A few scenes along Wellington east

Heading back home along Wellington I stopped to make another painting of the sunflowers on the corner of Robert Bourassa boulevard. Last year around the same time, I did a painting here and called it Sunflowers in the City, so I decided to go with the same name here but its the 2025 edition. This time, I reduced the amount of foliage so that the cars could show through a bit better since its an important part of the theme. The way that the yellow, brown and olive colours of the sunflowers play off the blue and grey glass buildings in the background adds visual interest. I like how the sunflowers were reflecting off of the passing cars which you see in the lower left. I omitted the traffic light in the background just to avoid too many distractions in the composition. If you want to see distractions, check out the construction site paintings I posted recently. 

Sunflowers in the city 2025, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, August 2025

Wellington begins (or ends?) at McGill street downtown, where there is a large manicured park full of interlocking bricks and concrete planters. There is also a very old, circa 1960's brown concrete tube-shaped platform with a staircase winding up to the top. I lugged my bike up and made a painting of one of the alleys looking downwards, its probably rue de Soeurs-Grises, and the park in question is Charon Brothers park. Definitely religious sounding names. Most of the city is in shadow at this time of day, just the building in the background was catching a bit of sun, and the headlights from a passing car illuminated the alley. 

Illuminated alley, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Water paintings Port of Montreal

Down at the Port of Montreal, which is adjacent to the Old Montreal area, there are often boats moored along the narrow spit of land that houses Habitat 67. In this case, it was a massive 3 master that looked heavy duty, maybe it was a fishing or research vessel. I was looking down on the ship which gave a good view of all the details of the bow. I really just wanted to paint water, and there was plenty of it in the background. 

Sedna V, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, August 2025

Further towards Old Montreal and there sits the Daniel McAllister, a retired tugboat. According to the all-knowing internet, this vessel was built in 1907 which would have been during the time the Lachine canal was an active shipping and receiving conduit. Its been preserved for tourism now, lots of people like to take pictures of it, and today I did a painting. The main theme was water and how it reflected the background elements. 

Daniel McAllister tugboat, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025
 

Continuing on the water theme, here is a view of the massive cruise boat docking tower in the background, with an old fashioned lamp and concrete blocks in the foreground. The water had a pale turquoise appearance with variations of green ripples from the tower's reflection. The Cartier bridge can be seen off to the left center. The aft of a boat can be seen to the lower right, its part of the health spa on the water. 

watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025
 

Construction Site #2: Courcelle street

 

The corner of Courcelle and st Jacques street down in st Henri has been undergoing a seismic construction for the past few months. Mostly blocked off there are still some passages to get through by foot, car, or bike as the signs would seem to indicate. I changed the walking sign to a jumping character, like you have to jump over things to get across! Today I adjusted the orange mixture to contain more PO62 pigment so it scans more accurately. For some reason the scanner and computer monitor make fluorescent orange appear to be too red. Book idea: The science of painting construction signs by PJ Darlington. 

Construction signs Courcelle, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025
 

At the same site, which was wonderfully silent and free of traffic today, I found a good view of the giant pit they are digging. I changed the colours to be molten red, orange and yellow giving the impression that some deep layer of the earth's crust has been breached. There is a mysterious box in the middle of the wreckage, and the signs are a ? of confusion. 

Pit of construction, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025
 

Next to the giant scooper machine, a narrow path allowed people to cross over st Jacques and into st Henri. A person hit the fence and fell off their bike here but they were going slow and seemed to be okay. The more of these construction site paintings I do, the more exaggerated they become. In this case, the vehicle occupies about 75% of the scene. 

Walking path, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025
 

44 Construction Sites of Montreal #1

Recently, Mobilité Montréal announced that there will be 44 new construction projects on the roads of Montreal this fall. And I was just saying how the number of projects seems to be down compared to previous years... looks like they were just saving them up to do all at once. The ministry even warned car drivers to consider public transit or riding a bike instead of driving around Montreal. This gave me an idea for a new series, although not one that I am likely to want to finish... 44 Construction Sites of Montreal. Well I did one today after painting up at the Chalet, then taking it easy up at Beaver pond for an hour, I zoomed down the south and east side of Mount Royal on my bike and came upon the massive project going on at the corner of Avenue Parc and Rue Mont-Royal. Let's call it site #1. The sign on the left said complete 2025, but I changed the date to 2029 in the painting just to be sure. 

