Gas station Little Italy, looking back

Looking back on some of my old paintings, this one was from an interesting time, 2019 leading up to 2020 when the global pandemic hit. Some back story on why I did this painting, it was an idea I got from Hiroshige's series called 'The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō'. Hiroshige was a Japanese illustrator and print designer who was active throughout the middle of the 19th century. During this time, Japan had opened up to tourism, which resulted in Japanese culture reaching Europe in a big way, that was called Japanification. The idea was that Japanese art, music, theater, crafts, poetry and ideas flowed into Europe and even into North America. The Dutch painter Van Gogh came across a collection of Japanese prints which were popular among impressionist painters, Monet had quite a collection too. Van Gogh's plan was to sell them at a profit but he was a lousy business man and ended up copying them and including them in his art. So to make a long and winding story short, I discovered Hiroshige's prints via a book on Van Gogh acquired at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam where Cilei and I visited in 2018. And back to the painting, my initial thought was to paint 57 gas stations in Montreal, but it turns out gas stations are pretty boring to paint although I got a few good paintings. Instead, I ended up doing the 68 stations of the Montreal Metro system, a series completed over 2020 to 2021 or so. In fact, I keep painting scenes of the Montreal metro when I get the chance. 

Gas station Little Italy, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 2019

Bike path old Cadillac

Thinking I had done enough painting for one weekend I stopped at the Decarie overpass and made a few more. This one shows the Maisonneuve bike path with its warning stanchion dividers, and a low sun creating monochrome tones and glaring highlights. I left part of the road white to increase the glare effect. 

Backlit bike path, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, November 2026

And an old classic Cadillac by the looks of the emblem, about a boat-length long, parked at the auto shop. It seemed rather difficult to paint this, and I used the two inch round for added challenge. It turned out better than I hoped, the chrome grill is neat. If its still there I can try and drop by and paint it again, although the forecast is for clouds and rain on and off the next while. After a search, it may have been a 1950 series 61 coupe Cadillac, or similar. 

Cadillac study, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, November 2026

 

Half path to nowhere

Going back to 2020, the city was building a bike path under autoroute 15 in Verdun, direction point st Charles. It was closed all that time although one day the fence was open a bit and I rode in to find a half-finished path to nowhere in particular. Since then, they removed the barriers and its free to ride on, so today I explored it a bit on a cool but blue-sky day. In this scene, I am looking back towards the authroute after passing underneath. 

Half path under autoroute 10, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, November 2026

Vast piles of gravel and earth adorn the landscape, totally deserted. It looks as if they are planning a massive infrastructure, probably a park/recreation area. There is an enormous swath of land here, likely landfill from last century. 

Hills city pylons, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, November 2026

At the end of the line, the path turns and ends at where autoroute 10 peels off along the river-side. In the background are the elevated train on the left, and part of the Cinema production buildings on the right. It looks as if they are planning to route the autoroute 10 traffic to a new road slightly to the north, in order to open up the rest of the river front. If they succeed, it will eventually hook up with Port Montreal and provide a continuous bike path. 

End of line, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, November 2026

Exact same spot looking due south east, and there are massive condo towers over on what must be st Lambert. That is the st Lawrence river at the bottom of the painting. When painting such buildings, I prefer to embellish the colours and patterns using variations of magenta and blue-green. 

Condo towers river, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, November 2026 

 

Red green blue colours where they are

Here are the last few paintings from yesterday, done in Point st Charles, starting with a scene of the train depot and its prominent storage silos. This place allows cargo to be off-loaded and sorted for distribution. As usual, there were pylons along the street. 

Silos pylons, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

A scene looking up the street along the stacked containers and traffic. The containers were yellow, red and navy blue along with a few orange ones. For a painting like this its best to avoid too much accuracy and just try to get general shapes and colours down on the paper. 

Containers cars, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

Finally, this bright red building, which I believe is a retail store, had a red car, and prominent tree, almost black against the sky, giving a Halloween feel to the scene. So I made my initials creepy on this one, and on the first painting of the blog where my initials are like dripping blood... boo!

Red house red car, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026 

Gentrifying neighborhoods

Point st Charles is one of the rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods in Montreal, located east of Verdun and in between highways, the river, and the canal. Once a residential-industrial blended neighborhood, the old factories and warehouses are being razed one by one and replaced with condominiums and retail. In this scene on st Patrick street, I found a neat warehouse/building center, still open for business. It made for an interesting composition with contrasting angles and depth elements. 

Green wall construction center, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

A small park called Parc des Chaudronniers is nestled between buildings. Its surrounded by a vast empty gravel lot which has the look of something destined to be developed. It was a great place to stand with my bike and paint yesterday on a nice, cool fall day. In the background, is a newly built condominium with its yellowish insulation layer still showing before the bricks are set. 

