Path through snow on Campus

Just popping outside of my office in the late afternoon I made a quick painting of the path cutting through the deep snow. A rock and a few trees, along with one of the campus building in the background, completed the scene. The snow had a subtle glow of orange-yellow light from the right due to the setting sun, and a bluish shadow from the left and top. With all the salt they added to the path it was shimmering and moist looking. To get the nice pine tree green in the tree, I mixed shadow green (PBk31) with a heavy dose of yellow (PY154). Its tempting to use green paint to do a pine tree, but in fact these trees are more of a dark yellow, leaning to olive green. So shadow green plus yellow is the best option. Some 'blue pine' trees just require the shadow green alone, no yellow, with a bit of dilution with water. The path, by the way, is orange paint (PO62) with black paint (PBk6) and splashes of blue (PB15) and clear water.

Path through snow, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2025

Benny Park snow covered grounds

With better conditions today I could make a few paintings out at Benny park before the sun went down. This one shows the copse (group) of trees on the hillside and the neat shadow they made on the snow. The tree colour is mostly shadow green (PBk31) and carbon black (PBk6). The shadow is phthalo blue (PB15) with magenta (PR122) and a touch of the green and brown paints where its darker. I used the hatch-mark style on the sky to prevent the paint from blurring together with the pine trees.

Pine trees shadow on hill, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2025

Looking towards the sports complex I captured the side of the building, some more trees, and the snow embankment with dry grass and milkweed plants poking through. The milkweeds were neat, but I did not notice them soon enough. Next time I will go there and try to feature the milk weeds more. To capture the brick colour I mixed burnt sienna deep (PBr7, from Da Vinci company) with dark magenta (PV55), and a touch of indo blue or shadow green. It looks perfect here, a deep rich maroon/burgandy colour. For years I tried to get that brick colour correct and it was always tough. I know the actual pigment in the bricks is PR101 dark, sometimes called caput mortum which I have a tube of, but its not something I keep on the palette. The paint also dries too dull, the bricks have some kind of coating that makes them bright.

Sports complex and trees in snow, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, January 2025 

Painting in and out of a blizzard

The other day, I was musing about the difference of painting on location versus painting in a studio. On the way home last night I stopped under some lights to make a painting of the scenery, and it was snowing quite heavily. The snowflakes were large and wet, which ended up 'destroying' the painting and making the palette mushy and hard to control. Yet, now that I see it scanned, its pretty much exactly what I remember feeling at the time. Looking at it, there is no doubt about there being a blizzard!

In the blizzard, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2025

Afterwards, I made a painting at home on the kitchen table, aka, my studio, and tried to make it exactly as I remember. This version captures the subtle variations in orange and blue of the snow, the delicate lilac sky, and the textured branches and window details. It looks exactly like what I saw on location. Yet, it fails to represent the feeling of the location painting. I think the best paintings capture both the look and the feel of the moment. At least these two paintings show the stylistic differences of location versus studio painting.

Out of the blizzard, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2025

Snowy day paintings

A thick layer of snow came down last night, resulting in some neat formations around this rock in Coffee Park. Some people walked by and commented about how 'that guy is making art' and I think took a picture of me. Not many painters go out in the winter. I started winter painting around the end of 1995, which was the first year I started painting on location. Back then I added alcohol to the water but it was ineffective, so I had to just paint fast instead. Now with the right amount of salt, the paint flows well enough although the colours dull slightly. I like the swirl of shadow around the rock, its very Van Gogh-like. I wanted to contrast the heavy solid, warm rock with the fluffy cold snow.

Rock in snow, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, January 2025
 

In the background the commuter train went by and I made a quick painting. Since it was drying so slow, I actually made the other painting of the rock, then finished this one. Even so, the trees and the windows blurred into the background. You still get the idea though. Some artists prefer to take photos and work at home, which is a valid approach, however its just not for me. When on location its about the full immersion, the sounds, the smells, the physical feeling (like cold), and not to mention the visual information is much richer in real life than in a photo. The last time I painted from photos on a regular basis was from around 1990 - 1994 before I started location painting. After that, I occasionally use a photo for special projects, but otherwise much prefer outdoor painting. Indoors, I primarily do abstracts and imaginary painting like the World Inspired Landscapes series.

