This empty lot on the corner of Peel and Ottawa streets, in the Griffintown neighborhood, had a fresh blanket of snow. It is one of the few, if any, places where you can get full sun in downtown Montreal especially in the winter when the angle of the sun is low. In the painting, you are looking North-West, that row of housing in the middle is community housing protected from Condo development. Instead of a Condo, this empty lot is slated to become an outdoor community commerce area, hopefully with some trees here and there. Montreal is allergic to empty space, so it has to be filled up as soon as possible.
Empty lot winter vista, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, February 2026
From the same vantage point, looking West, there is a Fire station on Young street casting a long shadow across the mostly undisturbed snowy field, just a few foot paths crossing the view. The snow shadow seemed to have two tones, a blue violet out in the field which I mixed with indo blue (PB60) and dark magenta (PV55), then a more greenish-blue in the distance I made by daubing phthalo blue (PB15) into the other mixture. Maybe it was all the same colour and my eyes were playing tricks on me. With the cold icy-wind blasting in from the west I couldn't see much when I painted this!
Fire station snow shadow, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, February 2026
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