Cosmos flowers, reflections, electrical danger

Downtown Montreal near the elevated rail line there are landscaped features including cosmos flowers and new trees. On the left, you see part of a glass condo, these buildings dominate the landscape now. Cosmos flowers are light pink, magenta, and dark magenta.  

Cosmos flowers downtown, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

On Stanley street there are plenty of shops with glass-facades. This one had an angled window at sidewalk level, with upright windows on top. Both sets of windows were reflecting the scene from across the street. With everything on perspective, it was key to get the lines correct. I replaced some rooftop graffiti with my initials in the reflection, and signed bottom left with yellow ochre. 

Double reflection angle, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

Still on Stanley street, I captured more reflections in windows, showing the fire escape from across the street. Brunch was going on at street level, and there was some cool music playing. 

Reflection alley, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

Down on st Patrick street I found some new subject material including this scene of an electrical station. A sturdy looking fence had an electrocution warning sign that looked genuinely terrifying. The electrical structure in the background was adorned with an abundance of cylinders, wires and strange shapes. 

Electrical risk, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

This old warehouse with pale green siding has seen better days. Plastered with graffiti, it also smelled of water rot. I would have done more of the location, there is a large parking lot here with public access, its in between Lachine canal and autoroute 15, a hard place to get to by bike. 

Warehouse initials, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Big sun Montréal summer

Finally we had a decent Montréal summer's day, close to 30℃ and a blue sky most of the morning. Here, I am looking up at the condos and sun, standing on Stanley street downtown. I painted the sun with big yellow, orange, magenta and blue rings, then filled in some buildings on an upwards -looking persepective. 

Big sun Montréal summer, watercolour 8 x 11" cold press, July 2026

Getting back to Dorchester square, here is another painting of the white umbrella-parasol with green furniture, and brilliant red geraniums around the monument. I changed the monument panel to my initials and self-portrait. The geraniums were a little less intense this time, some had dried and turned a neat dark red shade. The earlier painting is here. 

Parasol green chairs red geraniums, watercolour 8 x 11" cold press, July 2026

 

Finding some new subject material on st Patrick street, here is an auto shop with a sign L'Artiste (The Artist). There was what appeared to be a Bat-mobile car in progress sitting out front. 

Auto Shop L'Artiste, watercolour 8 x 11" cold press, July 2026

 

Surreal Pizza Shop (sunset corner)

Riding my bike out to the pizza shop, and I saw a tangerine sun setting on the corner. It was what I saw and it was not what I saw. I painted  it and I did not paint it. In fact, surrealism was real, at least partly. Headlights helped the cars find their way, but the pizza took a little while longer than expected. Had I ordered pizza than maybe I would have thought about eating it. Order now from PJD's surreal pizza shop in Montreal.  

Surreal Pizza Shop (sunset corner), watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, July 2026

Corner eats, twilight, gas station night

Here is a twilight painting done on location in ville st Pierre, the corner restaurant is actually a Boustan's Lebanese joint. In the interior, I replicated Edward Hopper's famous Nighthawks painting with four figures in roughly the same positions. The rest of the scene shows cars, red brick buildings, and the gas station see off to the left. 

Corner eats twilight, watercolour 8 x 11" cold press, July 2026

 

Another classic restaurant, La Belle Province with the highway overpasses in the background, and a half moon hanging low in the sky. The moon was much higher than this, but I pulled it into the scene using my artistic license! The chef came out and took a look on a smoke break. 

Half moon over La Belle Province, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

The bright lamps of the highway were dancing in the sky along with the half moon. Below, some of the shops on st Jacques street, complete with some PJD26 graffiti. The corner of La Belle Province is seen on the lower left of the scene. 

Moon lamps over highway, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

Lastly, I completed this painting of the ESSO gas station sign, changed to PJD, along with a green traffic light. It was a tough scene to complete on location and I was tired, but finished the sky strong with a number 2 brush and the illusion came together nicely. Punk rock paintings!

Gas station sign lights, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 

Sunset trees flowers Lachine canal

With the sunset down at Lachine canal came pink cotton candy clouds against a pale blue sky. In the foreground, a grassy field was full of yellow buttercups, illuminated by setting sunlight. 