Train snowy day, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2025

Long shadows on the snow

 As the sun went down in nearby Loyola park, the trees cast long blue shadows on the snow. The blue, of course, is reflected from the sky and only visible in the shadows where there is no white light. The rest of the snow was sparkling white with warm colours and pock marked with shadows where people and dogs have walked and left footprints. The trees were painted over top with yellow ochre (PY43) and umber (PBr7). The sky was done using a blend of blue and green phthalo pigments (PB15, PG7), its something I practiced a lot since 2020. Phthalo is short for phthaloyanine, which is the chemical name of the class of pigments.

Tree shadows on snow, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, January 2025

The last of the sun was catching the tops of these two massive cedar trees, with a park bench in the foreground. To get the colours correct on the tree, the tops were done with a heavy blend of yellow (PY154) orange-yellow (PY110) and a touch of green (PG36). The lower portion was a thick red-orange (PO36) with the dark shadow green (PBk31). Yellow ochre and phthalo green provided some highlights here and there. It sounds like a lot of pigments, basically, I use about four or five paints to make nearly any shade of green. I avoid 'convenience' greens where the company pre-mixes pigments since they are hard to adjust predictably. The turquoise in the train yard painting I did yesterday, on the side of the train, was also a phthalo mix, it was the best I have managed to get the turquoise which is a tough one.

Cedars and bench, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2025

More scenes from Point st Charles

Standing on one of the paths overlooking Point st Charles, I did a painting of the rooftops and trees. It was very quiet here, just the occasional train rumbling by off in the distance. The main thing with a painting like this is to maintain the white snow-covered roofs, then fill in the areas around them. As it nearly dried I applied the trees, but the right side got smeared despite the use of the drying rack. Anyways, you definitely get the feel of a snowy cold, grey and brown day in the neighborhood.

Rooftops and trees, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2025

Towards the south edge of the neighborhood there is another elevated berm with a path on it, it is the same location that I painted the train yard (previous blog). You can see the construction pylon, they are still working, and I have a feeling many more condos will be going up around here. To the left you see a sliver of the train tracks. The sky effect is done with a yellow circle around white space, then orange, magenta, and dull purple. A few streaks of orange-yellow give the clouds a glowing appearance. Luckily it dried well enough and I could overlay the lamps and trees.

New path sun glow, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2025

A passenger VIA train went by as I painted this scene of Montreal. Its probably one of the trains I have taken in the past on a trip to Toronto. Tracks criss-crossed the foreground. In the middle are the stacks of colourful container cars. I could go here a dozen times and come away with a different painting. I did a few here last year like Seven Trains. 

Montreal skyline and trains, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, January 2025

Train yard on a weekend

Point st Charles is towards the east end of Verdun, it fills up the space between the highway and the Lachine Canal, with st Lawrence river unseen to the south. For awhile now, the city has been renovating the neighborhood with new roads, bike paths, sidewalks, and affordable housing developments. A walking path was built up on a berm overlooking the train yard, there is a tall fence in the scene that I omitted. These appear to be commuter trains, and also the VIA passenger trains that we sometimes take to Toronto. In the distance is the elevated commuter train and a few condos. The painting might look simple enough, but it was a huge challenge given the conditions. A fierce wind was barreling down from the west and the temperature seemed to plummet as the sun went behind clouds. I must have lost half a liter of water through tears and runny nose, and the paper kept going off center. I did another painting while this one was half done in order to let the paint dry a bit. Whoever said painting is relaxing probably never painted before. But I am glad to have hung in, it would also be a perfect Spring/Summer location there are views on all sides here.