Av Parc Turn left, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Rue Mont-Royal looked like an archeological site, they were digging down for artifacts. The orange of course, is Montreal orange, a blend of PO62 and PO73 to create the perfect fluorescent orange for signs and pylons. There are many kinds of pylons, I am getting to be quite the expert on the matter. 

Dig down rue Mont-Royal, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

What construction site would be complete without a dumpster? This one was a bright neon yellow which contrasted nicely with the blue-violet shadow. The rear end of a bulldozer could be seen, in fact, the whole painting was composed around the small orange triangle on its back which I made using the Montreal orange blend and overlapped with strips of pyrol red (PR254). The olive greens and dark yellow complete the warm colour-scheme. These projects might be bad for cars, but for an artist it gives me a safe place to stand and no traffic to block the views. 

Yellow dumpster bulldozer rear, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025 

Views of Montreal from the Chalet

Taking the opportunity to visit the Chalet viewing platform on Mount Royal on a weekday, I got to make some paintings with a relatively subdued crowd. On a weekend, this location is nearly impossible, just getting close to the railing takes some time, and with a bike it would be rather crowded. In this view, looking south, you can see the st Lawrence river and south shore in the background, with the jumble of buildings and sky scrapers in the foreground. All the buildings look straight up and down which is good!

Downtown view from Chalet, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Through the trees there was a view looking east, you can see some ships on the water, and the downtown east side of Montreal. In the foreground, sumac trees had bright red cones, and some foliage was already turning yellow-orange. 

East view Chalet, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Back in 1997, getting on for 30 years ago, I painted a winter scene up at the chalet looking south, there were a lot less sky scrapers back then. Recapturing the scene here, in the summer, I used a similar strategy of abbreviating the crowd of people and using a variety of colours. The idea was to keep it light and breezy. 

Chalet crowd, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Like many dépanneurs

Like many dépanneurs its name was not clear, so I looked it up on Google maps and saw that the proper name is Dépanneur Metropolis. A fitting name for a convenience store at the heart of Montreal. Most of st Catherines street east is permanently shut off from traffic, its now a pedestrian only zone which is good for business and gives the locals more space to hang out. It also gives me more places to set up my bike/studio and paint pictures. There were a bunch of a signs jumbled up here, the top one said Rooms and Studios, just underneath it said Madona Tabagerie (tobacco store), then the dépanneur sign, with the bière et vin reminder (beer and wine). I liked the combination of maroon, yellow, orange and dark brown. It would be worth doing a bigger painting of this, but the weather was not looking good today and I just made it home in time before the rain hit. 

Dépanneur Metropolis, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

This hole in the wall was the entrance to an art school called Syn Studio, although I see on google maps that it moved to a bigger new location out on Ontario street (not the province!). As I painted the scene, I noticed that there was an image of a mouse, like the kind attached to a computer by a wire, along side of paint brushes, pencil, pen and paint splashing. Kind of neat, that even a decade ago or so, digital art was accepted as mainstream. No technology used for this painting, it was done on location with watercolour as usual. 

Syn Studio art school, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Down near China Town there is large vacant lot that the developers want to build on but the city has prevented it for now because the Chinese community likes to use it for festivals and celebrations. One can only hope the city can preserve the space. A large wall here serves as a canvas for local artists. It appears that there was an official mural done, in the center is a landscape painting of the main street in China Town, surrounded by a cobalt-blue dragon. Then some graffiti artists added to it with their initials, which in this case is PJD25. The graffiti was done in silver spray paint which can be difficult to depict, I think it almost worked here, the background wall colour just had to be half a shade darker to make the silver pop a bit more. I copied the graffiti style, silver lettering with black outline with yellow outline. 

Art wall, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025 

Downtown jigsaw and reflections

Painting at the heart of downtown Montreal I saw many tall buildings fitting together like a jigsaw puzzle. Built during different eras, some were short and brick, others tall and clad in glass. The central building has shiny pink/yellow tinted glass which contrasted nicely with the gloomy sky. Getting the buildings to look straight is harder than it looks, I had to practice a lot to paint the straight vertical lines perpendicular with the horizon line. 