Empty lot new condo, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

Same spot looking east, you see multiple building structures with a neat variety of textures and colours. Bottom left was a challenging dark-yellow with aluminum siding, behind were white-washed red brick, then an exposed-wood panelling wall in the background. To the right was a tall stainless steel or aluminum vat connected by piping to the buildings. 

Old textures and vat, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

And looking to the west, a towering wall of glass condos, the traffic on st Patrick, and part of the empty lot on the bottom left, with some graffiti on the wall. I hope the city can turn this empty lot into a park to extend the existing Chaudronniers park, and I have a feeling they will. In other areas, the city also reserved park space, so as to avoid an unbroken block of Condos in one area. 

Glass walls empty lot, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026 

 

Halloween end of October fall colours

Taking a nice bike ride down the Lachine canal path, albeit a chilly windy and cool day, I made some paintings of fall colours and various industrial scenes. Here, I featured colourful red and yellow foliage with a rusty train bridge in the background and Lachine canal running through the middle. I quite enjoyed painting this one, I dare say I had fun!

Warm foliage drained canal, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

Three scenes in one, we have stacks of things in an auto shop parking lot, an electrical station in the background with the highway, and one of the Verdun aqueduct towers visible behind the tree. With the paint drying slowly today, I made several paintings successively for each location. Start one, let it dry while starting another, then go back to the first one. 

Stacks of stuff electrical station, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

The side of the auto shop, which backs onto st Patrick, has a large ZO (by ZONEK), which I changed to PJD instead. It was a neat textural challenge, and I had all the same colours on my palette that ZONEK must have had in their spray paint cans. 

PJS colour wall, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

 

And a painting of the drained canal with train bridge. Usually this whole scene is under water, so it was neat to see what it looks like when drained. It was such a good place to stand I made all these paintings from the same spot, with decent sun, although a fierce wind barreling along the canal. 

Train drain, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026 

Frosty tree, thoughts on winter water

Yes a winter painting! But this one is from 30 years ago believe it or not, in fact, its one of the first winter paintings I ever made. The scene was in London Ontario at the main park downtown on a day with -10℃, which I wrote on the backs of one of these paintings. As it cools off, and luckily I did not need salt in the water for today's paintings although I brought some with me just in case, maybe its time to remember how to paint in the winter. I typically add salt, around 150g per 1L of water is good for -10℃, and 300g per L is good for -20℃. Usually I add 100g to 0.5L which fits in my container. Theoretically, salt water will not freeze down to -21℃ after which it will turn slushy and icy which I knew from experience too. Propylene is perhaps another option, at 60% propylene glycol the water wont freeze down to about -50°C, and a 50% solution will freeze around -30°C. Back in time, I did not know these things, and brought some warm water along with me to make winter paintings, but as you can easily see in the example above, ice crystals formed and it was difficult to finish the painting properly. Maybe if it gets cold again this winter I will try the propylene glycol trick. 

Frosty tree, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 1996

Paint resupply, abstract paintings

Here is an abstract painting I made awhile ago, using a variety of warm earth colours with blue accents. It was a so-called palette cleanser, where I was cleaning the palette paints with a brush and using the excess to make a painting. Its also fun to just paint something without any constraints. With abstract the idea is to paint what you feel. Getting reading glasses was a mid-life chroma! 

Mid life chroma, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, October 2026

Realizing the supply chain and cost issues are creeping into the fine-art supply world, I decided to stock up on some of my favorite and most used paints. The first 6 tubes are DaVinci brand delivered from Studio Six Toronto, and the last six are Daniel Smith brand, mostly from Kama pigments Montreal except for the pink ones. The pink ones are called quinacridone lilac PR122, and I used to get a good version of it from Schmincke brand, but that brand is not really available anymore, and other companies do not carry it.

From left to right, these are 37mL tubes of raw sienna (PBr7), raw umber (PBr7), 2 x yellow ochre (PY43), and 15mL tubes of 2 x DaVinci yellow (PY154), followed by bismuth vanadate yellow (PY184), burnt yellow ochre (PR102), lamp black (PBk6), phthalo green yellow shade (PG36), and 2 x  quinacridone lilac (PR122). Should last me awhile!  

One last painting I did, after being reminded at work about the importance of getting 'high impact' publications, I did this painting instead. Its a high impact painting... like lots of clashing colours. You would think 'high impact' is a bad thing after all, like collisions, but in science it seems to be a good thing, it means you spent a lot of money on the research project. 

High impact, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, October 2026

 

Sundown shadows parking lot

Capturing the setting sun and glints off car-tops took some deft brushwork. Its that time of year when painting outdoors becomes increasingly difficult due to cold moist air, although so far its been an excellent autumn. Getting shadow values correct is also tricky in watercolour, you have to apply it a shade or two darker to anticipate how looks after drying. 