Train yard weekend,  watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, January 2025

Blue shadows, post snow-day

Snow days were always the best as a kid... no school, play in the snow all day instead! It snowed all night, and during the day it was a nice blue sky and sunny. I managed to squeeze in a few after work and before the sun went down, which is later and later these days. Here is Raffi Auto shop with some snow-covered parked cars and piles of car parts. The trail in the front is where they drive cars into the repair area.

Raffi under snow, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, January 2025

Across the street on Harley, these tall apartment buildings cast long blue shadows over the parking lot. Most of the cars had this blue-violet colour, as did the snow. Buildings on the opposite were still catching some of the low winter sun.

Parking lot blue, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2025

 

At Coffee Park, this curved black iron fence was casting an interesting shadow on the snow and up the embankment. Trees and grassy remnants completed the scene. In the background behind the trees is Coffee street. I tried to get a good angle on the new structure they completed in the park, but it seems to have been designed to thwart artists; its a complex poly-rectangle shape with odd angles. Maybe in the summer it would be good.

Curved fence with shadow, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2025

Corner traffic winter, Cavendish and st Jacques

The corner of Cavendish and st Jacques is always busy, especially around rush hour when people are coming back from Montreal and driving into NDG, or vice versa. The right turn from here goes down st Jacques, past the grocery store and eventually leads to the highway. Turning left takes you to the Glen Yard area and st Henri. The trees you see in the distance, painted in a gold-on-purple style, are part of the escarpment, and the big piles of snow are from the grocery store parking lot. The reason I stood here was due to the huge flood lights from the car lot, which provided enough light to see, and there was a space to set up my bike. I got most of the painting completed on location but had to sharpen the lines and add the light standards, initials and trees (with yellow ochre PY43) when it dried out. Try to imagine standing on this corner, snow coming down like a blizzard, hundreds of cars along with trucks and buses, then make a painting. It was one of those "impossible but I will give it a try" paintings and it turned out pretty darned good.

Corner traffic winter, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2025

Orange sky on Campus cold evening

Walking home there was just a sliver of orange sky showing as the sun set. A heavy purple cloud hung over top, and some trees in the middle ground provided contrast. To the left is one of the campus buildings, with a snow-covered parking lot in the foreground. When I was painting, the cloud in the sky looked quite dark, it was similar to the very dark pine tree you see in the painting. From experience I knew the dark cloud would lighten up significantly upon drying, or at least that's what I hoped would happen. Just now as I look at the scan, it worked perfectly. The cloud is a middle grey, the tree is a near black, while the tangerine sunset is a light, high chroma hue, like a tequila sunset. As a watercolour painter one has to guess sometimes as to how the painting will look when it dries because wet paint will always look brighter and darker. It took me several years to appreciate that, and even more years to master it. There was a long time that I would not even attempt to paint such a scene, especially in the bitter cold, but now I know its possible so I try. Every so often a student or a colleague sees me painting, its always interesting. By the way, I got a new computer, nothing fancy but its working great so far, it makes a lot of LED colours.

Orange sky Campus, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2025

Gas station night lights

The gas station on Sherbrooke near campus has a lot of really bright lights which can make for some decent night painting. One, there is a light above my head so I can see my paints, and two, the scenery is illuminated in the middle ground. Without a moon, the sky was an inky black that I made with an unruly combination of indo blue, pyrol orange, quinacridone purple and blue green phthalocyanine paints. In other words, dark blue, red-orange, dark purple, and dark blue-green. When using heavily salted salt water the dark colours can dry dull, but with that mixture it retained the inky blue-black qualities of the night sky.

