Rain rain go away!

The rain subsided enough for me to get out at lunch hour and pick up a sandwich and bread at Snowdon bakery. It started up again and I made a quick painting from under the front of the City Fruterie strip mall on Harley street.  

Lights City Fruterie, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

It was a water park in more ways than one, down in Coffee Park. They built a water play area for kids here, I just painted the scene since it was one of the few areas with an overhang and some rain protection. A commuter train went by in the background. 

Water park, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

All the leaves were on the ground, from last year. As old leaves decay they fertilize the grass and roots of the trees for more growth. Soon things will start growing again and I look forward to seeing some flowers. 

Trees no leaves, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026  

Pastel sky, zen factory, mount crud

With rain in the forecast, it stayed remarkable dry for this bike ride, not even a drop. This scene shows part of the old gantry crane, it was used to load and unload cargo from the train cars onto boats. Now its just an iconic structure. I used a dreamy pastel colour sceheme for the rest of the painting, trying to make some of those 'happy trees' that Bob Ross used to talk about. 

Pastel sky gantry crane canal, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Making a visit to the Zen Factory, which is my nickname for this derlict factory warehouse that is now a graffiti haven. This scene shows the side view near rue st Patrick, although I am standing on Boulevard de la Vérendrye. The city is making plans for this location, probably a community housing development. There is a lot of wildlife here, so too bad it wont be a forest. 

Zen factory horizontal, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Some young lads were looking around, trying to get into this place. They kept staring back at me, thinking I was a cop probably, but then went ahead and climbed onto the roof and through a window anyways. Watch out for the tetanus! I wont get near the place, last time I wheeled my bike onto the asphalt around the building I got a flat tire and a rip in my bike pack. All the graffiti was changed to be my intials and year. 

Zen factory vertical, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

I got a close up view of Mount Crud... that is, the giant pile of snow that is created from snow removal during winter. The black colour is probably gravel and tire particles... I wonder how many car keys, money, glasses, and other lost objects are in that pile? It was a towering hill, probably ten or so stories high. Getting the charcoal-shades correct was harder that is seems, I used mixtures of violet (PV55), blue (PB60), yellow ochre (PY43), burnt umber (PBr7), charcoal black (PBk6), red ochre (PR101)... is there any paint I did not use? 

Mount crud, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026  

Decarie expressway Spring yet?

Decarie is a sunken highway, about two stories down and walled with concrete, it goes north to south along the east side of NDG. All around it there are pockets of grass and trees which offers a rare chance to paint nature, like natural nature, not landscaped or manicured. Well they do mow the grass so I suppose that counts as being manicured. This creepy tree, as seen in the foreground, was done with a near black mix of carbon black (PBk6), indo blue (PB60) and burnt umber (PBr7). 

Decarie creepy tree, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

 Here is a close-up scene of the bridge over Decarie running along st Jacques, with a few off ramps visible. I am standing up on a cul-de-sac, that is a round dead end of a street. If is a good place to stand and paint with views of the highway and city-vista to the south. 

Bridge over Decarie, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Another scene next to the Decarie, these pine trees have a spot to themselves, and a giant puddle was reflecting. In the background, the trees line the train tracks, although there were few trains going by on the weekend. 

Pine trees and puddles, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Sumac, billboard moonscape

The other day I noticed a nook of grass and sumac trees along Upper Lachine road, with a view of the Decarie and st Jacques bridge in the background. I walked up into the area with my bike and did this painting looking south. To make the sumac colour, its mostly yellow ochre (PY43), mixed perylene maroon (PR179). Once I practiced a few of them, I could make the sumac shape with one press of a small #2 brush. My brushes are getting pretty beat up by now, winter is always hard on the brushes. 

Sumacs Decarie, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Last year, I did some painting in an empty lot along st Jacques street and wondered if there would be a renaturalization effort by the city. Today I saw that the entire lot had been leveled and covered in gravel, packed down. It looks more like a development, although being so close to the escarpment, considering its probably landfill, I wonder if they are even allowed to build condos here. Still hoping for that re-naturalization project. The scene was a moonscape, complete with PJD 26 billboard. 

Billboard moonscape, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026  

More Griffintown construction

Griffontown was once a light industrial, warehouse and storage area that grew up around the peel basin which used to be a major shipping and receiving port. Looking at Google Maps street views from 2012, and you can still see all the old structures, just a few stories high, a labyrinth of streets, parking lots and alley ways. Now its mostly all filled in with glass condo skyscrapers and hipster restaurants and cafes which is cool I suppose. This construction is right beside one of the small offshoots of the Lachine canal. In the middle ground you see an iron wall, its actually keeping the whole Lachine canal at bay as they dig down. Its a wonder they can dig down so much and put in a foundation given the virtual river right next door. 