Sundown car shadows, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

A quick study of the passing commuter train, one of the newer ones, with some earthy-yellow/orange trees. An art store chain Deserres, recently discontinued Schmincke paint, reduced their Daniel Smith selection substantially, and were out of stock on most PWC brand paints. Thinking ahead, I decided to make a round of purchases at Kama Pigment Montreal and Studio Six Toronto. One paint in particular, quinacridone magenta (PR122) was hard to get, so I ordered two tubes of it. Maybe supply chain and cost issues are going to hit watercolour paints and art retailers as stocks dwindle. 

Train passing trees, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

Looking east, its part of the sports dome, and the PERFORM Centre casting a shadow across the rear parking area. That shadow colour is a mix of quinacridone purple (PV55) and phthalo green blue shade (PG7). I received the Kama Pigment shipment already, got Daniel Smith 15mL tubes of Lamp black (PBk6), burnt yellow ochre (PR102), phthalo green yellow shade (PG36), and bismuth vanadate yellow (PY184). 

Centre dome rear view, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

 

Underground tunnel signs of autumn

Riding east along the st Jacques bike path and I encountered many construction sites, and finally stopped off at Montagne street where underground highway 136 emerges. I paint there frequently because there are good sight lines, angles, and plenty of sun comes in which is a rarity in the city especially in the autumn and winter. These signs are reminding drivers to turn right, no left, no right... on Montagne street. 

Right right right, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

Along the exterior of the tunnel exit there are a number of power boxes and cables that are no doubt connected to the many lights within the tunnel. Graffiti adorned the stainless steel boxes, which I replaced with my own initials and year. To paint stainless steel, I applied a warm wash, then tinted it blue on top, and yellow-green on bottom. In doing so, it gives the illusion of reflecting the sky and green grass. 

Tunnel power lines, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

Standing up behind the retainer fence, its surrounded by an open lawn next to the dog park, I got this view of cars coming out of the tunnel. Yellow signs said turn right, and watch out for pedestrians. Towards the upper right of this scene, I depicted some of the tents that were set up, people were living in them. As drivers sped past the people living in tents, I noticed a parallel, this is, the car shadows and the tent shadows looked very similar. Regardless of our status in the world, we all cast the same shadows. 

Exit looking down, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

 

Turquiose wall glow Cabot street

In the background you see one of the canal bridges for autoroute 10, in the foreground is part of the massive mural wall on Cabot street. The turquoise sun-facing side is a tribute to SCAN, a late graffiti writer who uses to paint in this area and around the city. 

Graffiti wall canal bridge, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

I walked past this scene thinking it was too hard to paint and I was tired yesterday after doing quite a few paintings already. Then I figured, paint it while its there! In this version, two white cars were parked next to the turquoise mural wall, and strong sun created an eerie glow. 

White cars green glow, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

The same two white cars from another angle and up close. The mural, unseen to my left, was reflecting off the car, and creating a turquoise glow. To emphasize the turquoise I created violet shadows underneath, and made sure the rest of the scene were warm earthy colours and a bright blue sky. Its a neat painting and I am glad to have hung in there and did these ones. 

White cars mural reflection, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026 

Pink house, highway signs, drained canal

Making my way over the canal lock, there was a good view of the pink house atop the Old Malt factory that is being torn down. I added a drone in the sky, since there were people flying one again, probably to get video of the ruined structure. My initials PJD adorn one of the silos, along with SAKE, a famous retired writer (graffiti artist/vandal). 

Pink house over trees, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

Off in the distance, highway signs from auto route 10 could be seen over autumn-coloured trees. I liked the contrast between the bright blue/green/yellow of the background, with earthy pastel colours of the foreground elements. 

Highway signs autumn colours, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

Some mallard ducks were making the most of it, a partially drained Lachine canal. The locks are shut down for the season, and they drop the water level to minimum so as to avoid ice-stress on the structures. You can see the rocky ramparts that spend most of the year under water. That is st Patrick street on the top left.  

Drained canal, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

 

Old Maltage tear down

Hearing about the Old Maltage building in st Henri getting torn down, I headed there to see some carnage. Sure enough, the rear pillar of bricks is in ruins, although the rear facade along st Ambroise is still there. If you go look at a previous blog, the third painting with pigeons called 'Looking up old malt', that whole structure is gone now, inlcuding the pigeons.  

Old Maltage tear down vertical, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

The city had to demolish this part because its collapse was imminent after being neglected since the 1980's. Interestingly, the interior of the structure could be seen, revealing graffiti on the inside walls high up in the structure. Graffiti artists obviously got access to the inside and painted on walls. I once heard the sounds of people living inside the structure while painting the rear door, its the last painting within that link. 

