffiti kick, I used a graffiti-inspired design, with a bit of influence from Japanese woodblock print. The initials and date (PJD25) were made to look like they were applied with a stamp. Since spray-painting my name on the office wall probably would have got me in trouble, I opted for the st Armand paper that I aquired from the local paper makers down by the Lachine canal before they moved their business out of Montreal. I met the paper makers, an old couple who had been hand making paper for decades, and they sold me a couple of stacks of paper in various sizes. They start by recycling old rags and clothing, processing the paper fibers, and pressing them out on a giant press device that I saw in person. To do this painting, I used the colour splash technique with a large watery blob of blue (PB15) and scratched in lines with the pointy end of the brush. After a few days of drying I applied the numbers and lettering with pyrol vermillion (PR255), waited a day, then brushed on copius amounts of bismuth vanadate yellow (PY184). The colour scheme was inspired by an abstact painting I did in 2020 called Palette Cleanser #42. 

Office tag blue yellow red, watercolour 16 x 24" st Armande paper, November 2025

Curio Folio: Copy Paste

Before computers were invented there was a short-lived office product called copy paste. I never heard of this until I visted the MARMALADE* down town Montreal last week. It was on a special display of old office equipment that included things like the "bubble chair", and the "stapler-tooth brush" which I will have to blog about one day. What made copy paste special was that you could squeeze it out onto a document, smooth it out using a fork-knife, and once it dried into a gelatinous resin, it peeled off leaving the original text intact. By applying the resinous mold onto a blank piece of paper it recreated the image. This of course pre-dated the xerox machine which ultimately made copy paste obsolete. The other problem was that copy paste fumes made office workers giddy, to the point of wanting to play musical chairs and dance the rhumba on top of desks, and it had a small risk of causing the hiccups. It was also excellent for copying currency, movie tickets, postage stamps, and just about any other valuable item, making it a tool for criminal forgers. At least I got to see it at the MARMALADE, and the staff allowed me make a painting of it. Actually, the original painting is still at the museum, they let me copy my painting using the copy paste, which is what you see on the blog. I felt giddy. 

Curio Folio: Copy Paste, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 

*MARMALADE stands for the Museum of Art Relics Mementos Absurd and Legendary Artifacts Definitely Excellent  

Yellow and more yellow

After finishing an abstract painting that I will post shortly, I had some left over bismuth vanadate yellow (PY184) in a small cup. Carefully bringing it on location I used it up on a few paintings, including these big yellow trees near campus. For variety, a touch of yellow ochre (PY43) was mixed in, and small dabs of pale green (PG36) and orange (PY110) were added while wet. Afterwards, the trunks, branches and background details were added at home. I quite like the effect, it has the intensity of the autumn yellow leaves that are so prevalent around town this year. 

Big yellow trees, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025

Here is yet another painting of Dagwood's restaurant near campus, it has an interesting shape being nestled into a small triangle between the end of Monkland avenue where it meets Sherbrooke blvd. A bus briefly stopped at the lights but it carried on and I had to mostly paint it from memory. The lemony colour of the cladding on the restaurant is from the bismuth vandate yellow, it looks unrealistic but still really neat... as if the building is made from candy, or its a layered cake with icing on top. 

Dagwood's lemon, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 

Full moon alley

One of the many alleys along the Maisonneuve bike path in down town Montreal, this one was illuminated by a strong flood light with an eerie glow from the full moon. Standing on the sidewalk next to my bike, it took a decent amount of time to complete this scene, plenty of bikes and pedestrians walked by, and music could be heard the local club. A work crew was putting down construction signs along the bike path, making loud clangs and bangs. The sub-zero Celsius temperatures did not deter the lightly-dressed party goers from standing around smoking and chatting, nor did it deter the watercolour painter.  

