Digital hippy dippy trippy

I made these digital sketches awhile ago on my cellphone using the Sketchbook app, but with all the location painting lately I have not had the chance to post them. In this digital sketch, I created an eerie eye with absinthe-green accents and some hippy dippy s**t going on. 

Eye awareness universe, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

It took a matter of seconds to make this one, I applied a yellow-chartreuse squiggle then used gradient-fill to populate the negative space. I was like, is that it? enough said. 

Deco echo lime, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

More complex, this one looks like those 'dioramas' we used to make in elementary school. Those were shoe boxes with cardboard cutouts to make a scene. Most of this was done with stamping tools, using grey-scale. 

Starry night thorns, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

A Jackson Pollock-inspired design, these are the most fun to do. After making the tastefully coloured squiggles, I applied some paint splatter stamps to complete the effect. 

Noodle doodle green, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Finally for this lot, a PJD26 circuit breaker. I tried to remember what colour were the old circuit boards my Dad used to work on. I recall the green board with different colour resistors, and yellow channels criss crossing. 

PJD circuit breaker, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Looking back Bolton, London Ontario pylons etc

As I paint on the backs of old painting, I selected a few to scan and show here on the blog since I was not blogging back then. You see my signature on the bottom left, its the scrawl, literally my signature. The painting goes for a realism approach, I like the blue shadow and how the backboard looks against the cloudy sky. Nowadays I have orange paint, back then I was mixing yellow and red. 

Basketball net Bolton, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 200x

Near my old residence building, Saugeen Maitland, there was a utility shed. Probably painted on one of my visits back, like mid 2005, this painting has a warm, quiet feel to it. I was still putting cerulean blue in the shadows, but not too much. 

Saugeen shed, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 2005?

Never sure what this house was all about, it was in the middle of campus near the hospital parking lots. I always imagined a professor lived there or something. Its a carefully done painting, one that would have taken me quite a bit of time on location. I sat in a small camping chair back then when I painted. In fact, I sat in a small camping chair to paint all the way until 2020 when I started using my bike and standing. 

Campus house, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 200x

My interest in pylons as a motif goes back, way back! This one was done outside of the hospital, probably around the same time as the previous painting, maybe on the same trip. Now I have an better way of making pylon orange, you see here the orange is a little bit earthy. If I could go back in time, and tell myself to buy some orange paint! 

Pylons hospital, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 2005?

Another favorite motif, construction vehicle with orange warning sign. I got a lot of detail into this one. Probably done in between classes. 

Forklift campus, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 200x

An interesting view of plane trails in the sky illuminated by sunset. In the foreground, one of the student residences with lights on, and a car in the parking lot. Its a hard time of day to paint, this is a pretty good effort. I've gotten much better at painting post-sunset and night scenes. 

Plane trails sunset, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 200x

I am pretty sure this is the last painting I made in London Ontario before moving (back) to Montreal, which puts it at winter of 2004, around April perhaps. It was a little sad to leave but I was quite excited to start a new journey in Montreal, and what a journey its been! 

Campus snow vista, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 2004?

I didn't know about salt in the water back then, so this winter painting ended up getting frozen solid. It shows the new (at the time) arts building and some kind of pillar in the background.  

Arts building frozen, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 200x

Green roof restaurant, bridges

Over in st Henri near the Atwater Market, there is a famous restaurant called Green Roof, its specialty is hot dogs, fries, burgers etc. I've never eaten there but made many paintings of its emerald green roof. A mix of phthalo green blue shade (PG7) and yellow shade (PG36) does the trick. Part of a McDonald's can be seen in the background. The smell here was... greasy. 

Green roof front side, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Trying to get the value contrast correct, here is a scene of the rear side, with a window full of patrons on the bottom right. I would have stayed and painted the full frontal scene but didn't quite feel like it today. The green roof had to be a value lighter than the sky, but here it turned out equal. So a dab more water in the green mix would have been good. 

Green roof rear side, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

The train goes over Notre Dame street here, its an ancient concrete bridge crumbling to pieces. Probably 20 years ago Monet wrote his name on the bridge, its barely visible now. I changed it to PJD26 though. Getting the texture and sweaty old paint correct was fun. It works best with cold press paper and a semi-moist brush. A petrol train rumbled by as I painted, it was noisy. 

