The old abandoned Maltage factory down by the Lachine canal is a boon for artists, including myself as a watercolour painter. It provides an endless supply of industrial motifs and no trespassing required! At the rear of the factory, there is a corrugated metal structure with a funnel, it must have been where the malt trucks would fill up back in the day. From the looks of it, a person would have worked up there. It must have got hot in the summer, being a metal box. As usual recently, I replaced the graffiti with my initials PJD25. When composing a scene like this, the small apartments at the bottom left are important for creating the sense of scale. I did a
night scene here with the pink house on top with a similar compositional idea.
Maltage corrugated structure, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025
Next to the locks, there is a water chute that allows the Lachine canal to continue flowing. One of the better paintings from all of last year was a similar scene of the
water cascading under bridge, although today I wanted to feature the wall more than the water. Someone made a painting of a pylon on the stone platform above the wall, I though that was funny.
Water chute locks wall, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025
The locks are very old, and for the most part they are slowly disintegrating. It makes for some interesting, rustic colours and textures to paint. I generally start a painting like this with a thin outline using a brush and dilute grey or brown paint. I fill in the main colour blocks, making sure to leave space for lighter elements, since there is no white paint you have to plan ahead. Then I apply layers of texture using various brush techniques, followed by more detail with the small number 2 brush to finish. You can see the JD CD construction company working on a new building in the background, while DYER left her mark on a billboard. PJD25 was at it again, putting his throw on the staircase.
Locks rustic, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025
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