Snowfall on Chinatown

Chinatown in Montreal is located along Rue De la Gauchetière between Rue Côté and Saint Dominique. The streets are lined with small restaurants and shops, with plenty of pedestrians including locals and tourists milling about. With snow in the forecast, I headed out there by bike and got a few good paintings in before the wind and cold fiannly got to me. This scene shows one of the trees with red lanterns, and the facades of a popular row of Chinese-style restaurants.

Snowfall on Chinatown, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025

The sky today was painted with a dilute mix of pyrol orange (PO73) and indo blue (PB60), this combo can be used for night sky, or for a pale periwinkle (powder blue). Searing through the gloom were a row of bright red lantern spheres with yellow tassels. I did this painting while the background of the first painting was drying. Then I could overlay the tree on the first painting, and come back to this one for details. In this way, I can do several painting on location in cold wet weather. 

Red spherical lantern, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025

The graffiti morons got to this mural... in the old days it had a large graffiti by SCAN, so when the city painted over it with a mural, I think the graffiti people must have felt obliged to paint over the mural. At any rate, the effect is pretty neat, with a porcelain-like background of a writhing dragon, the local cityscape painting in the middle, and a shiny graffiti name outlined in yellow and black. That PJD25 guy need to be busted. On the roof, there is some kind of patio bar. 

Graff on mural, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025

Unfortunately, Chinatown is suffering from neglect and decay, with a large number of buildings boarded up and shut down. Developers are licking their chops to knock down structures and build shiny glass condos, but the heritage status and importance to local history, and the boon to tourism has kept things in place. By the looks of it, hundreds of million of dollars would be needed to update and revistlaize the existing stuctures. 

Sundown on Chinatown, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025

CBC ran an article about Wings Noodles, a popular restaurant of 75 years in Chinatown. By coincidence, I painted signs including the Wings sign, which you see on the right side of the painting. Hopefully something can be done to reinvigorate the neighborhood. We talk about Quebec culture, and Chinatown is part of it. In the 19^th century this was a Jewish neighborhood, which gradually gave way to a Chinese community throughout the 20^th century.  

Wings Noodles sign, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025