Construction vehicle Griffintown, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

This is one of the few 'old lots' left over in Griffintown, probably because its some sort of utility building. The building in the middle is an old warehouse converted into shops and condos. I just wanted to paint this kind of thing because it typically wont last long... one day it will just be a memory on Google Map street view, not to mention, my blog!

Old lot Griffintown, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Here is a scene of the Lachine canal offshoot, a berm of earth, then the iron fencing walls around the giant hole they are digging. The water was still largely frozen on top, in fact, it was so cold I had to bail on the painting trip since I had dressed for warmer weather but it was bitterly cold. 

Foundations and canal, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Bit of sun in Montreal

Maisonneuve still has a few car washes, small car mechanics, and a few light industrial buildings, although three such locations were replaced with condo complexes recently. The city gave grants to the condo developers to build those condos in order to create more affordable housing albeit near the train tracks. In the painting you see a car wash with a car inside, and the red/grey bricks on the outside. The grey is there because the owners have to paint over graffiti. In the alleyway there was a big graffiti by SCRIBE which I replaced with PJD. 

Car wash red grey bricks, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

For lack of a better term I call this the triangle forest, its a small triangle of grass at the end of the old Maisonneuve bike path near Vendome metro. If you had to name a forest after me, this would be it, Peter's forest... I actually take care of the trees here, removing invasive vines and adding fertilizer when needed. Lately there is garbage all around, if the city doesn't move it, maybe I will when I have more time and things dry out a bit.  

Triangle forest, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

From Upper Lachine road there are good views of the Decarie overpass bridge, it is part of rue st Jacques which runs east west along the escarpment. Its a good scene, today was just a quick painting of it without all the details rendered. Looks like more rain on the forecast for awhile! 

Decarie overpass bridge, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026  

Van Horne Rosemont overpass

Where Van Horne avenue meets boulevard Rosemont there is an overpass that goes over st Urbain and st Laurent. It is roughly the boundary of Mile End and beginning of Le Plateau neighborhood. Montreal agreed to demolish the overpass and replace it with a new structure which will no doubt create serious traffic chaos in this part of town for some time. No sign of any work as of yet. This scene shows the east end of the overpass bridge, it descends into rue st Denis and the Rosemont Metro station area. 

Rosemont overpass bus, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Here is a scene of dirty snow piles melting into a parking lot, with concrete dividers and the overpass seen in the upper right. Trees grow along this area, just wild trees that happen to take seed there. In the background there is a billboard and rows of triplex 'Plateau style' housing. 

Dirty snow piles overpass, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

After many years of construction,  in fact, I painted a frontal view of this area when they were building it back in 2019. Behind me is a massive bus depot covered in a sloping roof covered in grass, trees and paths. Its a park on top of a bus depot. This scene is standing up towards the high point of the new park, looking south to the Rosemont overpass. An ambulance went by. I think this scene will be good when the trees have leaves. The bus depot is neat too, but I will need a warm sunny day to paint it properly.  

Overpass view from Park Bellechasse, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Nature veto

Spending a lot of time around Montreal and I see small pieces of nature here and there, usually around highways, near fences, or back in parking lots. These spaces are fleeting because every square meter of Montreal must be developed with sidewalks, concrete containers, parks benches and plenty of interlocking stone bricks. I usually get a few months or years at most to paint such scenes. A perfect example was the Champ-de-Mars station, if you click that blog and scroll down, there was a huge field of wild daisies, incredible like a hillside in Switzerland or something. It didn't last long because the city has been digging up and pouring concrete there for the last five years. Thus, whenever and wherever nature can be found, Montreal has to veto it, and get the bulldozers fired up. 

Nature veto, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, April 2026

Searching for the green

Heading downtown again, it was still pretty quiet at the end of the long weekend, with slightly better weather than previous days. This underground highway exit is surrounded by a wide grassy area with landscaping, and a dog park off to the left. Since the snow melted, grass is starting to turn a little bit green. You can see a variety of colours in the grassy hillside from light green, to olive green, to dark yellow and shades of brown.  

Underground exit Spring, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Speaking of green, there were several varieties of green in this scene. Has there ever been more green in a scene? I mean, ask the Dean if they seen a clean bean. Okay so I am not a poet! To make the traffic light green, I started the painting with a lime-green circle (PY154 + PG36), then outlined in black after it dried. Composing big blocks of brown is tricky, so I lightened up the sky and the traffic to cut through the muck. 