Monet bridge underpass, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 

A pigeon hopped around expectantly, eating gravel just to make me want to feed it> i had no bird feed with me. PJD put his name on these concrete dividers, and on the bridge in the rear. 
 

Pigeon Monet bridge, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Beside Atwater market is the tunnel, I stood in shade and made a painting of it. I composed the scene with about 50% sky, and stuck the road to the bottom of the page to make it look like a decent underground. Holding the brush up helped understand the odd angles. 

Atwater tunnel, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 

The first painting of the day, I did the front of the new st Henri metro entrance. A glass box, it makes for some interesting and challenging reflections and transparencies. I will paint this again some time to practice more. Painting reflections and transparencies is the hardest technique possible,  although watercolour makes it possible. Last year I spent a week or two practicing scenes with glass and reflections. 

Metro station st Henri glass front,watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 

Magenta shrubbery

In st Henri there is a long narrow park, near the canal its called Parc Gédéon-De Catalogne. Plenty of shade and benches, its a place I often sit to rest on the way back from a bike trip, or eat a snack. The paths are paved with pale red interlocking bricks, and magenta flowered-shrubbery grows in square planters. Having almost run out of yellow paint after doing a series of paintings along the Falaise path and highway meadows, I liked the idea of this scene containing a lot of magenta. I got to use plenty of purple magenta (PV55) and bright magenta (PR122), with green accents (PG36). A soft violet shadow cast across the brick which I made with perylene maroon (PR179) and indo blue (PB60). It was a fine day to paint, and sitting here, I got to listen to the band playing at the nearby Canal Festival. 

Magenta shrubbery, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Falaise escarpment, highway meadows, and other scenes

I'll just keep going, here are today's efforts frm a bike ride I took across the Falaise path towards st Henri direction. In this scene, I am looking up the escarpment at one of the gravel paths that leads into the dense forest. I saw a picture of this from around 1940's and the whole escarpment was sun-baked gravel, but now its fully grown back. Locals curate the forest, and the City of Montreal has an $11 million project to rehabilitate the area. As you can see, there is a danger of rockfall here. 

Rockfall warning Falaise escarpment, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

That didn't stop me from going up the path! I survived ile de la Reunion in the Indian Ocean after all, and the rockfall there is serious, not to mention with an active volcano. No volcano here, at the top of the path was st Jacques street and a Tim Horton's store in the distance. The Akhavan grocer is right beside me here, to the left. 

Foliage traffic Tim Horton's, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Carefully walking my bike back down to the path, I caught a view of the Lachine canal, or rather, the Gantry crane that is beside the canal. A train actually went by, and I tried to paint it in, but it ended up looking like the Lachine canal! So I just went with the idea. 

Gravel path canal view, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Where the old highways once were, are gravel fields that have slowly gone to pasture. Last time I was around here, last summer, it was almost all gravel, and some nice cosmos flowers. With all the rain, today it looked like a lush prairie field. There was a type of white flowering grassy plant emitting a wonderful floral smell across the area. In the background you see the st Jacques bridge and mega hospital off to the right.  

Highway meadow city view, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 

 

Standing on the same spot but looking west, you see part of a highway ramp, and landscaped yellow and red bushes. Given enough time and this whole area will become a forest, there are already trees growing including sumac, and the aspen-hybrid style trees that grow along the nearby canal. To create a sense of breezy wind, I painted waves of green and yellow followed by directional brush strokes. I had a 'boonie hat' on which provided maximum sun protection although it was a hazy overcast day.  

Breeze on highway meadows, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026  

 

At the end of the meadow fields, there is a massive triple overpass, part of the Turcot interchange. Highways also run underneath, you see a bus going by. On the other side of all this is the Twisty groove field where I often paint. 

Triple overpass Turcot, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026   

At the Kruger paper recycling factory, they cut a large square out of the wood fence so that people can see in. There is even a sign indicating that this is a viewing area. I wondered how many people have dropped by to gaze into the paper recycling factory? it didn't seem to be a big tourist draw. The scene is actually more impressive that the painting indicates, I will give it another go some time. 

Stacks of shredded paper, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026    

Looking west along the long line of the Kruger factory, here is a perspective scene. On the bottom right is the highway meadow. I was running out of yellow paint by now and had to find scenes without too much yellow. I know how Van Gogh must have felt, he was constantly running out of yellow paint according to his letters. 