Pink sky yellow buttercups, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

In the other direction, next to the canal, were these three trees, a mix of olive green and yellow-orange. Using a variety of brush techniques helped build up the complex tree textures. Yellow flowers were painted over the green grass with opaque bismuth vanadate yellow (PY184).

Three trees near canal, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

This large tree had a neat pastel colour against the pastel sky. Some bright yellow grass and a winding bike path completed the scene. 

Pastel tree sundown, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

Since I am painting on the backs of old paintings, this one had a doodle based on an early abstract painting I did in 1999 called sun earth moon. Incorporating the doodle into a sunset scene created an interesting surrealistic effect.  

Sunset earth moon, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 

Views at Coffee park, Westehaven neighborhood

With rain on tap I stayed close to home after work and made a few paintings, including this one of an oncoming commuter train. I had to paint fast! Just kidding, I was sitting in coffee park at a picnic table thinking about how dull the scene was, then decided to re-imagine the perspective to make it more exciting. 

Oncoming commuter train, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

At the end of Elmhurst, corner of st Jacques, there is a small Dépanneur called Saga, with an oversized sign. I composed the scene without any road or sidewalk, so as to focus on the sign and perspective of the condo building. 

Dépanneur Saga sign, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

Across the street at the Parmalat factory there are shiny milk trucks parked, getting loaded up. This factory has an alarm siren system, if we hear it blare in NDG we are supposed to close the windows. Who knew milk was so dangerous?

Milk truck rear, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

The old Motel st Jacques is all boarded up and covered in graffiti. Construction of a nearby condo removed the street access and front reception, so just the boarded up rooms remain. It advertised having a TV, which gives you an indication of how old this motel was. 

Motel PJD26, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Across the street still on st Jacques, this condo had burned out at the rear, causing a tree to get scorched, and the fire escape to twist into a gnarled metal sculpture. As I stood painting, the whole thing smelled musty, it must have terrible water damage inside too. 

Burned condo rear, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 

Looking Back: London Ontario, shadow, sunset, trees

Here are some more of the old collection from my age of early 20's. I date them as 2000 and x (200x) because I don't have records of when they were done actually, although the style give clues. This one was a later piece, it shows my shadow stretching down a hill near a Thames river tributary, with some geese off in the distance. I used to paint sitting down in a small camping chair, so you see that here in the shadow. 

Geese my shadow, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 200x

I recognize this as the Thames river closer to downtown where they built a steep concrete embankment to prevent flooding. Getting an effect like this was a big challenge back then, it looks like I applied a cerulean blue and rose madder genuine mix in the sky, blotted it out with a tissue or brush, then applied a pink wash over top, likely rose red (PV19) which I had in my palette. For a recent painting that is similar see the auto shop sunset. 

Pink clouds near Thames, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 200x

There were plenty of birch trees to paint, this one on a sunny day shows a nice blue shadow effect and autumn colours in the background. I managed to capture the light reflecting in the shadows of the tree trunks, creating a glow-effect. 

Birch tree park path, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 200x

 

Its rare I paint scenes of art installations, I did one recently of the art installations near Fort street.  In the above painting, its downtown London Ontario, near a public building, I liked the blue shadow and fleshy pink tones. The hand railing with shadow was a nice touch. You can see I signed the paintings instead of initialing as I do recently. You can see a summary of how my signing evolved over time in this blog. 

Pink sculptures, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 200x

 

It was obliged to post this painting, on the back I wrote something to the effect that it was extremely *** cold today! I recall sitting in the little camping chair freezing my rear off to get it done, and without salt at the time, I added alcohol. It worked out okay, this was done on part of University of Western campus, near Brescia college. 

Winter tree cold day, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 200x

Remaining downtown paintings from Sunday

At one of the underground highway exits there are electrical panels attached to the concrete structure. In the background you see down town and part of the Bell Center where the Habs play. 

