On the south east corner of Girouard park where Sherbrooke crosses, there is a view of the bridge mast on st Jacques (the white spire in the background), and the highway merge sign for hwy 15 (Decarie) and highway 20 (downtown Montreal). The entire sign was in the shadow of a tall 5 story condo building, so I painted a block of grey first, then over-painted some scrawls to look like a highway sign. Sometimes its better to just capture the colours and patterns rather than make it too accurate. Its a painting not an illustration after all.
Girouard highway merge, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025
This sign is impressive, it goes up about two stories, but I just painted the lower middle portion of it. This chicken rotisserie is quite famous, its been there forever, and you can smell the chicken and french fries from the street. In the background you see one of the classic balconies with iron railings.
BAR-B-Q, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025
A massive 14 story apartment sits on Sherbrooke, it was backlit by a low sun. I applied a dark magenta-green-blue rectangle, then let it dry, and over-painted with yellow ochre (PY43) and raw sienna (PBr7) to get the sandstone brick look. Then I painted the window and balcony railings with carbon black (PBk6). The yellow highlights are bismuth vanadate yellow (PY184), an opaque pigment closer to being a gauche than a watercolour since it sits on top of the layers. I like how it makes my initials pop over the dark green trees.
Sherbrooke apartment backlit, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025
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