Downtown jigsaw, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

This was the first painting I did today, being on the back of an old painting I cut up, the paper is sometimes unpredictable. In the old days I soaked the paper in water and let it dry before using it, which removes most of the sizing. Unfortunately, that also makes the paint absorb deeper into the paper which dulls the colour. I really noticed it here, the first pass was all grey and washed out, so I had to go over it a second time. Soon I will switch back to using new paper instead of old cut ups. 

Place des arts angles, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

After painting the sky reflecting off three busses, I learned more about painting complex effects. In this example, the top of the glass facade was a transparent green-tinted glass, and the building across the street was visible. Another building, behind me, was reflecting off the facade glass. Its still a major challenge to paint these complex effects. In this case I used a three layer technique... the green tint first, the background and interior elements second, then the reflected building and highlights to complete the scene. 

Glass facade reflection, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025 

End of summer scenes along the Peel Basin

With the leaves starting to fall off and the squirrels running around digging, we know the summer is drawing to a close. Typically we get a long warm September and last year, we got several months of Autumn or so it seemed. This scene shows the Lachine canal on a windy day, the water was rippling and reflecting the sun. The canal bed is a brown sludge, and that colour comes through the waves especially near the shore. To paint this, first I applied the blue with a few white spots showing, then over-painted waves using short impressionist-style brush strokes.

Lachine canal windy day, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

These towering condos in Griffintown are visible from the Peel Basin, they make for great background elements. Today they were reflecting the nearly setting sun as a commuter train rolled by. Under the bridge you see some pedestrians, they would be walking on Peel street right next to Wellington street downtown.

Commuter train condo highlight, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

In the background is the famous Farine Five roses, nowadays a Malting company. Several photographers were around here taking shots of the panorama. Mostly, I featured the highway overpass in the composition, leaving the Farine sign unseen off to the left. Its a little cliche to paint the Farine Five roses building, but then again, there is probably a masterpiece somewhere on this location. 

Peel basin panorama, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025 

Busses, self portrait, flower corner

Dropping by the bulk store in Little Italy gave me the idea to drop by the parking lot near the bus depot and try the reflections again. After last time, I was thinking about how to better paint this difficult effect and settled on a four layer approach. Layer one was the window tint and sun highlight, layer two was the interior elements and background busses, layer three was the blue sky/clouds, then layer 4 was the windshield wipers and some dark highlights to make the whole illusion pop. The further away the bus, the more sky was reflected. The clouds were also depicted in the sky of course, and the windows of the building in the background. I think trying to paint something like this takes some practice and I am getting better at it, one of the bus drivers walked by and nodded... he saw me there last time painting too. 

Three busses cloud reflections, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Its not often I do a self portrait, and this was more or less the way I saw it in the same parking lot. I just added some rust-coloured freckles to complete the effect. Pareidolia is the tendency to perceive inanimate objects as human faces, as you can see the back of this loader truck appeared to have two eyes a nose and a grinning toothy mouth. 

Self Portrait, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

The bike path that runs along the train tracks in the Mile-End/Park Extension has been landscaped here and there. This corner had flowers growing, and a sign that said no dogs, no walking, no garbage. In fact, it was well respected, despite the prolific graffiti on the wall behind. 

Flowers on corner, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025 

Restaurants in NDG new and old

Down on st Jacques there are a few fast food restaurants including this A & W hamburger joint. I have tried painting it before, this time I got closer and emphasized the entrance. Bright orange was the main colour, and pale pink flowers adorned the foreground. The orange was mostly done with chormium orange hue (PO62) from Schmincke. 

A & W entrance, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

How many artists have painted the McDonald's drive through? That's probably what the people driving through were thinking. Yellow was the main theme colour here, it was in the golden arches, the brown-eyed-Susans, and the signage on the garbage can. It was a happy looking garbage can, I enjoyed painting it quite a bit. The brown sides were done with burnt umber (PBr7) and indo blue (PB60), the top reflection with dilute sapphire blue (PB15) and green umber (PBr7). A lot of pigments have the code PBr7, it can describe anything from greenish beige all the way to super dark chocolate. 

