Harley Beach

Down on Harley street in Westhaven neighborhood the city demolished an old apartment block revealing a sandy expanse reminiscent of a beach. Looking more carefully the other day, and I noticed a view of palm trees and emerald green water of the Caribbean sea! Who knew there was such a treasure nearby, this will surely boost tourism in the area.  

Harley Beach palm trees, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Colourful barricade and other iconic scenes

Perhaps the city was feeling bad about putting ugly barricades that get graffiti on them, so this one downtown had a dozen or so colourful placards branded with transportation symbols. Additional barricades including concrete dividers, fence with blue tarp, signs, and pylons completed this iconic summer Montreal scene. Oh, and that is beautiful Montreal in the background! 

Colourful barricade, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, June 2026 

 

Park Dalhousie is found along st. Hubert street near Old Port, it used to be a train yard with many parallel rails, now its a manicured sitting park with historical displays. These benches sit in front of a small field of purple puff-ball flowers growing under the shade of trees. Getting the perspective correct was key here, so I started with a fain paint outline of the path and benches before filling in the colours. 

Parc Dalhousie purple puff balls, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

 

Rue Notre Dame is elevated here with what used to be a train bridge one could assume. A lot of the area is sectioned off since the city is working on the new neighborhood where Molson Brewery used to be. It will become a multi-use housing and park project, with views of the river.  

Rue Notre Dame elevation, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

 

Peeking through the construction fence I got a glimpse of a giant crater where Molson's brewery used to be. The main part of the brewery with its iconic sign is still up, its just off to the left of this scene. In the background is Jacques Cartier bridge and Park La Ronde off to the right. One day this crater will be a community development, the Molson family donated the land to the city. Their new brewery is an enormous modern facility down in Longueuil.

Molson's crater, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Canal paintings feeling like summer almost

Looking east along the canal towards downtown, I painted the blue water with indo blue (PB60) and raw sienna (PBr7) waves to give the impression of a windy day. Plenty of greenery was here, I used mixes of yellow (PY154), orange-yellow (PY110), and green (PB36). Dark green (PBk31) plus the yellow-orange paint gave shadow areas depth. 

Canal path chimney, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Looking the other way, here the fence along the canal does a zig-zag where there used to be a stair case down to a wharf perhaps. There are also mooring posts here and there where barges would have thrown ropes. In the background you see part of an iconic pale-green footbridge. 

Zig zag fence canal, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Taking a VIA train will pass over this bridge on the way downtown Montreal. It went by as I painted but too late to include it in the painting. This is a great place to stop and paint, I painted Night Goose on this location, one of my most viewed blogs of the year so far. Replacing the graffiti with my initials is always fun. 

Low train bridge, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Paint drops, new tubes of paint

Its starting to pale in comparison, making abstract with watercolour versus making abstract with digital sketchbook app. But the digital images are teaching me a lot and pushes me to make watercolour paintings more intense and saturated. In this watercolour, I tested out the new paints I just received from Kama Pigments, an excellent artisinal art supply store in Montreal. They have Daniel Smith and Holbein brand paints at great prices, and I use their synthetic squirrel brushes. In the painting you see bright yellow called imadazole yellow by Holbein (PY154),  and by Daniel Smith there are permanent orange (PO62), raw sienna (PBr7), raw umber (PBr7), quinacridone purple (PV55), and indothrone blue (PB60).

The only one I have never used before was the raw umber by Daniel Smith, although I had one by M. Graham which used honey in the formula. I liked the colour of the M. Graham one but the honey-based paint tend to melt in the summer. In the winter, the honey-based paints activate quite well though, so that is a plus since I paint outside throughout the winter no matter how cold it gets. Luckily, the Daniel Smith raw umber is the exact same colour profile, a dark-chocolate, rich neutral brown perfect for making tree bark, fresh earth, or black coffee hues. 

Paint drops, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Digital sketches Abstract

This is what happens when give an artist like me, a prolific doodler, a powerful sketchbook digital app. Endless variety of art. Its interesting because the range of tools, patterns, colours and contrast is staggering. In this example I combined the gradient tool with transparent brush strokes and some stamping features to create an ominous world claw in grey scale. 