Underground exit electrical panels, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Another exit, this one near de la Montagne street, it was in a dark blue shadow which made the yellow sign and cars pop out in contrast. In the fore-grond is the flower field. These are all from yesterday morning. 

Underground exit blue shadow, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

Here is another closed dépanneur, on st Antoine, corner with Vinet. A quick search suggests this could have been 2430 st Antoine, Depanneur Hui Ya, but its long been closed now. There used to be a tent encampment under the bridge here, maybe that was the customer base, and now the encampment is gone. 

Another closed dépanneur, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

Here is the view in the other direction, along with my shadow in the foreground. The painting on the back, from London Ontario, also had my shadow which gave me the idea. I'll post more London Ontario paintings this week. 

Under highway my shadow, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

Finally an open dépanneur in st Henri neighborhood, its called  YoYo and I did a painting of it at night a few years ago, seen in the link. I went for a cropped composition with two-point perspective, its a good solution to painting store-fronts. You can paint them head-on, showing the entrance, but then the sky wont show up like here. You also triangles with this composition on the four corners. 

Dépanneur YoYo two point perspective, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026
 

Fort street views, downtown flowers

Turning down Fort street I stopped off at Ernest Cormier Esplanade, a medium sized park with landscaping and art installations. Looking back on Fort street, here is a view of an old stone house in the foreground, with tall condos in the background, and Mount Royal visible in the middle. 

View up fort street summer, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

Here is one of the art installations, a copper house-like shape on a tall pole. In the background, a Victorian era mansion-style triplex. There was a cool breeze and mostly blue sky all morning. 

Architecture copper house art, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

On the corner of st Antoine and Rue Lucien-L'Allier there are good views all around. The parking lot to the south is wide open which lets the sunlight into this area, a rarity for an artist in Montreal. Towering sky-scrapers dominate the landscape here. 

Glass sky-scrapers and signage, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

These wild flowers were growing on the same corner, looking east along st Antoine. A mix of yellow cone flowers and white Queen Anne's lace. The orange-brick building in the upper left is part of the Bell Center. I have more paintings from today but will post them tomorrow perhaps.  

Flowers corner downtown, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

Flower field Rue de la Montagne

I got out early today and did quite a few paintings, not sure how many, here is one from Rue de la Montagne (Mountain street), with the Bell Center hockey arena in the upper right background. I was at this small patch of land in the winter and it was a frozen tundra of course, so here its surprising to see how vibrant the place had become. Yellow, magenta, violet, bluish, white and orange flowers were growing in lush bright green grass. The purple-grey wall to the right, with my initials on it, that overlooks a highway exit ramp from underground. The late graffiti writer SCAN wrote there once, but the city paints it grey now. It was a great morning for painting, sunny and cool. I will scan and post the rest of the paintings when we get back from our friend Didi's child's birthday party this afternoon. 

Flower field Rue de la Montagne, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, July 2026

Catalogue update, rainy day

 

With rain on the forecast I stayed home today and updated the catalogue, that is a spreadsheet with each painting named and listed since the start in 1989. So far in 2026, I am up to 568 paintings, on par with last year although I can paint a lot in summer time. The blog itself has more because of the digital art and the 'looking back' entries where I review old paintings from the archive. Oh, and I rip up a few of the bad ones every now and then which makes me feel good, and toss the bits into my hungry composter! In this painting, I tried to do the canal on a rainy day... there is a storm drain that comes out into the canal, you kind of see it at the center. From what I can discern, this storm drain is where a river used to run before they drained and piped everything up when building the Lachine Canal. So that little drain is what remains of the last river on the island of Montreal. 

I thought this painting was a disaster when I did it back in April, since I had to abandon the location, but now that I look at it, very cool. Glad I didn't rip it up. 

Rainy day Lachine canal, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026

Campus flowers and glass death cube

With a bit of extra time before the first meeting I made a few paintings around the campus gardens. There is a commercial gardening group that uses the land to grow produce and sell it at a weekly market stand on campus. These bee bomb flowers were growing well, with some leeks I believe in the foreground. Milkweed plants were strewn throughout. 