McDonald's drive through, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

I had a request from one of my 'super fans' to paint the front of the Chalet Bar-B-Q, a chicken rotisserie that has been operating since the 1950's, well before Swiss Chalet existed. Its is still more or less the same thing, albeit with higher prices now than in 1950. There are several unique elements to the scene, including the A frame overhang, the tiled facade, the golden window frames, two rooster-themed wall mosaics, and a hanging chicken-themed ornament, not to mention the over sized sign. I consider this more of a study since I would like to go back on the weekend and do an 8 x 10" when there is less traffic in the way. I think I'll crop the top windows more and zoom in the facade next time to get the details.

Chalet Bar-B-Q study, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025 

Community garden, seats, auto shop

The field at the end of Harley street has been preserved thanks to some intrepid locals who fought for it, including a woman named Cynthia I chatted with one day while painting here. Today I did some paintings in the area, this one shows a turquoise painted planter box in the foreground with beans, and other boxes strewn about the garden area. 

Community garden turquoise box, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Another 'in the field' installment... people keep putting chairs, and now benches in the field. These ones are off to the side near the fence under the trees. Instead of re-arranging the chair, either physically or artistically, I painted them just as they were. The blue chair was prominent in the middle, with the black pleather chair just behind it, an office chair to the right, and two flanking benches. It was a lot of brushwork for this one, but I have more time off from work and can continue to paint more or less full time for a little while longer. 

Three chairs and two benches, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Turning to Raffi auto, I painted a scene of the garage door open and a car inside being worked on. The car in the foreground almost looks perfect, just the back end is mashed like a potato. I guess it needs some body work in the auto shop too! A mechanic stood near the door talking on a phone, perhaps it was Raffi. 

Raffi body work, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025 

Water Lilies and scenes of Lachine canal

Where part of the st Lawrence river funnels into the Lachine canal there is a large bay full of seaweed and water lilies. You always have to think of Monet when painting water lilies, he painted them almost exclusively in his final years at Giverny France. Painting lilies in oil paint has the advantage of over-painting the highlighted elements, whereas in watercolour one has to preserve the white and yellow areas while painting around. At least if I need to practice more I know where to find water lilies. Park Angrignon also has quite a few in the central pond area. 

Lilies near shore, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

This small bridge is for pedestrians and cyclists, it connects Lachine to the narrow spits of land around the old canal. The walls of the canal look pretty old and in disrepair, you can see the concrete peeling and cracking all around, with large plaster squares where they made repairs. I suppose these various channels were for ships to wait their turn to enter the canal, now they are just for the odd canoe or kayaker. There is also a huge iron gear embedded in the ground around here, which means there used to be a rotating bridge long ago. I will try to dig up some old images to see what it used to be. 

Lilies under bridge, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Way back in April, I painted the freshly cut tree stumps along the canal bike path, the wood was toasty yellow with signs of worm holes. Today I went by and noticed that the trees have grown out of the stumps creating spherical foliage that look like manicured shrubs. Given enough time, these trees might be able to grow back, although one wonders if they will meet the same fate. The coolest thing about this painting is the shine on the bike path asphalt, I did it with a mix of blue (PB60) and raw sienna (PBr7), then blue (PB60) and maroon (PR179) near the foreground. Keeping the value contrast going from middle grey at the bottom to near white at the top gave the impression of recent rainfall reflecting off the asphalt. The yellow lines were a mix of yellow (PY154) with orange (PO62). 

Stumpy trees, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025 

Rain and sun on the st Lawrence river

There was a brief respite from the rain today so I rode down to Lachine to get more good views of the river, then it promptly rained as I arrived. Luckily it was just light rain for ten or fifteen minutes, which is what counts as a 'rain storm' these days with the arid conditions. I stood under a big tree and painted the rainy river scene using a mix of dark blue (PB60), dark magenta (PV55), and raw sienna (PBr7). A few streaks of dilute blue sapphire (PB15) was added to the sky, and a pale orange wash added to the water to signify the clearing sky on the right. 