World Claw, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

A simple line drawing was embellished with colourful splash stamps and a transparent grid. Airbrushing on the sides and open spaces gave an ethereal smoky glow. 

Pattern Spillover, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

This one started as a pattern arrangement in grey scale, with colourful neon electrical waves. Then I got into gradient fill and image tilt features, finishing with some well placed paint splatters. 

Dimensional broken record, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Using a standard marker tool, I found an option menu and selected colour multiplier. Somehow it was taking the colour attributes (hue saturation value) and multiplying them where two brush strokes overlapped. I added a few black brush strokes here and there to balance the left side of the composition. 

Colour multiplier, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

 

The colour scheme and patterns ended up looking like a Madonna rock video from the 80's... black, white, pastels, and mesh textures. To make images like this requires a sense of composition, its something I can feel viscerally. So my stomach and nervous system help guide artwork creation reflexively.  

Material Grill, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000 

Digital sketches surrealism

With a rainy day, no location painting I thought I would post some recent digital sketches I made with Sketchbook app while waiting for various things in life like dentist etc. This is a surrealistic portrait of Cilei!

Potted head, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Which makes this a surrealistic portrait of me? 

Primary head tilt, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

While painting in Point st Charles I saw an electronic advertising sign that was turned off, but had the most incredible violet and blue-violet glare. I stared at it for some time thinking about making a painting, then just decided to remember the colour patterns and make a digital sketch afterwards. It became intestinal violets. 

Intestinal violets, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

You have heard of a millipede, how about a billipede? It has a billion legs and glows green sometime in the future. 

Billipede earth, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

In this sketch I was playing around with the various paint brush tools. Its easy to do digital, but this would be hard to paint in real life. I am learning more about art and design from these digital sketches, and my location painting improves. 

Ice cream dream float, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000 

Neat colours in the Point, legal wall

Point st Charles is a working class neighborhood, although isn't every neighborhood 'working class' ? I found a way in today via the Lachine canal bike path, on a street called Rue Island off st Patrick. A train was going past on an overhead rail, with a fire-truck attending to an emergency on street level. Painting the lights on the fire-truck was key to making this painting work... I first established the red and orange outlines of the lights, then surrounded with a purplish grey to give contrast. Its more about what goes around the lights, has to be grey and darks, then contrast makes it pop. The light effect on the fire-truck is just like I remember seeing it, you get the sense of urgency and action. I am standing on Grand Trunk road looking south on Hibernia road. 

Train over fire truck, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

On Grant Trunk road, this sports center is considered a legal graffiti wall... anyone can paint on it no problem. There was so much paint on the wall, it was peeling off in great sheets, dozens of layers visible like strata in an archeological site. The artists also painted over this garbage bin so many times it became abstract art. Painting with watercolour by hand was tricky, and I had to run through my whole palette of colour options to complete this painting. Fun. Next time I will bring along some spray paint. 

Painted bin legal wall, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026 

Here is a photo of the wall where the paint layers peeled off, you can see the remains of various murals that were painted over again and again.... 

 

Swedish auto, Crescent st, dumpsters

After painting the back of the Swedish auto shop, I decided to do a profile of its front side. The owners keep the walls painted a fresh white yellow and blue, graffiti does not last long on this business. Many such places have been bought up and converted into condos, but there are still two or three along Maisonneuve blvd. 

Swedish auto front, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, June 2026

A pub called Stogies in on the right, with a view up Crescent street on the middle left of this painting. Its a busy corner during rush hour, lots of cars and people going home from work. I've stood on this corner several times, there are great spots to set up beside the big stone staircases. I used to sit in a chair and this was one of the few spots I could set up downtown. In 2020 I developed the method of painting standing up, using my bike to hold the gear. That opened up the possibilities for painting in dense areas.   

Stogies Crescent street, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Around Concordia University downtown campus, this alley contains three dumpsters coloured lemon, lime and avocado green. The front one had spray paint all over which I replaced with my initials and year. It came out surprisingly realistic. Strong sun and near 30℃ weather made for some balmy conditions reminiscent of our trip to Brazil back in February.   

Lemon lime avocado dumpsters, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026 

I was just enjoying standing on this spot in the heat with sunlight beaming down, so I made another quick painting looking west on Maisonneuve with a view of Ben and Jerry's ice cream store. 