Gas station night lights, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2025

Blue shadows blue sky

When the sun is shining, shadows on the snow will reflect the blue sky. While the sky is technically cyan on the horizon, its the colour directly above that matters, a nearly pure blue. I make the cyan in the sky by blending phthalo blue (PB15) at the top, with phthalo green blue shade (PG7) at the horizon. The shadows are true blue, which I can approximate with the same phthalo blue mixed with a touch of bright magenta (PR122). It takes a delicate touch to get the mixes right. You don't want the sky appearing green, or the shadows appearing purple, unless of course that is what you are going for. There is a style called Fauvism, pioneered by the likes of Matisse, where shadows, skies, skin tones, and other details are rendered in outrageous colours just for thrills. On locations, the challenge is identifying a colour and then replicating it with paint.

Community Garden Benny, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2025

 

The trick here is getting the colour and moisture level of the blue wall correct before applying the shadow. The sky as usual is a blue-cyan blend, while the wall colour is a low chroma, high value blue that might be described as baby blue, periwinkle, or powder blue. It was made with phthalo blue mixed with a touch of bright magenta, then diluted with water. the shadow is indo blue (PB60), a greenish umber (PBr7), then adjusted with dark magenta (PV55) and phthalo green (PG7) to get the hue right. When it was mostly dry, the real tree branches were applied with a heavy mix of yellow ochre (PY43) and other earth colours along with a dark purple for shadow (PB60 + PV55). These paintings are a good display of various shades of blue.

Tree shadow blue wall, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2025

Over, under and around the City

At the northeast corner of Griffintown there is a tangle of elevated highways, trains and ramps going over, under and around the city. I pasted in a screenshot of the map below, with a red X where I was painting the scene looking due north to the downtown core. It was very quiet here, just the occasional commuter train going by and a few dog-walkers here and there. The painting shows several layers of the city, starting at the bottom, there was a snow-covered strip of land, with tall, dried grass and plants poking through. I painted those last, with a range of ochres and umbers using the rigger brush. Just behind the plants there was an underpass, you can just see the side walls of it covered in snow. The curving road in the middle is some kind of rear-access ramp going up to Bonadventure complex. Behind that is the elevated train, it went by every 10 minutes so I could get the details right. Finally in the background is the Montreal skyline with all of the varied construction styles. Over the decades, buildings went from being made of brick and stone, to concrete, to steel and glass. When the sun went behind the clouds this painting got tough, it was a very complex scene to tackle on a cold winter day and took all I had to stay focused and keep painting. Using the delicate rigger brush on the last step with numb hands (despite the deerskin gauntlets) was memorable to say the least. A rigger has a long (2 cm) and narrow brush that is good for wispy grass and twigs, and it requires a lot of dexterity to use properly. On the way back, I saw another neat scene around here, at the Tech Center on peel there was a view down the tunnel that goes under the city, but I had to keep riding to warm up. At least the bike riding got the blood pumping again and everything turned out well enough.

Over under and around the City, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, January 2025

In the map, you see the location sandwiched between st Jacques, Rue Notre Dame, Peel, and the elevated tramway. I approached from the south, walking my bike up Inspector Street from Mary-Griffin park to get there.

Griffintown growth, winter scenes

Recently, there was an announcement that Lowney would stop making the cherry blossom candy, the one with the chocolate-covered maraschino cherry and red syrup. Go stock up! As part of the story, they mentioned that originally, Lowney, a British company had a factory in Montreal in the Griffintown area. Today I managed to ride my bike out there and realized that I have painted this scene before from the other angle. The scene is looking West on William street.

Lowney Condos Winter Sun, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2025

From the sidewalk, looking through a tall wire fence I got a good view of this empty parking lot covered in snow. The buildings in the background are some type of city housing, at least, they are protecting it from being leveled and turned into condos. Just in case I did this painting for posterity. The green borders are in case I post it on Instagram, it makes the aspect ratio correct. Usually I use cream-coloured borders but in this case I wanted to sort of frame the snowy space at the bottom of the composition.