Rain on river, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

A few moments later and the sun was on the river creating an illuminated glow on the tree line across the river, which belongs to the seaway on the left, and the south shore in the background on the right. It was a rather simple painting, so I embellished the colours in the water with impressionist-style brush strokes. Overall, it created a nice sparkle effect and conveys the dramatic difference with the gloomy first painting. 

Sun on river, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Seaweed washes up on the shore here, when fresh its a bright green-yellow, then it turns brown the longer it stays in the sun. Kind of like Kermit the frog getting a sun tan. To compose the beach scene I used a strong triangle on the bottom, and only showed water in the upper portion of the painting without a horizon line. This makes the viewer look down and examine the rocks and weeds. Closer to the shore the waves get a caramel tone from the river bed. 

Weedy beach, watercolour 6 x 7.5" hot press, August 2025 

Port of Montreal administration park

The Port of Montreal has a group of administration buildings on a prime spot next to the st Lawrence river. It is hard to get to by bike but not impossible, and hardly anyone even knows that it exists. It is just a large expanse of grass and trees with picnic tables and sitting benches, the way parks are supposed to be. The river narrows and curves here, on its way around st Helen's island and under the Jacques Cartier bridge which you see in the background. The grass was a toasty yellow that I made with raw sienna (PBr7). Raw sienna was a colour I added to my 'summer smoke' palette which had adjustments for the wildfire haze and the arid conditions we are experiencing in summer of 2025. 

Port of Montreal administration, watercolour 6 x 7.5" hot press, August 2025

From the vantage point of 'Port Park' as I will call it for lack of a better name, there are good views of Victoria bridge that connects the island of Montreal to Notre Dame island and the south shore Brossard. The sky was mostly overcast with some ominous clouds brewing up. We have rain on the forecast but not for today. I like how this painting came out looking light and airy, breezy in a way. The pale orange glow in the sky was done with a dilute mix of pyrol orange (PO73) and yellow ochre (PY43). I almost always apply a thin layer of yellow ochre to the skies, and as the sun goes down I tint slightly with the pyrol orange which casts a coral red glow when diluted. I learned about pyrol orange from MacEvoy's Handprint.com. It was one of his favorite pigments along with cobalt turquoise. His website almost convinced me to pick up some cobalt turquoise, but I took cobalt off my palette in 2020 due to its toxicity. 

Victoria bridge power tower, watercolour 6 x 7.5" hot press, August 2025

I found a gravel access road that went under Victoria bridge and came out right where the Bonadventure expressway meets the shore. These concrete dividers and rocky break-water signified the end of the pathway, it seemed to be the kind of place that one is not allowed to be, however, I was careful to look for signs... it was a clear path from the sidewalk up on Chemins Moulins, down the gravel path, and to this spot. There was even a port-o-let right here. Anyways, neat location, and I got an up close view of the power tower foundation in the river, and the new Champlain bridge in the background. I embellished the colours with a few flourishes of magenta (PV55) and green (PG7) paint in the water, and a splash of pyrol orange (PO73) in the sky.  

Power tower Champlain Bridge, watercolour 6 x 7.5" hot press, August 2025 

Finding views of st Lawrence river

Painting in downtown Montreal made me want to see the river up close and paint the water flowing by. It was surprisingly hard to find a view of the river, I crossed bridge Concorde but it was surrounded by tall construction fences, then the south shore of st Helen's island was overgrown with thick foliage. Finally I found a small gap and could paint this scene. Part of st Lawrence river, this narrow portion is called Chenel le Moyne located between st Helen's and Notre Dame islands. When the sun is shining the water becomes turquoise, but today it was mostly overcast.  

Chenel le Moyne from st Helen's, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Looping around a bridge and onto Notre Dame island, which has the racetrack that is used by cyclists in th summer, I got a view of the top of Jacques Cartier bridge over the tops of trees of st Helen's island. That is the same channel, le Moyne, as the last painting but seen from the other angle. The paper was a 300lbs rough press which made for fantastic textures on the flowing water. 

