Soggy day downtown

Heading out into the rain hoping to find a few scenes to paint I got to the Concordia downtown area where there are a few overhangs for shelter. This scene is looking west on Maisonneuve at the corner with Guy. What it rains the sidewalk reflects the people and background elements. 

Umbrellas on corner, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2025

Looking east now, at the corner of Bishops and Maisonneuve, the fire hydrant was reflecting in the wet sidewalk as rain came down in drizzles. The side of the car had streaks of rain on it, and the people in the background held umbrellas. 

Hydrant car rain, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2025

Up on Bishops a fancy sports car went by, it looked like a Lamborghini, but naturally it went by too fast to get all the details correct. The restaurant in the background was casting light-reflections on the wet road. At this point I wimped out and headed home, it was a cool and soggy day for sure. 

Sports car restaurant, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2025

Tri-petals

Doing a little palette cleansing, where I literally clean my palette with a brush, I came up with this small abstract I called tri-petals because the flowers seemed to each have three petals. Recently, I painted sunflowers in Montreal including in Cabot Square, downtown, and near the Domino's Pizza. Sunflowers of course, will forever be linked to Van Gogh who famously painted them in southern France during his hay day. And he painted hay too, lots of it! In fact, Van Gogh was constantly running out of yellow paint and when he ordered more through his brother, he would ask for two tubes. The way he got paint was to write a letter to his brother in Paris with the list of supplies, who would order it from an art supplier, then pack it up and mail it back to France. Back then, commercial art supplies were just beginning to be popular, the store Sennelier in Paris was one of the first ones. Its neat to think that the historic Sennelier store that I visited in Paris left bank years ago may have also been the one that supplied Van Gogh with his paint, although who knows really. Some work colleagues visited st Remi in Southern France where they saw the old sanitorium where he stayed and made many of his most famous paintings such as Starry night and others.  

Tri-petals, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2025

Curio Folio: Fork-Knife

Another thing I saw at MARMALADE, which stands for Museum of Art Relics Mementos Absurd and Legendary Artifacts Definitely Excellent, was this interesting utensil called a fork-knife (pronounced forknife). Since photography is not allowed in the Museum I made a watercolour painting of the stainless steel implement which was applauded by the staff and other visitors who saw me paint it on location. The device is meant to accelerate eating by making a cut and thrust action all on one motion. With practice one can eat a T bone in significantly less time. It also frees up the left hand to do other things like hold the meat down on the plate so it doesn't slide off, and for putting food in the mouth. The fork-knife was in the future section of the museum along with other neat inventions that I did  not have time to paint such as the hole-spoon... it was a spoon with a large hole in the center to allow soup to pour directly in your mouth, and to see enemies coming at you while eating. And the cup-plate that allowed you to combine beverages with your meal all in one go- it was called the gulp-and-chew. I told the staff about Da Vinci's toaster, its approximate location and they said they would go look for it. You can see an image of it in the link to my curio folio. 

Curio Folio: Fork-Knife, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2025

Curio Folio: Bubble Chair

While visiting the famous Museum of Art Relics Mementos Absurd and Legendary Artifacts Definitely Excellent (MARMALADE), I saw some cool items on display. Of course, you are not allowed to take pictures in the Museum so I made some watercolour paintings instead which was permissible and in fact, encouraged by the staff. This item was part of the 'bubble craze' of the 1960's, when the space program was inspiring creators to make things with bubble shapes like cars, umbrellas and even clothing. The bubble chair had a Plexiglas dome fixed to it, however, the design did not sit well with customers. You may have heard of bubble-butt before but this is ridiculous. Some advantages to the design were that you could easily see if the floor was dirty underneath, and maintaining good posture would develop the abdominal muscle strength while sitting. They sold replicas at the MARMALADE gift shop and I picked one up, I am sitting on it right now. Might take some getting used to though. Anyways, it makes for a good addition to my curio folio of things you have never heard of, and never knew you needed. 

Curio Folio: Bubble Chair, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2025

Caught in a rain storm

Optimistically, I headed out after work despite an ominous looking sky. Sticking close to home, I rode down the Terrebonne path to Girouard and got mostly through a few paintings before it really started to pour. Next to the local Domino's pizza, there is a small garden full of towering sunflower plants. At this point the wind was whipping up a fury making it hard to hold on to the paper and palette, and rain started to come down which hastened the speed of painting. Rushing the painting may have helped with the effect, you can practically see the wind, and literally see the rain since some drops hit the painting while it was still moist on location. 