Empty Lot Griffintown, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2025

On the left is the elevated train, you can see the detailed masonry that was applied to the supporting structure. In fact, the whole underside of the elevated train is a personal storage warehouse for people to put stuff when they are moving or for long term storage. The A frame structure on the right is a very old warehouse, likely 19^th century, it faces the Peel basin. Its another structure that is very likely heritage and thus protected from development. In the foreground is a long and narrow park called Mary-Griffin Park, it used to be filled with construction materials, but when I visited today it looked almost totally clear. One hopes they can turn this into a nice park, there are already a few trees there.

Mary-Griffin, Park, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, January 2025

Cold wet snowy day with a few paintings

Next to Raffi auto shop on Harley street, which is the second-most painted auto shop in NDG, there is a large pile of what appears to be summer tires stacked up haphazardly. Fresh snow was covering them, which created an interesting array of black and white shapes, framed with the red roof flashing. The snow was just starting to come down. The forecast called for rain, in fact, it ended up being wet snow. 

Summer tires in winter, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2025

 

Turning to face the other direction I got a good view of the field where I have painted many chairs, although there were no chairs there today. About half way through, large wet snowflakes came down and I had to abandon the efforts. Later when it partially dried I filled in the brush (like foliage, not the paint brush) and tried to sharpen up some of the details. I can see a better way to paint this, so I might go back soon.

Snowy field with brush, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, January 2025

 

With a full on blizzard, I sought refuge under the eave of the new structure they completed in Coffee Park. Looking east, there was a view of the sports dome, the school, the train tracks with control lights, and the park in the foreground. Since I was quite well shielded from the elements here, I could capture more detail and the painting was not ruined by the snow. A little snow can give the painting a neat effect, but too much will just make the washes run together. I added the bright red at home, hoping it would really pop against the greyish scene.

Dome school and train tracks,  watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2025

Demo mall night studies

The old mall up on Cote st Luc wont be there much longer, I've been trying to get a few good paintings in before its demolished for condos. This one shows the traffic going by, with the mall in the middleground, it has a distinctive obtuse angle on the roof line, and some of the tall condos in the background. I was standing on the other side of the street, using the bright lights from the IGA grocer to see what I was doing.

Cars passing mall, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2025

 

The pale cream-coloured bricks were reflecting the violet sky creating an eerie glow on the demo mall facade. The left-most store used to be a hair dresser (coiffeure). Even though the roof line slopes upwards when seen head-on, it was actually sloping downwards on the perspective, which I confirmed by holding my brush up to it. You can tell this building has a slight 'A frame' structure even though the actual 2D lines bend down. I've worked a lot on capturing perspective over the last 5 years, not to mention trying to get the edges of buildings straight. 

Demo mall profile, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2025

 

The one shop still in business is a coin laundry. The lights were still on when I arrived and a man was closing down the shop for the night. About half way through the painting he turned the lights off, locked up and walked away. It was hard to paint from memory since I was not anticipating that the lights would be shut off. Sometimes I can memorize the details quite well, like if a train goes by, but this time I had to go with a theoretical depiction of the interior. There is the potential for a great painting here, though I am still waiting for the combination of time, opportunity and good weather.

Night Laundry study, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2025

Atlas Pizza night

 It was a quiet night on Somerled Avenue, just a few people popping into the Pizzaria before it closed. In the winter, the sky has a dull purple colour, with violet clouds. The two colours can be easily made with indo blue (PB60) and pyrol orange (PO73). Using other blues and oranges will not work, they produce browns, and using magenta paint makes it too purple. I kind of discovered the combination by accident and have used it ever since. For the dark brick colour I usually mix red ochre (PBr7/PR101) with carbon black (PBk6) and some dark red (PR179). It helps to have a portable light, I use a head lamp but worn around the neck pointing down to the painting.