Green light green dome, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

The new Canadian Maltage factory has high conveyors covered in tin structures that look like hallways. Capturing that shade of pale green, verging on dark yellow, involved a mix of perylene green (PBk31), indo orange-yellow (PY110), and some carbon black (PBk6) to neutralize. Working in the grey areas is essential when painting Montreal, especially in these between-season times like early Spring when everything is grey and dusty. 

Maltage conveyors, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

An old industrial building, or what remains of one, its just walls being held up by steel supports. The city obviously wanted to preserve the appearance of this very old structure which probably dates back to mid 19th century. A jumbo-sized gear on the outside informs on what was made here in the old days. Iron hamster wheel maybe? Graffiti writers put their signs on the wall, including good old PJD 2026. I am looking forward to Spring flowers and green grass now, although it was still fun to do lots of painting over the long weekend. 

Old wall gear, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026  

Taunted by rain

Today had intermittent rain showers, however, I managed to get down to the Point st Charles train yard without any rain. When I arrived, it started pouring and I took refuge in a bus shelter until it cleared up a bit and I could get a painting done of the trains and tracks. The earth was a very dark brown which I mixed with burnt umber (PBr7) and indo blue (PB60). 

Train yard rain, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

An old train repair building is being converted into a hipster hangout, they already have a pub, a vegan grocer, a bike repair shop, and a few other community services. In front, there used to be a nice field of grass and wild flowers, but since nature is illegal in Montreal, it was imperative to dig it all up and install concrete and benches everywhere. I'm sure it will look nice when they are finished. 

Hipster construction, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

There are several long berms of earth with grass growing on the empty back-lots. For some reason, the hill in the background was covered in colourful trash. I assume these items could be the remnants of a tent encampment since there were tarps, mattresses, and all manner of fabrics strewn about. As an artist I was drawn to this subject like a moth to a flame. The colourful accents really popped off against a grey and brown surrounding. A few orange construction signs and pylons completed the scene. I did one more painting by the Lachine canal but the rain started up again and I had to abandon ship. 

Colourful hill, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

 

Mid season weather, fart wall

The other day I painted two scenes here, but wanted to try the whole thing on a larger piece of paper so I brought along some 8 x 10" today. With warmer weather and fresh (no salt) water its possible to scale up and add more detail than is possible during winter. I like how the car tail lights and traffic lights shine though the shadows, and all the texture in the background. 

Turcot overpass vista, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, April 2026

Last year the city finally solved the bottleneck problem here... all pedestrians and bikes had to use the same path (on the left) going in both directions and it was pretty unsafe. Now, the west bound bikes and people take the right path, eastbound takes the left path. Although some folks still don't get it, and go the wrong way! The letters on the left were ZO (Zonek), but I changed to PD. In fact, ZO painted over his own TOS that used to be there, it stood for Take Over Squad, but the graffiti people retired this moniker and use BTH now. TOS was meant to 'take over' the even older VC (vicious crew), but a few years ago they merged into one super-group. I speculate all this based on following the writing on the wall for the last 15 20 years or so. The canal on the right, its still mostly frozen. 

Split path canal, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, April 2026 

Speaking of graffiti, someone wrote FART on this old stone and concrete wall. There is an old iron tube embedded in the wall that is heavily rusted, it looked like poop. So you have the fart and poop wall. I almost didn't sign this painting, like, who else would paint a scene like this? 

Fart wall, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Standing in a big open parking lot, here is a scene of the Canadiens arena, they are doing pretty good this year but I don't follow hockey much anymore. A tree was growing in the parking lot... I hope they can do something positive with the space and not just build another glass skyscraper. 

Tree Habs parking lot, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Part of the Bonadventure station, you see a rail platform in the background behind these trees. I am standing in the same empty parking lot as the previous painting. Of course I changed the billboard to my initials, and some other nonsense on the right billboard. Cars were zooming along st Antoine. Although there was no precipitation today, there was a bitterly cold wind. 

Billboard rail station, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

 

 

Feels a bit like Spring

With temperatures as high as 17℃, it was starting to feel a bit more like Spring. I could even paint outside without wearing gloves for the first time in awhile. This scene is standing on the sharp ridge behind the Glen Hospital looking due south towards st Henri. You can tell by the pink house on top of the old Maltage factory next to the Lachine canal. In the foreground is a highway overpass and part of an off ramp. 

Turcot horizontal pink house, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

There wasn't enough space to get the whole scene down, so I did a second painting composing the foreground elements, along with a compressed mid and background. On the top left is a distant mountain, probably Mount st Hillaire. Mount Sutton is also possible, not sure. The sky was an interesting contrast of dark purple with pastel yellow and orange. I had to paint fast today since it seemed like rain was coming.  