Full moon alley, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, November 2025

Various Westhaven scenes

Down by the train tracks where Courcelle street crosses, there is a park and a commuter station, its a location I have painted many times due to its proximity to campus. Today I composed my favorite motif, the garabage can, with the train tracks and a yellow crossing sign. The crossing sign was embellished to make it look like the person crossing was in danger of being hit by the train. The composition uses a series of triangles to make an energetic zig-zag pattern. For the yellow sign, it was a mix of yellow ochre (PY43) and benzi yellow (PY154). 

Garbage can train tracks, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025

Looking east along the train tracks, and there was some graffiti by SODAX and PJD25 on a rail-side structure. SODAX was talking about changing her tag name... so we will see if it changes up in the future. PJD25 is kind of boring, although he sometimes writes FARTY. 

Tracks and graff, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025

This condo on the corner of Courcelle and Harley street has been boarded up for years, and today I saw them finally tearing it down. Hopefully they can replace it with some new affordable housing stock, or maybe a small park which is needed in the neighborhood.  Or, they should build one of those artificial skydiving centers where they have a jet stream blowing upwards in a tube and you can levitate for awhile. But I'm guessing its going to be condos, 

Corner demolition, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 

Dépanneur NDG night neon

Just near the Vendome station there is Dépanneur NDG, which has this gaudy neon-red sign that illuminates the lower part of the facade and staircase. Violet and blue neon adorned the entrance way, casting an eerie glow. The window above looks into a cafe, with reflections from the green traffic light across the street. I worked a lot on reflections and transparencies this year to make windows look more realistic. In the background, you see an earthy dark blue and brown scene with some windows lit up and a car reflecting the street lamp. The main trick to this painting is getting the initial lines correct, there needs to be vertical lines going parallel, and horizontal lines on a one point perspective. The last touch was to use a small number 2 brush to lightly dab in high chroma red-orange (PO73) and cyan (PB15) onto the neon, careful to leave small bits of white showing through to convey a neon effect. There is not a whole lot of room for error in a painting like this, its a scene that I have wanted to paint for a long time and glad I finally did. 

Dépanneur NDG night neon, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, November 2025

Nearly full moon, cool evening

The plan was to head out on the evening of November 5th to paint the full moon, however, the forecast was overcast and possibility of rain. So I headed out on the evening of November 4th, with the moon at 97.4% full, 62 degrees in the sky, and partly cloudy skies according to timeanddate.com. The moon angle was so high actually, it seemed to be almost directly overhead. In this view, I am looking up at the moon which is shining through the clouds. A number of techniques had to come together to make this painting work...its been a lot of nights out painting the moon. 

Full moon through clouds, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025

Catching this view of the moon over the demoed mall on Côte Saint-Luc, I made a painting of the pile of rubble illuminated by the moon, with an apartment in the background. By embellishing some of the highlights on the edge of the building and debris, it gives the illusion of illumination. Most of the local light was actually from the LED overhead lamps that are quite strong. 

Full moon over demoed mall, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025

Painting night skies is quite a challenge, in this example I left tiny dots of paper showing through to convey the Orion constellation which was visible over the Glen Hospital. The paint streaked in a funny way, but I kind of like the effect. Its not often I get to see stars in Montreal. 

Orion over hospital, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025

Looking towards the top of the radio tower, and the moon was passing over its top. I chose the tough route for this one by applying the shape of the tower first, then painting the sky in between the spaces. In retrospect, I could have done the whole moon and sky first, then over-painted the tower with yellow ochre. Its a question of whether the paint dries in time or not...these paintings are done in one go. It worked out pretty good though, and the red lights pop against the cool blue background. I left a small dot of paper showing through at the center of the red light to give the impression of it being bright. 