Atlas Pizza night, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2025

 

 

Night rink Trenholme park

 

After getting the LUFA Farms vegetables I tried to make a painting of the skating rink in the middle of Trenholme Park. I did a night scene here once before, albeit not at night, in Light for Ghosts, back in 2022. If you follow my blog, you know that I have been just about everywhere in Montreal, to the point where I have to think about what I painted there, and how I painted it. In this take, I composed the scene with trees in the foreground up on the hill where I was standing, looking down on the rink, which is lit up by the flood lights above (unseen). Lights in windows in the background add some more depth. A few people were skating around the rink. There are lots of amber lights there, you see some orange glow in the foreground from one of them. I had to complete the background houses and tree details at home after the painting had a chance to dry.

Night rink Trenholme park, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2025

 

Test 

 

Tree in deep s*** on campus

 

Here is a painting of a tree in deep s*** on campus... the unredacted word is snow. What did you think I meant? Its a rated G blog after all. Hoping to catch some daylight I got out around lunch hour and made a quick painting of one of the trees and some snow-covered benches along with the facade of the Science Pavilion in the background. With just my bike pack (no shoulder bag) I had to sit in a bench and it was cold for sure, usually I stand up when painting. With some extremely cold weather on the horizon, like, -30 range with the windchill, its going to get a lot tougher to paint but that wont stop me. I can paint in sun, dark, rain, wind, and even deep s*** apparently.

Tree in deep snow on campus, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2025

Quest Variables

Quest text adventures is a software package that allows people with no coding knowledge, like me, to write text adventure games. One thing I learned was how to set variables. Like, if you want a bunch of bananas to have a specific number of bananas, then you can eat them one at a time, this can be done with variables. You set up the game with a random number of bananas in the bunch, call it bananas.count = 12. Then, when the player issues a command to eat a banana, the code says bananas.count -1 which now changes the attribute to 11 bananas. When banana.count = 0 a message is printed 'there are no more bananas'. I will try to figure out how to put scripts into the blog just for fun, maybe there is a way to do it in HTML. 

The painting is an abstraction of the whole idea of random variables, you see a table with various objects floating around on a table. It was also a palette cleanser; the other day I dropped my palette and it hit the asphalt, which caused it to break into pieces finally. I have a backup so its not a big deal. Now I just need to use up the leftover paint on the broken palette.
 

Quest Variables, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, February 2025

A few more scenes from the canal on a snowy day

With the sun starting to go down, I made a few more paintings, this one shows the canal looking west with a prominent tree and the iconic black railing fence in the foreground. For the sky I used the hatching technique like Monet used to do in oil paints. The main reason is to avoid a big, wet wash that will never dry, and it gives a neat effect too. The west wind was blasting down the canal, but my extensive winter gear kept me warm.

Tree near canal with shadows, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2025

 

On the way back I saw the moon over the green car bridge at Ville st. Pierre. I got the sky and most of the scene done on location, then had to finish the moon, bridge, and my initials at home once it dried. Usually I try to finish paintings on location but in the winter sometimes its not possible. The salt proportion was perfect today, the paint didn't freeze up, and things were drying well enough. For once, I am starting to think that there is more potential with winter painting.

Moon over green bridge, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, January 2025

Train bridge over canal, shadow in snow

Here is another painting of the iconic train bridge over the Lachine Canal, it is just about half-way between NDG and Lachine. This time, I painted it looking east, with the sun behind on the the left slightly. At this time of year, the sun sets almost exactly parallel with the canal, so you get neat effects. Here, my shadow was extending into the scene which you see in the bottom right. I was standing next to my bike painting. It was a complex scene with all sorts of weird angles from the canal going left to right and the bridge which is perpendicular. In the old days, this bridge could rotate, hence the concrete pillars, you see one in the background, and the other one is just beside me. When they closed the canal down, they welded this thing in place so it can no longer rotate. To do the sky, I used phthalo green blue shade (PG7), blended upwards with phthalo blue sapphire (PB15). Its important to have the Holbein version of phthalo blue because other companies put too much dispersant in the formula and its impossible to control to the extent required for the subtle sky affects you see here. Its one of the few areas where the brand actually matters. Same with yellow ochre, the Da Vinci one is the only one I've found with the correct how angle (a dull dijon mustard). I used the yellow ochre in the little sprigs of grass you see on the other side of the canal.

