With our reading week drawing to a close, that's when the University gets to read for a week, I made a couple of paintings on my way back from the bike shop. Unfortunately the bike needs work and I might be on foot for the next few days or longer depending on the availability of parts. In st Henri, there was a large tent encampment near the train tracks, now just a few tents remain due to the cold, and other problems they had here like a fire, and an unfortunate death last year. A train of crude oil cars rumbled by as I painted. Its a wonder that the city still permits housing construction near train tracks, let alone a tent encampment. But whenever they shut an encampment down, the people have to move somewhere else.
Encampment train tracks, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026
This highway overpass was built as part of the Turcot interchange project, it is highway 136 going downtown (to the right in the painting). In the 1950's before there were any highways, this land used to be a small village of maybe a hundred people with a church, a park, some shops and houses. The village was completely wiped to make way for the highways, although now the area is quite built up with large condos and box stores. Go back far enough and this was indigenous land, although likely part of Otter Lake (little lake Pierre) which was drained by the Lachine canal. Quite a bit of history for a boring looking highway overpass!
Overpass snow banks, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026
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