Full moon radio tower, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025

Enough with the graff

Enough with the graffiti, or as you would say in lingo, 'graff'. The city of Montreal is clearly under seige by the graffiti artists, who like to refer to themselves as writers, aka vandals. Everywhere I ride there are big bubble letters and incomprehensible scribbles including several that popped up on our street corner recently. If one shows up on the walls of our condo, the city will give us a citation, and the condo fees will be used to clean it off. In the painting above, I finally found an original, 'illegal' example of Scan's graff... he was the infamous graffiti artist who passed away in 2017. Its on one of the cross beams holding up the Rosemont bridge.. I made it more legible in the painting. Also seen, are the crew including the ringleader PJD25, his sidekick SODAX, with FRITZ, CILS and DDAWG making an appearance.   

Scan and the crew, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025

The whole area around the train tracks is plastered in spray paint. In this scene (thats st Laurent street in the background), a wall is in silhouette with the sun just going down. I liked the similarity between the autumn colours in the adjacent trees with the graffiti art on the wall. Of course, I changed the initals to be PJD because, why not?

Silhouette autumn colours, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 

Raining downtown, various scenes

Seeking shelter under the rail bridge and I caught a good view up Peel street, with the car headlights reflecting off the wet road. Its every painters dream to paint a scene of cars driving through the city on a rainy day with the coloured lights beaming off the slick asphalt. At least, a lot of kitsch paintings show this kind of scene, usually with taxi cabs in New York! The problem in reality, is that its hard to paint when its raining, and you can't really stand in the middle of the road. This location offers the perfect spot, near the bike path and sidewalk with complete shelter overhead. 

Peel street reflections, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025

The trick to painting these beer cans was to keep the lines really crisp while the rest of the painting had a slightly blurry effect. Capturing the correct shade of aluminum took some artistic wits too. I wont spoil it and tell my secret formula, I call it 'beer can grey'. Ironically, the smell of malted barley was in the air, it occasionally wafts over from the malt factory across the basin. 

Beer cans in rain storm, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025

These adjacent squirrel nests are all ready for winter. With abundant leaves on the ground, they had no trouble building them. Who said anything about a housing crisis? In the foreground is part of the Old Port water feature that is used for paddle boats in the summer, but drained for the winter. Cartier bridge is seen in the background. 

Squirrel nests old port, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025

In 1931, the city built a tunnel under the Lachine canal called the Wellington Tunnel. It was abandoned in 1994 when the bridge was completed rendering it obsolete. Nowadays, it is covered in graffiti, and the entrance way is barricaded with a wall of concrete blocks. I ventured down the path a little and painted a scene of the wall from the main entrance. In researching this location on the internet, I found an interesting art and music project by Jen Reimer and Max Stein, who actually went in the tunnel and recorded a music and light show. 

Wellington tunnel, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 

Another abandoned structure, its Silo #5, a very long and narrow industrial building that dominates the landscape on the west side of Old Port Montreal. Its facade is rusted and dilapidated, with a range of graffiti names adorning the building. This is a hybrid painting where I painted over the top of an old painting to create special effects. It started to rain again and I had to paint fast...a couple of splashes here and there, detail detail, and it was done. 

Silo #5 Hybrid, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025  

Lunch hour bike ride stuck in rain

 

As I reach the end of the old paintings that I cut up, here is a scene of Farine Five Roses, actually its the new Malt company. With the rain starting to pick up I had to paint faster than usual here. One of the graffiti artists saw me painting once in st Henri and was impressed at how fast I painted. Although at the time, the subject was a moving train so it was necessary. 

Farine Five Roses hybrid, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 

  

Where the bike path meets meets the Peel basin, it loops around to the left and continues on to Old Port Montreal. This underpass is normally covered in graffiti but the 'buff man' showed up... that's the name of a city worker or contractor who removes graffiti. Actually, the graffiti was all there but I removed it from my painting and just left a trademark orange pylon. We have a new mayor of Montreal now, and part of her platform is to have less orange pylons in the city. I look forward to seeing what colour the pylons will be next. 