Ben and Jerry's , watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026  

 

 

 

Water under bridge, grassy field, old hoist

Here is another scene from the Côte-Saint-Paul Lock showing water cascading under the foot-bridge. I did a good one on this location a few years ago. Time flies, like water under a bridge, its been six years since the pandemic and like 4000 paintings later. I figured during the pandemic, if I was going to go down, I would go down painting. Luckily we were all fine and I kept on painting!

Water under bridge, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Across the street there is a wonderful field of grass, it was blowing in the wind today. Next to st Patrick street, it seems rope for development, but for now I enjoyed its appearance. In the background is Highway 15 which heads to Verdun (to the left/south), it has a bridge going over the Canal.  

Field of grass near canal, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Resting in the shade I got a view of an old iron hoist that used to be for moving cargo on and off barges along the canal. Its still standing and looks as if you could use it with a little grease and oil. It has the look of something that was put together by skilled workers on the spot with iron scraps and welders. Even the pulley system is still attached. As usual, graffiti adorned its surface, which I changed to my initials. 

Old rusty hoist, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026 

Scenes of construction and concrete factory

Down in Ville st Pierre there are plenty of neat scenes of the highway overpasses, and this past few years its been in the midst of a massive construction project. Once known as one of Montreal's most dangerous intersections, now its completely safe because the cars are basically stopped at all times and there are crossing guards everywhere. This view shows a grassy hillside casting a shadow, with construction in the foreground. 

Grassy hill overpass shadow, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

The blue house is surrounded by construction pylons as you can see in this painting. A curvy arrow sign tells drivers where to go. Okay, I tend to embellish signs on occasion for maximum confusion. That is how people feel when they see such signs. A traffic cop was directing things too, which helped ease confusion. 

Blue house orange pylons, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

A massive concrete factory on the Lachine canal was chugging away with a lineup of concrete trucks taking loads. In this scene I featured three interconnected concrete pipes and place my initials at their ends. It was best to not copy too much actual detail, rather, just get the feel of it all. 

Concrete factory external pipes, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Gothenberg Montreal and other scenes

I did some painting in Gothenberg Sweeden at a conference around 2010. Here is an embellished version of the scene with a bright blue sky, a few clouds, and a bright sun. The original painting had a gloomy pale overcast look to it, which was typical of the region in October. There was only like one hour of sunlight per day or something. The flanking buildings are actually from Montreal, I did those today over top of the Gothenberg painting. So this was done on two locations, about 15 years apart! 

Gothenberg Montreal, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

All Montreal, here are some nice trees in what I am calling Triangle park, its a small sliver of grass near the intersection of Blvd Decarie, Miasonneuve and Upper Lachine road near Vendome station. I take care of these trees by pulling vines and fertilizing them every few years. 

Triangle park greenery. watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

It was such a wonderful spot to stand and paint, with full warm sun, good sight-lines, and an asphalt path surrounded by grass and trees. Too bad the view is not slightly better, but I paint here a lot anyways. Its also half-way between where we live and downtown, so I stop here after work sometimes, or on the way back from a painting trip. There is also a water station nearby to fill up. The scene shows part of the long wall mural next to the bike path. 

Wall mural bike path, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

I stopped on the way back in front of Homer's donut store with a view of Boustan's Lebanese restaurant, and a popular Korean/Japanese grocery store in the background. I have this idea to paint a version of Nighthawks by Edward Hopper, it would feature the Donut store at night on a perspective angle, with people sitting inside eating donuts. I will try to catch the scene one night, although they turn the lights off on closing which spoils the effect. If I can get the crescent moon over top it would be extra special. 

Boustan study, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

 

I wasn't going to post this one, it was the first of the day in Old Port and I was feeling a little lousy, then the moisture caught me off guard. Once the sun came out things got much more pleasant. I just stared at the scene for some time trying to settle in, then the colourful cart and turquoise hatchback car drove by at the same time and I had to try it.