Sunflowers stormy sky, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2025

Here is another painting of the so called 'demo mall' it was supposed to be demolished November 2024 but its still hanging around for awhile more. The painting was done just before the sunflower painting, and the sky was a mosaic of purple and yellow. The sun almost popped out for a second giving me hope, but it was soon clear that we were in for a deluge. 

Maurice Coiffure, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2025

 

Across the street there is a shuttered optician store that has a covered drive through area in the rear which offered nearly complete shelter from the massive downpour. Taking the opportunity to paint a few more, I did a scene looking out onto Côte st Luc road, which was covered in water and rain drops as the cars went by. I was just dressed lightly as if for a summer day, so the cold wind was like being in a cold shower. 

Cold shower on Côte st. Luc, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2025

With the rain storm continuing, I made another painting of the shuttered optometrist called Optica. Its closed for good, but the interior still had a lot of stock and other items lying around including a desktop computer, and products on racks and in display cases. I was looking through the rear entrance doors towards the front entrance doors opening onto Côte st. Luc. So its an unusual painting that I never would have done in a million years if it weren't for the rain storm forcing me to stand under the parking shelter. Okay, if I painted for a million years I might have got to this scene, its just a figure of speech. 

Optica Interior, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2025

Construction Site #3: Notre Dame and Dollard

Continuing my fruitless quest of painting all 44 construction sites currently in Montreal, here is number 3. Where highway 20 merges with highway 138 in st Pierre, there are soaring overhead highways going every which way. I have included them in many paintings over the years. In this case, I was featuring some of the imposing orange signs indicating construction ahead. Turn left, or merge, or right, or something something. 

Signs under overpass, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2025

Here is closer to the action, at the corner of Notre Dame and Dollard streets. The large arrow sign was blinking on and off, and there was one sign that had another sign inside of it. Genius, I thought, a sign within a sign, that costs at least four times more than just one regular sign. Cars and a bus were working their way through the pylons and confusing arrows, while the highway 138 ramp was still visible in the background.

Sign in sign, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2025

If you were driving and wanted a donut, it was not a simple matter. They did however, have custom printed signs telling you where to turn to get into the Tim Horton's. Somehow, a giant potato was growing in the background. If you look hard enough maybe you can spot Waldo too! Just kidding, no Waldo here, maybe next time.  

Donut anyone? watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2025 

Lachine old Dominion industrial lot

On the east side of Lachine there is a large, abandoned factory that used to be the Dominion Bridge plant according to the all-knowing internet. Actually, I found an article on the Heritage Montreal web site that talked about the plant which was built in stages between 1883 until 1947, presumably to make large parts of bridges. That explains the huge steel railing that run the length of the lot, they would have been for maneuvering massive lengths of steel. As you can see, steel rusts! 

Dominion Bridge plant, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2025

Here is a different angle, I am standing on rue st Louis, you can see the length and shape of the overhead steel spans. The actual factory is also enormous, I just showed a segment of it on the left. Apparently, according to the article, permission was not granted to demolish the structures, so now there is a 'for rent' sign. If anyone needs to make a bridge or two you know where to call. But seriously, the entire east area of Lachine is in the midst of a 20-year development plan that mostly entails condos. 

Overgrown lot, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2025

Just to make it three paintings, I did one more of these two trees with the factory warehouse, and some dry looking tall grass in the middle ground. It was nice and shady were I was standing on boulevard st Joseph. 

Two trees warehouse, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2025

Summerlea Park, rocky shore views

Things started off simple enough with a bike ride out to Summerlea park where I used to play with my family as a child. Most of the shore is covered in growth, which was done to protect the waterfront from erosion. I found a few spots to see through and make a painting or two of the rocky shore line. Today was the last day of my extended time off, of course its labour day too so everyone has it off. It was fun being an almost full-time artist for the past few weeks, I learned more about my limits. The main thing is my legs are in need of rest and recovery, or steroids... not too many artists would consider taking anabolic steroids just to keep riding. Just kidding though, some rest will do. 

Rocky beach, watercolour 6 x 7.5" hot press, September 2025

In this section there were large boulders in place to protect the shore from erosion. This painting was actually done on the front of an old painting I cut up.. sections of the original just had some bland washes on them which I could over-paint. The yellow leaves were done with bismuth vanadate (PY184) yellow, it is so thick that I can apply it like acrylic over top. The watercolour police might be upset through, its not 'transparent' Whatever, they haven't arrested me yet. 

Rocky shore, watercolour 6 x 7.5" hot press, September 2025

A launch wharf was here, part was wood the other part was some kind of floating plastic. Most people were just pushing off their kayaks from the rocky shore though. On the top right you see the end of a very small island, from Google maps it is called Dixie island. 

Rocky wharf, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2025