Reflections on reflections

Atwater station is located beneath the Alexi Nihon mall, with an exit station across the street on the corner of st Catherine. I was looking west here, catching a view of a waiting bus, some people, and the reflection in the window of the station. Within the reflection was another building with a window that had its own reflection... of another building. Trying to paint scenes like this can be daunting, but today I wanted to push my limits and see what happened. The theme was reflections. 

Bus reflection Atwater station, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, July 2025

This is the rear wall of the station exit, which has tall reflective glass panels separated by white-grey frames. The shadow of the building was part of the reflection, as were the various trees in Cabot park. Painting in the city is very technical... one thing that helped was a brand new #4 Holbien brush I got last week which still has a sharp tip.  

Rear window reflection, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, July 2025

Earlier this year I made a series of paintings of an old strip mall slated for demolition, I nicknamed it the demo mall. The last store to stay open was a laundry mat, although today when I went by it too had closed for good. An elderly lady came by with her laundry in a wheeled basket carrier, and seemed surprised that it was closed for good. I let her know that the whole building was slated for demolition. She took interest in my painting and seemed impressed, she guessed I had been painting for 15 years, to which I replied, I have been painting for 35 years... but this particular painting was about 20 minutes! If you look closely, there are three images here... the bricks and metal of the exterior, the laundry machines lined up in the interior, and the reflected scene of cars and condos that are behind me. It was mind-bending to paint the overlapping interior/reflection. In fact, I tried two other paintings of this scene in order to trouble shoot on location. I learned a bit more about painting reflections today and will tackle some more next time the opportunity presents itself. 

Demo mall laundry mat reflection, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, July 2025