Bike underpass Peel basin, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025

Here is another hybrid painting where I literally paint over top of another painting, allowing some of the image to show through. The warehouse is probably over a hundred years old, and the city has preserved it for posterity. Its a major bike thoroughfare and pedestrian area, although not many people were out today with the soggy weather. As I got stuck in the rain, there are a few more paintings I will post shortly. 

Warehouse hybrid, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025

Continuing with graffiti theme, art cubed

The old Canada Malt factory which used to supply malted barley to half of America was long ago shut down and moved to a modern facility closer to the Peel basin. Nowadays, the maltage building is more famous as an outdoor gallery for street art. Sitting on top is the famous Pink House, although today I was on the other side of the canal and painted at distance. The painting was done on top of an old doodleism painting that I cut up awhile ago, which explains the psychedelic flowers and odd shapes in the sky and faintly visible under the grass and silos. Biological Immortality was the name of the painting, you can see the title  up on one of the silos. 

Maltage fusion, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025

This is art cubed. I am standing on the sidewalk next to the Zen Factory, looking through a grid of shattered windows into the interior of the building, which opens up to an even deeper interior area. A window off in the distance provides an eerie illumination. All this, painted on top of an abstract painting, and with my own graffiti-inspired designs superimposed. Talk about taking risks! At least I was safe, other than the smell of damp concrete and mold wafting out of the place, I was standing behind a tall fence looking in. Warning signs adorn the building all over, its not stable and could be contaminated. It didn't bother the graffiti artists, I could see the whole interior covered in large wall art pieces. PJD25, SODAX, and D-Dawg all left their marks. 

Art³, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025

Lastly, I made a painting of the Zen Factory in profile, letting the under-painting do the talking instead of applying any graffiti-inspired lines on top. Who knows what this factory used to be be, but now, it is a playground for artists, both graffiti and watercolour apparently. 

Zen factory profile, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 

Graffiti replacement therapy

I've been on a graffiti kick lately, starting with some paintings around Cabot street in Sud West neighborhood, into the legal graffiti alley in Mile End near my old steet, and out to the famous legal graffiti tunel on Rouen street in Hochelaga. To be clear, I'm not a graffiti artist and would never deface property, in fact, I even have a waste container to collect my dirty painting water on location so that it can be disposed of at home. Its more of an exploration of graffiti art and the artists (writers) behind the work. This old factory shows up as 'Bando Factory' on google maps, listed as a 'playground' but that information is an on-line prank. It was last registered as a Federal Corporation on 4010 st Patrick street that disbanded in 2019. Using the time-machine feature on google maps street view, and you see the first graffiti started in 2014. In the painting, I replaced the actual graffiti with my own crew's names. That large insect is actually there, its a 3-D sculpture made from motorcycle parts by an artist named Junko... I found that info on the internet too. On my blog, this location is referred to as the Zen Factory.    

Sun over Zen Factory, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025

All art producted at the Zen Factory must be trippy. In most of these paintings, I am painting over top of an old doodleism style painting from 2020 called Biological Immortality that was cut up into smaller pieces. Thus, the character was from the original painting, while the structure was painted on location. As usual I replaced the actual graffiti names with some of my crew. 

Behind the window, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025

The graffiti artists dont use pink too often, although Zonek started to recently. Most of the windows are broken now... the other day I was here, kids were throwing rocks at the windows. Today I stayed on the sidewalk the whole time painting from a bit of a distance, there is a lot of broken glass all around the structure. If any artist wants to paint a dilapidated warehouse/factory covered in graffiti art, this is the place to go... lots of spots to set up on the wide sidewalk and asphalt in the front along st Patrick street. And totally legal, no trepassing required. A police cruiser went by and didn't even slow down. 

Zen in pink, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 

An old red pole was worn down and rusted, someone named PJD25 had painted a drippy tag in black ink over top. Trees were growing around it, as if to reclaim the iron back into the earth. Too bad the city will clear the whole lot one day, there is a small forest growing here filled with birds, field mice, voles, insects and other wildlife. 

Tree around red pole, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025