Stone bridge cart cars, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Mural street, Old Montreal

Down on  Rue de Boisbriand, murals are painted onto tall walls and old industrial structures. It looks like it used to be a large warehouse, now its storefronts that open onto nearby st Catherine street. Its the East part of downtown, you see more local people here not so many tourists. Rear doors are covered in a blue metal bonnet and staircases serve to hold pylons in this interesting scene. 

Blue bonnet pylons, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

I've been painting on backs of old paintings, and in some cases I paint over the front of it. This one was originally from a resort in Mexico I believe, but it could have been any beach full of birds. By superimposing an urban scene, it gives the impression of giant birds all over the place. Like the Alfred Hitchcock movie 'The Birds'. I added in a few extra birds for good measure. 

Back murals The Birds, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

An old loading dock is covered in colourful murals. Once this was where delivery trucks backed up and unloaded or loaded cargo, now its an artist's canvas. I copied the murals best I could, embellished my initials, and left off the top part of the two figures in the upper right, which had Frida Kahlo heads. 

Colourful murals loading dock, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Switching neighborhoods to Old Montreal, where the tourists definitely do congregate, here is a scene of the bike path and Bonsecours dome in the background. Once day I will paint that thing perfectly, but not today! Its a real pain to get right but I will keep trying.

Bonsecours bike path, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

This scene is done from the same spot looking slightly to my left. Tall pine trees with a variety of greens provided a neat contrast against the pale green lamp post. The bike path was done with an indo blue (PB60) burnt yellow ochre (PR102) mix, blended into pale raw sienna (PBr7). Those three paint are excellent for covering the purplish grey and amber sandy tones. 

Pine trees bike path Bonsecours, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Weekend digital dump

Using my knowledge of painting sunsets, I created this digital image on the powerful Sketchbook app. Sky texturing was done with an airbrush tool, while the sun and orbs were done with stamp tool which can be highly customized. 

Sunset with orbs, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Exploring the stamp tool, I learned that you can change the shape from a wide range of stock shapes, or even make a custom shape. Working through the options, I stamped out a windy swirl of shapes within my initials mixed in. 

Shapes in the wind, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Starting with a a near black background I applied neon patterns, overlaid with speckles, and textured with spatters and blurry background pops of light. Even my initials are done in neon!

Proto ectoplasm, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Flexing the neon brush tool some more, here is a goofy image in primary colours. I airbrushed tints in the background to give the appearance of glow, and shape-stamped some highlight sparkles here and there. 

Neon goof, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

A simpler image with neon brush strokes, its an eye with pink lashes in a blue frame. Some airbrush effect gave added glow. 

Eyelash neon, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Exploring other options I found a way to insert images into the artwork. So here I inserted the previous image, tilted it, and surrounded in fluorescent shapes with a light whirl. 

Eyelash light whirl, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Finally, a series of swirls done with a shape-stamp brush that can be dragged along, creating a chain of shapes. Some black elements around the edge and a black orb in the center completed a tye-dyed vortex effect. 

Gumdrop vortex, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000 

 

Food Festival Peel Basin night

Down at the Peel Basin they are holding an annual Food Festival, where food carts occupy the main pier, and throngs of people go to enjoy the food and music. In the background you see the Farine Five Roses sign on the Maltage Factory. I used an interpretive style to emphasize colour, contrast and shapes.  

Food Fest Farine Five Roses, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, June 2026

Here is the scene from the bike path where it loops around, you see how this pier used to be where boats would load and unload cargo. I was painting under a yellow-orange light which makes colour hard to judge, blue and green will look greyish when you paint, so I adjusted a little. 

Food Fest Pier, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, June 2026

Last view of the Food Fest, looking at the crowd under those yellow-orange lights, with a purplish sky in the background. Once again I used interpretive brush strokes to emphasize colour and texture of the crowd rather than detail. 

Purple and orange food fest, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, June 2026

Looking west on st Catherine I got this view of all the night lights, cars, and multitudes of pedestrians. Its a hectic place to paint! I started with the lower portion doing colours and shapes, then worked upwards, and finished with the sky and additional dark shadows. As usual night sky is best painted with dark blue (PB60) mixed with pyrol orange (PO73). If you are a watercolour painter, its a combination worth trying out. Leaving a small dot in the sky made a star. There was just one or two stars visible. 

Downtown night lights, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026