Train bridge shadow in snow, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, January 2025

Demo-mall close up studies on a snowy day

Up on Cote st-Luc there is an old strip-mall with some apartments on top that fell into disrepair during the pandemic and never really recovered. All but the laundry mat are out of business and the top floor is blocked off now. With demolition signs on the windows and doors, its clearly going to be reinvented into condos, hopefully with some shops on the ground floor. In the meantime, I've been trying to get some good paintings of the scene before its gone, this one shows the east entrance on a snowy day. Its a lot closer to what my vision was when I first attempted the scene last week. 

Demo-mall east entrance, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, January 2025

 

The last shop, on the west side, bore no information about its former identity. I checked google map street view which has a time rewind feature... as far back as 2007 this was an internet cafe, then it changed hands a few times as a bakery, then a used clothes store, until finally being abandoned in 2020 along with most of the other businesses. It was probably a casualty of the pandemic, but from the looks of it, the mall's days were numbered anyways. Painting this one was tough, the design and composition had all kinds of angles and overlaps, then it was a moist puddle of paint and I had to bring it home to do the window frame, chair, and graffiti overlays. It worked out better than I expected, I like how the interior chair gives an eerie sense of emptiness, and the graffiti overlap tells the story of abandonment. A touch of snow completes the effect.

Chair inside graffiti, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, January 2025

 

This was once the entrance to a generic 7 Days Dépanneur, then briefly became Marché Mar before closing in 2020. It has been spray painted haphazardly in yellow paint. The snow was really coming down at this point and the painting got muddled up. I will try and do this scene again with better weather, at least I got a sense of all the strange angles. Instead of flat front, each store had a shallow, angled entrance point that created a slight overhang. I hope when they rebuild this thing they keep the stores, they seemed like essential shops for the neighborhood. Don't forget, people in Montreal still like to walk-and-shop where possible since using a car can be cumbersome.

Old dépanneur door snow fall, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2025

Birch tree snowy park

At the end (or beginning depending on your viewpoint) of Terrebonne street, there is a small sliver of a perk called Place Guillaume-Couture. It is a good place to set up and paint urban scenes in the relative peace of a park. Of course, it is surrounded by traffic on all sides so its not exactly quiet. The challenge here was to paint the birch tree against a mostly white snowy background. Using subtle variations of grey and some textured overlays, I created the birch tree in successive layers. Funny enough, it was the 68 Stations of the Montreal Metro that taught me how to see and paint grey properly, given the large amount of concrete in the metro structures. If you look closely at the tree bark, the grey is tinted orange on the left, and blue on the right.  It had to be darker than the snow, and lighter than the black elements. Completing the scene is a picnic table, other trees and snow-covered cars. Its like Tom Thomson paints in the city.

Birch tree snowy park, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2025

Three quarter moon over campus

 

Somehow, this painting looks freezing cold even though there is no snow visible. If you can zoom in, there are ice crystal patterns that formed around the incredible moon-glow effect. I used a greater variety of colours in the sky than usual, starting with the warm-beige outline of the moon, then blending it into successive layers of violet, dark violet, blue and near black. The pigments used were indo blue (PB60), magenta purple (PV55), phthalo green (PG7) and pyrol orange (PO73). The moon halo was pyrol orange with some brown mix probably yellow ochre with red ochre (PY43, PR101). In some ways, the cold weather and salt water made painting the sky a bit easier because it was moist the whole time and I could make some really detailed colour shifts, along with the star details and moon glow. The building had a few lights on in the windows, those hard working administrators were at again late on Friday. When I saw this scene I knew it was amazing but I was exhausted, cold and hungry, then after getting just about half way off campus I turned around and went back to make the painting, and I am glad that I did make the extra effort because the moon effect is fantastic. At least, it looks just like when I was there. With the weekend finally here maybe I can make some blue sky paintings down at the canal hopefully.