Chenel le Moyne from Notre Dame, watercolour 6 x 7.5" rough press, August 2025

I caught another view of the river on Pont des Îles (island bridge) that connects st Helen and Notre Dame islands, you can see the pedestrian and car bridge in the middle, the south end of Cartier bridge in the background, and part of the Expo 67 dome in the top left. I liked the way the water had a deep blue-green that I made with a mix of burnt sienna (PR101) and indo blue (PB60). When mixing those two paints, they can go from dark brown to charcoal grey, to dark turquoise depending on the proportion used. As a watercolour painter the combination of burnt sienna and dark blue is one of the key mixing axis. I use indo blue but it works well with French ultramarine. Right next to the shore line on the left, you see the dark brown, that is mostly burnt sienna with a touch of blue, while the water is mostly blue with a touch of burnt sienna. I have had a similar combination on my palette since around 1990. 

Chenel le Moyne from island bridge, watercolour 6 x 7.5" hot press, August 2025

Street scenes downtown Montreal

The corner of Metcalfe and st Catherine has a large cinema building, sponsored by Scotia Bank, and many people walking along the street. One fellow was crouched down on the sidewalk holding a cup out for change but everyone was just walking around him, as you can see in the painting. Next time I will bring some spare change downtown with me. 

Panhandler on Metcalfe and st Catherine, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

These fancy lamps adorn one of the entrances to the Peel metro station. I painted the Peel metro station way back in 2020 as part of the 68 stations of the Montreal metro series. Any painting that has the metro also includes the tag on my blog to make them easy to find since I continue to paint scenes of the metro now and then. I can see looking back on 2020 that my style has matured since then. Although I still like to paint pictures of dumpsters and garbage cans from time to time. 

Lamps Peel station, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Speaking of garbage cans, I fit two of them into the bottom right portion of this painting of the Maisonneuve bike path at the corner of Metcalfe downtown. A red tour bus went by, the double decker kind, with tourists up on top. There was a lot of detail in this painting, so I just went with the shapes and patterns to capture the hustle and bustle of downtown Montreal on location. I never take photos, so this is all done on the spot. 

Tour bus bike path, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Beer? No more beer here

There is an excellent viewing platform, a long wide boardwalk, at the end of Old Port, it provides a rare east view of the train tracks, Molson brewery and Jacques Cartier bridge with river underneath. I have painted here several times before. This time, the brewery, just visible on the left, was half gone and lying in great heaps of gravel. Molson moved down to Longueuil years ago, and the old location was donated to the city of Montreal for development. To paint the tracks I first established a long triangle of beige (PBr7, touch of PB60, some orange PO62 to warm it up), then over-painted strips of burnt sienna (PBr7) like slabs of bacon. Then I textured and detailed the tracks and surrounding gravel. 

Tracks Molson demo, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Mountainous heaps of gravel filled the lot next to the Molson brewery. The facade with its iconic clock and MOLSON logo is still up there and visible, although the clock appeared to be running fast by an hour or so. I wonder when the main structure will be brought down? In the foreground, there is a small unused lot, its growing various plants and trees. This is a true 'location painting', I mean, where else would you find a scene like this without looking around for it? Other than my blog of course!

Molson heaps of gravel, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

A few more scenes end of canal

In the Old Port the canal seems to fork out several times, although there is only one main conduit, with additional branches acting mostly as artificial ponds. The ducks and geese quite like it around here, there were a couple of dozen swimming just in front of me but I decided to leave them out of the painting today. I was looking for easy scenes today, after doing some challenging reflections yesterday up at the defunct mall. Taking this week off, I have the chance to paint during the day, and have had fantastic weather to do so. Keep in mind I paint through the winter, which is quite difficult and uncomfortable at times, so these summer days are a treat. 

Fork in canal, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

This massive structure extends for several hundred meters in either direction, it is part of the Canada Maltage factory which makes malted barley for the beer industry. Who knew beer took up so much real estate? Often times the entire area will smell like malted barley... its a kind of raw, beery smell that I remember from my days of brewing beer at home. 

Silos elevators, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

At the point where the last lock meets the Old Port, there is a series of concrete stairways that lead down to this concrete platform. It has no railing in real life, so I had to be careful not to loose control of my bicycle or drop anything. Once I was painting from a kayak on a lake and dropped a brush... guess what, brushes sink! And so do bikes I suppose. 

Concrete platform, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025