Turcot vertical overpass, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

It never did rain luckily, and by the time I got home the sun was shining. This scene shows part of the Lachine canal where they took out the concrete wall and opened it up to grass wetland, with trees planted. Birds love it here and I could hear red-winged blackbirds chirping away. They live all up and down the shore of the canal and river. 

Melting canal pine trees, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026

The good old rusty water tower, now an iconic landmark in this part of Montreal. Technically, this neighborhood, south of the canal but north of the aqueduct, is called 'South West'. Its a rapidly gentrifying hipster paradise where you can still live in a converted factory loft, and walk down the street to get craft beer or craft whiskey. Unfortunately the st Armand paper maker, which was in the building you see off the right of the painting, had to move. I stocked up, and met the owners, before they left. 

Water tower melting canal, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026  

One last quick painting... where there used to be a condo complex, there is now a wide empty sand lot. It looked like the beach in Brazil that we visited, minus the palm trees, and minus the ocean! I'll try to get a better painting of the scene before they build on it, this painting did not quite turn out the way I had in mind. You never know. When I went out earlier in the week on a drizzly day, I was sure that all the paintings would be awful, and there I stood in the drizzle painting the Molson brewery... somebody stopped that day and complimented my painting... then when I saw the painting at home it was amazing, and Cilei loved it so much we put it in a frame and hung it in the place of honour, the bathroom! If you click on the link you will see the painting I am talking about. Point is, I never know when the next masterpiece will occur, its a matter of keep trying. 

Elmhurst beach, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Hue Knows?

Starting off with the central yellow brushstroke, the rest of the composition worked around that element to create a playful mosaic. It was also a so-called 'palette cleanser' which is where I clean the paint blobs on my palette with a paint brush and use the extra colours for a painting instead of just running my palette under the sink tap which wastes a bit of paint. Some artists only use watercolour freshly squeezed from the tube, which makes the paint a bit more potent and thick, but its not practical to do this on location. I am so used to letting the paint blobs dry, and then re-activate with a moist brush when needed. Whatever works! I did a quarterly count of paintings, and I am up to about 162 at the end of March, so a little over 50 per month. I feel like its a high number considering that most of them were on location, some in Brazil. Usually its harder to paint in the winter and I do studio stuff, but to be honest I do not find studio painting very fun in comparison to location painting. These abstracts are all done in studio. By the way, the studio is actually half of our dining room table, I have a grey cloth tablecloth folded over half the table and use it to paint and put all my paint stuff after a painting excursion. 

Hue Knows? watercolour 9 x 6" watercolour paper, April 2026 

Ice chunks, goose, rusty bridge

With the bike path fully open I could make my way down to the end of Lachine park, and found this great view of ice chunks piled up on the shore line. It reminded me of a painting I did of Iceland, as part of my World Inspired Landscapes series. In real life, the ice had a most excellent blue-green tint which seemed to glow against the otherwise gloomy brown and grey background of st lawrence river and south shore. Of course, I used phthalo green (PG7) and phthalo blue (PB15) along with perylene green (PBk31) for the ice, and tints of yellow (PY154). 

Blue-green ice chunks, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Geese were flapping about and floating near the shore expectantly, looking for handouts no doubt. I will have to practice painting geese again its been awhile. We have plenty of them, they fly up here to spend the Spring, Summer, and Autumn. 

Goose icy shore, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

The sun was still high in the sky although going down fast... it was a neat effect of backlighting on piles of ice chunks, a pastel mixture of green, pink, yellow and pale blue. To create the sun-beam reflection effect, I applied clean water and dabbed with a clean rag (cut up shirt). I cut up my old white T shirts after they have had the biscuit and they graduate to being paint rags. 

Backlit ice chunks, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

I've painted this train bridge many times from various angles. Today I cropped the main support post which is made of stone, and featured the iron-oxide rust using yellow ochre (PY43) and burnt ochre (PR101). Most of the canal is still covered in ice, although big patches of it are getting thin and showing water. 

Rusty train bridge, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Closing out March with drizzle

Hoping the drizzle would end eventually, I rode out to the old Molson Brewery and made a few paintings. Steady drizzle created an interesting textural effect, while some paint smearing added more energy. I got most of it done on location, just had to touch up the points on the bridge and add my initials. 

Bridge Molson drizzle, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 (No. 5081a)

While the other one dried I made this painting of an unusual wall and semi-circle gate with grating. Piles of snow remained. It looks like a tunnel entrance but may be some relic of a past industrial age. It is reminiscent of the Griffintown tunnel that was closed in the 90's. 