Old Maltage tear down horizontal, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

With nice sun and a blue-sky day, I made a third painting of the demolition crane close-up, it had neat reflections on the windshield. The tires were up in the air because the vehicle was suspended by huge iron bracers. There were no workers on the site, although some people were getting a drone going to make reconnaissance, and a lady with a telephoto camera asked me for directions to where she could get a good a view of the pink house. Its like a tourist attraction there!

Demo crane close-up, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026 

Sundown Harley street

Getting down to Westhaven neighborhood I caught this neat view of the sundown over Raffi auto shop. With the sun located top center, I composed the rest of the scene asymmetrically to break symmetry and set up the neat, cool shadow. Pastel tones play well against the high chroma sun colours. 

Sundown over Raffi auto shop, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

Having bought a new tube of bismuth vanadate yellow, a small 5mL tube from Winsor and Newton that cost a fortune... I'd say that yellow lawn was an expensive one to paint lol! But the store was out of Daniel Smith bismuth yellow, apparently they will not carry it anymore (I bought their last tube awhile ago on discount). In this painting, I softened the sky tones to middle-pastel, and let the foreground grass field glow, and carry the visual interest of an angled-shadow from a telephone pole. I painted lightly around the sun to create a surreal glow. 

Pole shadow field, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

 

Yellow orange red, all the Autumn colours

Cabot square downtown is quite built up all around, and they installed a new exit structure to the Atwater metro stop in recent times. With tall trees, Cabot square makes for some nice autumn colours including yellows and reds. 

Station Atwater Cabot square, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

Yellow and green, more fall colours but graffiti this time, courtesy of ZONEK, or PJD in the painting. All of these building along st Catherine near the Alexis Nihon mall are slated for demolition and redevelopment once the city settles on a plan.

Rooftop graffiti, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

And a panorama view of Cabot square with ever-present traffic going up and down Atwater street. Its a busy intersection most times of day including commuter hours. The autumn colours are mixes of bright pigments like bismuth vanadate yellow (PY184) and earth pigments like yellow ochre (PY43) or raw sienna (PBRr7). Red is done with a mix of pyrol red (PR254) and burnt yellow ochre (PR102). 

Cabot square multi-colour, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

Waiting for the LUFA vegetables, I caught one last view of the sun though a tree. Similar to a painting I made the other day, this one shows tree shadows streaking across an olive-green field of grass, with traffic on Sherbrooke street. This painting is bursting with autumn colours, like a warm cup of tea, caramel, and toasted pistachios. 

Trenholme park sun in trees, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026 

Sundown NDG neighborhood, and a London Ontario painting

Its been awhile  since I painted over at the Benny sports complex, which is surrounded by recreational spaces and small pockets of nature. Here, you see the sun going down behind some of the condos over on Cavendish blvd, with shadows cast across an olive green field. 

Sundown Benny sports complex, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

Occasionally the moon is visible against a blue sky, here I botched the effect some, its exceedingly difficult to pull off. Starting with a blue circle, then getting the semi-circle arch, fill in sky, wait, and overlay a faint blue wash with texturing. Somehow a backwash creeped up from the horizon. 

Moon over cultural center, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

Parked off to the side, a huge asphalt paving or removal machine, waiting for more action. Cavendish was being resurfaced finally. The paper was moist and difficult to control. Not to mention an afternoon in the research lab with these reading glasses was nice in terms of vision but unpleasant in terms of a lasting nausea. 

Asphalt machine, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

Another painting from another time and another space, its London Ontario around the year 2000. Hard to imagine that's a quarter century ago. I will take a quarter century, with cheese please. Speaking of cheese, here we see orange and red, with hints of green all around. 

Autumn London Ontario, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 2000

Expo 67 Place des Nations amphitheater

This area was blocked off for as long as I can remember, it was originally an amphitheater built for Expo 67 called Place des Nations on the western-most tip of st Helen's island. The architecture used big concrete geometric structures shaped like triangles, pyramids and towering monoliths. Now the area is open to the public to wander around safely, its a very large expanse of gravel lined by baroque structures and seating.  

Place des Nations shapes, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

More concrete step-seats, with a warm caramel colour they worked nicely against the autumn red orange yellow in the background. I used a greenish umber (PBr7) from Shin Han, its the best one out there to paint old Montreal concrete, along with a dab of raw sienna (also PBr7). Some deft brush-work created the grainy textural effects. 

Concrete step seats, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

A prominent airplane trail in the sky was composed neatly against a row of middle-ground trees, with a yellow block and orange pylon in the foreground. It was quite fun to paint this one, in fact, a very  pleasant afternoon all around, with just a cool breeze. 

Plane trail pylon, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026