Bee bomb garden, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 (No. 5374)

An old concrete barrier prevents cars from driving up onto campus from the north side. Yellow and purple wild flowers grow here, and a bright red cardinal bird landed briefly. 

Barrier no parking cardinal, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 (No. 5375)

This large triangular shaped garden behind Hingston Hall had a leafy green, then dinosaur kale, with sunflowers in the back. The sunflowers were all facing south west, towards the sun at this time of day. For all the flower paintings I applied the flower colours first, so as to keep them bright and clean, then carefully painted the green and brown around the flower shapes. In watercolour, you can not apply bright colours over top of earthy colours as in oil or acrylic painting. 

Sunflowers and kale, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 (No. 5376)

 

I've avoided painting this huge glass building in its entirety, the life science complex, since it was built maybe 5 years ago. Its kind of like the Star Wars death star, but in cube shape. 

Glass death cube, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 (No. 5377)

Yellow sky concrete factory, Lachine canal

With more wild fires burning up in the north, Montreal had a thin layer of haze tinting everything yellow. In this scene, done at the concrete factory down by the Lachine canal in ville st Pierre, you can see amber-tinted clouds and an eerie green glow from grass and foliage. Trucks were loading up with concrete. 

Yellow sky concrete factory, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, July 2026

This factory worker was taking a break, trying to make a call on his cellphone next to rue st Patrick. I painted this at distance, standing on the same spot as the previous painting. I will try to do figure painting more often, although people never stay still for long! 

Factory worker break, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 (No. 5378)

 

Still the same spot, looking towards the rear of the factory, there were a lot of signs and pylons, with the parking lot on the right side. I put my initials on the right most stop sign, and year on the bottom corner. So you're like, he just put 26, where are his initials... oh they are on the stop sign. 

Factory signs parking lot, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 (No. 5379)

 

Where else can an artist paint such a scene? My favorite subject, the Lachine canal, sparkling and rippling, with a concrete highway overpass carrying several transport trucks. In the distance, a hazy yellow Montreal downtown skyline can be seen. 

Trucks over canal city view, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 (No. 5380)

 

Finally, these tall iron drums were rusted out, and someone spray-painted their moniker in lime-green paint with black detailing. With the yellow tint from wildfire smoke, the rust colour and the lime green colour really popped out. I tinted the clouds with yellow ochre (PY43) and used raw sienna (PBr7) a caramel earth colour, to give the impression of haze everywhere. Part of the canal is seen in the foreground. 

Iron drums PJD26, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 (No. 5381)

Scenes from park and river, windy day

I rode out to René-Lévesque Park, its the artificial peninsula near Lachine that creates the marina. In this scene you see one of the art-deco outdoor bathrooms, a curving bike path, and a few benches that look out onto st Lawrence river west direction. Three groups of flowers were seen, including orange-yellow, yellow, and violet. I used a hue-saturation-value (HSV) fade technique on the path. That is where a pale blue-grey fades to light cream colour. 

Curving bike path outdoor bathroom, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 (No. 5369)

Also in the park, this view is looking east towards Mercier bridge, with an old poplar tree in the foreground. Today everything had a yellow tinge from forest fires, and the river was greyish-blue. When the illumination is yellowish, blue surfaces become greyish. 

Mercier bridge poplar tree, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026  (No. 5370)

Some peony shrubs grow on the point, complete with olive foliage and magenta flowers. Some red winged black birds were flapping around, chirping loudly. The whole park is populated with these birds, and other bird species including seagulls. 

Sparkling water red winged black birds, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 (No. 5371)

 

Here is the first painting I did on the trip, its an effort to capture the choppy, grey-blue water with earthy undertones. I mixed green umber (PBr7) with indo blue (PB60) and diluted with water, then used side-drag brushwork to create sparkle, then over-painted brown (PR102) yellow (PY43), and blue (PB15) ripples. 

Windy day river ripples, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

Last from the location, a quick and breezy painting of the park, with Lachine visible on the other side, across the marina area. I used the 'Cloud over Trenholme' style to render the clouds, that painting which was done in 2024 remains one of my all time favorites. 

Breezy day Lachine view, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 (No. 5273)