Three quarter moon over campus, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2025

Clear day, snowy scenes on campus

The campus has a large statue depicting two indigenous people, one holding out some sort of cloth. I've painted it before on several occasions, although not in the winter. Since my bike was parked here, I just made a few paintings to take advantage of the blue sky and snow piles. Using a smaller brush (No. 6 size) and diluting the salt water about 30% helped get more detail and control the moisture of the paint. It was a long and difficult process to paint this one, which is especially felt in the cold weather.

Campus statue snow piles, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, January 2025

To test out the diluted salt water, I tried this scene which is difficult to do in the winter. It involves making the under-painting, that is, the sky, building and snow shadows, then over-painting the trees. It held up pretty good, with just minor blurring here and there. The colours dried somewhat pale which is a function of the salt in the water. When drying is delayed, the paint soaks further into the rag-based paper which dulls the colours. I figure the water had about 200 grams of salt per liter, and there was just slight slushing on the palette. Speaking of the palette I accidentally dropped it and the second hinge broke off, leaving both hinges broken, and part of the corner broke off. These plastic palettes were not meant for a lot of winter painting.

Campus snow shadows, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2025

Night scenes winter, wating for LUFA

Waiting for the text from LUFA farms, the grocery delivery company, I made my way down to Harley street and made some paintings on the corner of Elmhurst looking east. This is one of dépanneur Harley with the mail box out front covered in snow. The sky continued to have the purple and orange hues easily recreated with indo blue (PB60) and pyrol orange (PO73) also known as Winsor red-orange. The rest of the painting was tough, with so much salt in the water it was moist and the colours looked faded upon drying. I applied a lot of digital contrast in the image above. 

Mailbox and dépanneur Harley, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, January 2025

Here is the first one, too bad the washes all faded and the contrast was lost despite using some digital adjustments. The other day there was not enough salt and it turned to slush, this time it was perfectly liquid but dried too slow. Next time, I will dilute the salt water slightly. At least my clothing was good, I even felt warm despite the 20 below temperature. 

Commuter train City Fruiterie, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2025

 

Scenes around Cultural Center on a cold and snowy day

Making my way to the cultural center by foot, I found some relative shelter under the pine trees and painted a scene of the snow covered cars and the center in the background. The blue colour is known as periwinkle, a kind of powder blue, its like sky blue but darker and leaning more blue than cyan. I made the mix with phthalo blue sapphire (PB15), a touch of magenta (PR122) and a touch of carbon black (PBk6) and slightly diluted. On my palette, it was actually the consistency of slush because the water I was using had been diluted slightly for my last trip out. With today's temperatures I needed the full salt concentration to prevent freezing. 

Cultural Center blowing snow, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2025

 

Finding some shelter under the large entrance way of the cultural center, I painted the cars on the road, along with the book drop off in the foreground. Snow continued to blow into the area even though it was completely covered overhead. Usually I try to simplify the winter paintings, but today's efforts pushed the boundaries a bit further. In this painting, the car and trees in the background started with a grey-blue wash, which had to dry before overlaying the car details. Then there was the complex light effect over the book drop off, it went from white to pale yellow to a medium cyan, then blue violet, while the metal square drop off bin was reflecting the light. Somehow I hacked out the painting with my single brush, oven mitts, and slushy palette.

Cultural Center book drop off, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, January 2025

 

I found one last place to paint under the Provigo front entrance overhang on Sherbrooke near Cavendish. The scene is looking east along Sherbrooke. It was nearly dark and snow continued to bluster around in the strong wind. It was amazing how much traffic there was, I saw a bus go by and tried to capture it. Too bad the foreground was so wet, the silhouettes of the pedestrians would have been crisper, but you get the idea.

Sherbrooke traffic cold night, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2025