Senkus street connects the Lachine canal bike path to park Angrignon. On the way back from painting in the park, I stopped off at the immense, empty parking lot of Place Senkus mall, which includes a separate building for Toys "R" us. The store is no longer operational as a toy store, although people were going in and out, it appeared to be a thrift store, or community classes perhaps, operating inside rather than a toy store. Big box stores got hurt during the pandemic and afterwards could not recover with competition from online retailers (Amazon mainly). It was more of an illustration than a painting, that is, it relied on a detailed outline that I made with a small paint brush first. I never use pencil because it shows through the paint layers, and also, it just feels bad to apply pencil to the watercolour paper, bad like grating fingernails on a chalk board (for those of you who still know what a chalk board is). The hardest part of this painting was making my last initial "D" backwards, it took a lot of thinking, just to make a joke because the "R" in toys r us is famously backwards.
Toys "R" Us, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025
This store was a party supply store, they carried balloons, surprise bags, decorations and anything else you needed for a kids party including grenades. Yes, one of the small advertising signs inside said grenades, although not the explosive kind, it is some kind of kids toy or candy I don't know for sure, but it was funny to see that. At first glance it seems like a simple scene to paint, just a row of windows, an elaborate eave, and the sidewalk all on perspective. That part was easy, then came the decals on the windows, the reflection, and the interior of the store. I don't know how long it took to do the glass effect, definitely more brush strokes than usual. The decals consisted of red banner signs on top of each window with white font, and the balloon stickers on the nearest glass pane. The reflection showed all the condos that are across the street and to the north up on Newman avenue with trees and sky. The interior had square tiles that were occasionally red yellow or blue, and one office chair sitting in the middle. Going with the fun theme, I used different colours for my initials. I had a sore hand after this one, and wasn't sure of the effect would come together or not. Looking at it now on the blog and it seems quite convincing. The store, by the way, is closed for good and abandoned, in fact, most of the stores in this mall are closed. Thus, the theme of the painting is to juxtapose the condos in the reflection of the glass... almost like this abandoned store is literally looking across the street contemplating its fate (to become condos one day).
Party over store, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025
A few more stores down and there was another closed store, not sure what it used to be. Inside the store, I could see the signs that used to be on the Bay sitting on the floor. In french, its la Baie d'Hudson and I could see two set of the letters... when the Bay took down their signs they must have stored them over here for some reason. Interestingly, in the reflection of the window I could see the shopping mall across the street that used to house the Bay among other stores. There was also a flower box, and my entire reflection, although I just showed part of the wheel of my bike. I wasn't sure if this painting would work, in theory I had an idea and just had to give it a go. It was worth the effort, especially so that I could name the painting "The Remains of the Bay", a joke on the movie 'The Remains of the Day".
The Remains of the Bay
, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025
No comments:
Post a Comment