Kruger factory perspective, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026    

Taking a detour down a side street and I found this scene of a parking lot full of red double-decker tour buses. These are the ones we see driving tourists around downtown Montreal in the summer. The large building behind is a storage shed and mechanic. 

Double-decker tour buses, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026    

 

Algae and other scenes along the Lachine canal

Painting in my favorite place to paint, with sunny weather, I did a few neat scenes including this one of a ditch full of bright chartreuse-colored algae. In the background, you see part of the Kruger paper recycling factory working away. The ditch is full of water, which filled up with some healthy looking algae, I used plenty of bismuth yellow (PY184) and a touch of green (PG36) to get the right hue. Sumacs and other plants grow up and down the steep embankments. The sun was going down at the time, which created a rich colour saturation.  

Algae ditch, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

In ville st Henri, a large unused parking lot is adorned with graffiti, and a tall communication tower. That PJD person is a notorious graffiti writer, just kidding, I replaced ZONEK with my own initials and the year. Concrete dividers also display my initials in stylized font, originally it said WYZE who is an old school writer still active. 

Comm tower graffiti, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

An old field gone to pasture, its across the street from the comm tower. I've painted here many time before, today milkweed was abundant across the field, which seems to have been mowed recently. Hopefully there will be butterflies again this summer to make paintings of. 

Twisty groove tree bench, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Near the old Maltage factory, along the Lachine canal is this utility building they have been working on for many years now. By the looks of it, this is water pumping station, since pipes and tubes are visible through the semi-transparent glass walls. On the lower half it is clad in small square tiles in ultramarine blue. Ancient graffiti was barely visible along this part of the canal. 

New pump station, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 

Sunset factory views

The other day I made bunch of paintings down by the canal after work, this was the last one I did on the day as the sun set on the Falaise escarpment. In the foreground is part of the Kruger paper recycling factory. Smoke stacks off to the right, unseen in the painting, were hissing loudly the whole time, it must have been time to boil the paper and cardboard. I waited a little while for the sun to hist the tree line, and found a good composition. Starting with the sky, I made a yellow, orange, and magenta pattern around the sun (which is just the white paper), then applied a blue-orange fade on the rest of the sky. Outlining the factory in paint, I then filled in the escarpment trees with perylene green (PBk31) mixed with some pyrol orange (PO73) and carbon black (PBk6). Where the sun meets the tree line, its just the pyrol orange to give a glowing effect. 

Sunset Kruger recycling factory, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Further to the east, and about 25 minutes earlier, I made this painting of the sun going down behind the old Maltage factory. Located next to the still active st Ambroise brewery, this giant structure has been the subject of many paintings, and quite often photographers are there taking pictures of it as I paint. Similar to the first painting, I made rings of yellow, orange and magenta, but then applied a thin yellow ochre (PY43) wash, with quick brushstrokes in blue (PB15) and blue green (PB15 + PG7) to give the sense of clouds. Working fast keeps the sky looking smooth... wait too long and the clouds get hard edges which looks unpleasant. I've gotten pretty good at painting skies over the years. I did a page called How to Paint Skies, it has almost 400 views!

Sun down old maltage factory, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 

Westhaven summer flowers

At the end of Harley street in Westhaven neighborhood, the community planted flowers around the concrete blocks. They really brightened up the neighborhood, and I drop by frequently to paint scenery. I did a series of chair paintings around here like here and here. In this scene, I stood in the shade of a large tree, looking towards Raffi auto shop. Starting with yellow, cream, and violet washes, I worked up the green foliage, red hydrant, and dark earth contrast elements. The background is in shadow, which provides some nice cool colours to set up the warm flower colours. 

Westhaven summer flowers, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Looking back: London Ontario ducks, campus, The Bay

Going back 20 odd years, and they were odd indeed, here is a scene of some ducks on grass in front of what I suspect is the Thames river in London Ontario. I was there at University of Western doing a bachelor's of science followed by a doctorate, making paintings along the way. These paintings are done sometime between 2000 - 2004. The signature is in cerulean blue so its probably 2002. 

Ducks near Thames, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 200x 

I know this scene very well, I walked past it hundreds of times on my way to the research laboratory in Robart's Research Institute. For some reason there is what appears to be a Hungarian flag in the background. 

Walkway overpass, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 200x

Perhaps too honest of a depiction, here is an empty parking lot and the Bay in the background. I actually remember doing this one, towards the end of my stay in London, its probably 2003 or 2004. The clouds are neat.  