Grating stone wall, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026  (No. 5080b)

Here is a close up, it was way too moist and I had to add all the brown at home, which unfortunately did not get the same rainy texture as the rest of the painting. Too bad I could not finish it on location but it was time to head home and good thing I did, it really started to pour by the time I got back to NDG. 

Molson clock, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026  (No. 5079b)

Curio Folio: Venus Pie Trap

Last fall the condo board asked me to trim the grass and tidy up the area around the composter that I use to dispose of fruit and vegetable peelings. To my surprise, there was a group of large Venus fly traps growing behind the composter on the shady side. Venus fly traps are carnivorous plants that lure flies in using a sweet substance, then clamp down and digest them. But looking closer and I saw that these plants had slices of pie in their mouths. I smelled apple pie, my favorite! Reaching out to grab the pie, and the plant clapped down its mouth nearly taking my finger off before I retracted. It was a close call. Then I realized that it was not really apple pie, but a kind of plant-mimic of apple pie, that it must have acquired from the old apple seeds I throw in the composter. The other plants had blueberry pie, strawberry pie, and coconut cream pie... all fake, all deadly. Clearly these plants had evolved to trap humans in their poisonous maw, and I had nearly fallen victim. I actually took a photo of the plants and was about to post that on my blog, but then I recalled a pair of old shoes with the socks still in them back near the compost... and wondered what might have happened. So I erased the pictures off my phone and just posted this painting instead. That way, if needed, I can deny the very existence of these... Venus Pie Traps, as merely a figment of my imagination. So goes another entry of my Curio Folio of amazing new things taking over the world! 

Curio Folio: Venus Pie Trap, watercolour 4 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 (No. 5077)

Curio Folio: Oui Non Device

 

As you may have seen in my latest blog, Montreal has a serious problem with confusing signs. If you need any more convincing check out this painting, or this painting. A start-up company has a new demo product called the Oui Non Device, its completely bilingual although the Yes No font is significantly smaller to comply with our Quebec language laws. The way it works, as you see in the painting, its a light box installed on the dashboard that flashes 'Oui' or 'Non' with a green or red light, depending on the driving circumstances. Lets say you try to turn left, and its okay to do so, then it flashes 'Oui'. Or, you try to park somewhere and its not allowed, it flashes 'Non'. It registers the time of year, bike paths, and construction zones with up-to date information. As an added bonus, if Quebec holds another referendum, you can use it to register your vote since its hyper-linked to the internet. If there is one glitch on the system, is that it will register 'Non' 51% of the time, just to be on the safe side. I saw a version of this being tested in a taxi cab on the way back from the airport, but no photos were allowed so I made this painting from accurate memory to add to my Curio Folio of things you have never seen or wanted to see. 

Curio Folio: Oui Non Device, watercolour 4 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 (No. 5076)

Cacophony of signs, signs of spring

Cacophony usually refers to a mix of noises, but can also refer to a chaotic situation, like these signs. Believe it or not, this is about what it looks like at the entrance to the route 136 highway tunnel under that goes underneath Montreal towards the east. I clipped some of the writing due to space limitation, it said Tunnel Ville Maria, Entree Inderdit quand les feux clingnotte (entrance prohibited when lights flashing). Also, no pedestrians, bikes, Amazon package deliveries, or watercolour painting allowed. A few pylons were placed for good measure. Painting something like this is tricky, it felt like doing a 100 question multiple choice exam.  

Cacophony of signs, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 (No. 5079a)

The connector path between Old Montreal and Peel basin is finally opened again after being Fenced off for the last year or so. I got this view of the highway overpass with the melting ice of the basin below. I liked the two signs here, although in real life they were on separate posts which makes more sense. The interesting dark colour in the melting ice is a mix of burnt umber (PBr7) and indo blue (PB60). 

Peel basin signs, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 (No. 5080a)

Bridge Concorde connects the Old Port to st Helen's island, it was recently renovated to include a better bike path and resurfaced road. I stayed at the beginning of the bridge and painted a scene of the other bridge, Jacques Cartier, in the background. In the foreground are the pale turquoise railing, sidewalk, bike path, divider, and road, all bending to the right. The tall tree had small leaf buds visible. 

Bridge bridge path, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026  (No. 5081a)

  

Another sign of spring, this tree had golden yellow shoots growing upwards, awaiting the sunlight. A thin strip of ice clung to the rocky shoreline. I was looking down to the river from the same vantage point as the bridge painting. Sumac trees grew thick along the shoreline. Its been awhile since I painted water ripples. Today was warm enough to use fresh water which allowed more detail, and made for a more pleasant experience than past days. 

Shore ice tree, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 (No. 5078)