The Bay empty parking lot, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press,  200x

 

Happy Canada day, stormy day

Down in st Pierre the city has nearly finished the massive road work project, most of the road is paved and sidewalks fresh concrete. Near the old disused train tracks, a group of tents were set up, one had a faded Canada flag, the other a Mohawk flag which I recognized. Cars were all around, do people wonder what I am painting?

Tents Canada and Mohawk flags, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

Somehow evoking the Group of Seven, this painting shows a concrete factory under a stormy sky. I had to paint the underlayers first, do another painting, and finish it when dry. 

Concrete facotry stormy day, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

A looping gravel path connects the bridge to the bike path next to the canal. You have to be careful zooming down this path with oncoming bikes in both directions. A large tree grows here, its a great tree to paint, large chunks of bark and subtle orange-olive colouring. 

Path to path tree canal, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

This old bridge is still really active, at one point in history it could raise and lower, hence the large counter-balance. Now its fixed in place because only small recreational watercraft are allowed on the canal. 

Bridge green reflections, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

Waiting for the concrete factory painting to dry, I turned and did this one quickly, just trying to see if I could get the car right and capture its rare olive-orange colour. I still have some work to do, of course, cars only sit there for a few seconds, and I am not working from photographs.  

Lemon lime car, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 

Jazz Festival dancing shapes night lights

Getting down to the Jazz Festival at Place des Arts and the rain held off thankfully. I found a good spot to paint from, using my bike, with a good white light overhead. People were walking past and looking, taking pictures, making positive comments as I painted to the music. 

Yellow spotlights, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

A tree in the midst of all the music and action seemed to be dancing. Stage lights shifted to blue and magenta. 

Dancing tree, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Billows of stage-smoke were released into a pale blue spotlight, creating this eerie, magical effect. Creating a silhouette line accentuated the musicality of the crowd shape. Let jazz course through your veins when painting at a festival. 

Blue stage smoke, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

The question mark signifies an information kiosk. Stage lights cast angular shadows on the pavement. An array of street lights and festival decorations provided interesting shapes. 

Cross shadows question mark, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Finally, a scene of a bar stand, accentuating yellow with a purple contrast in the background. It started raining a little and I packed up happy with these results. The rain held off on the way home too.  A good time was had by all. 

Jazz Bar, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 

Jazz fest: red umbrella, stage, quartet and more

I managed to walk my bike around the Jazz Fest today, the early day crowd was sparse enough to allow for a few paintings. Remarkably, this lady was hanging around the main stage, and she had a beach towel and umbrella placed front and center as she waited in the shade. As people milled about, she hopped up, went over and set up a small chair and popped open her red umbrella and sat expectantly. A crew walked by and called her a warrior for waiting so early, the show was not set to start for several hours and no other people were there yet except for me!  

Prepared for concert, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

The crew was running light tests on the main stage, getting all the strobes and bulbs working in multi-colour. It was partly cloudy, so the artificial lights stood out enough for me to see their colours. There is 1000 times less ambient light when overcast as compared to a sunny day. That's another factoid from Handprint.com. 

Main stage light test, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, June 2026

A little farther into the venue, and there was a small stage with a Jazz quartet playing to a crowd of mostly families with children. It was a very energetic and tactile sort of performance, as much a physical performance as an auditory one. I let jazz rhythm flow into the painting, not worrying to much about details. By now, I had been exposed to quite a bit of 'wacky tabacci' if you know what I mean, its aroma was wafting strongly in the air. 

Jazz quartet, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

With my blood pressure pills, its not a good thing to eat large amounts of sodium, which precludes one of my favorite things, the Jazz Fest sausage. Standing near the food stand, I made a painting from the rear, where I could stand in shade.  To show the wieners, I had to use artistic license and turn around the barbecue grill, you can see the staff inside a booth, with customers waiting out in front. My blood pressure probably went up a few points just smelling this! But it was totally worth it. 

Jazz Sausages, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Upon arrival it was full sun and steamy hot, I had to find shade to paint under having forgotten my sun hat. This view was the first painting, you see a variety of colours, they like to combine lime green with red, and put blue next to red and orange. The white spheres actually have a question mark on them, I believe they have a QR code with a map printed on their pedestals for people to get information. The signage contained the main sponsor TD bank and other slogans, which I changed all to PJD to put my stamp on the artwork. 

Jazz fest entrance daytime, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026