Various scenes from Winnipeg, Manitoba

I attended the Canadian Society for Immunology conference in Winnipeg Manitoba. I learned a lot about vaccination, infectious diseases, and quite a few other things, and I was invited to give a talk in Montreal, and to participate on a new grant with a professor from U Sherbrooke. And the food was fantastic too! I had a few extra days to paint, and found time around the conference schedule to get out and explore Winnipeg. 

This painting shows the incredible Museum for Human Rights, at first I was unaware of what the building was, and so painted it with the ideas of its sweeping glass and sandstone facade. It must be about 20 stories tall, and then some with the spire. Sandstone was a common theme, many buildings in Winnipeg are made from a yellow ochre, raw sienna brick and stone... a toasty yellow colour. They also spread sand in the winter of the same tone, which further created a yellowish tint on many scenes.  

Canadian Museum for Human Rights, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, April 2026

Just off of Main street on Pacific avenue there is an interesting building with a two-tone blue facade and red detailing. Looking it up on google maps, its a marshal arts club, and used to have a restaurant on the bottom floor. There was a bit of graffiti on the side wall. Wandering up to the north part of Winnipeg gave a much different vibe than the downtown core where the hotel and convention center were located. There were many people out and about here, socializing and seeming to have fun, or a little too much fun maybe. The city has a lot of social services around here too, like medical, food, help centers. 

Ching Wu Athletic Association, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, April 2026 

Another old industrial building turned condo, this is the Telegram building on Albert street. Now its a collection of fancy shops and what appears to be loft condos. Winnipeg still has quite a few old industrial buildings that seemed to be functional, they also had many large parking lots and open spaces. I got the impression Montreal used to be like this, but now there are hardly any parking lots left, and the old industrial buildings have been converted to condos. 

Telegram building, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, April 2026 

The Dominion News building on Portage avenue is no longer a news building, it seemed to be converted into various shops. The architecture includes a green copper dome, ornate stone work, and Roman pillars make for a striking corner. Instead of realism I went for expressionism here, the paint was flowing and the lines were dancing. I have to admit, I painted fast at night in Winnipeg, unsure of the safety levels here, although nothing untoward happened. 

Dominion News building, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, April 2026 

More of the old industrial, this large warehouse-factory complex used to be a candy and nut manufacturer. Winnipeg obviously takes care of their heritage properties, you see them all over the city. In this case, they preserved the painted signage... Nutty Club Candy Nuts, although I simplified the design in the painting, and removed a layer, it was actually one story taller in real life. Its easily viewable on Google maps on the corner of Westbrook st. and Pioneer av. In real life, it had an amazing patina up close, paint over rust, and wood structures that looked to be well over 100 years old. I embellished the colours here to make the walls look like cotton candy. 

Nutty Club, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, April 2026 

The Forks area is a spectacular feature in Winnipeg, and likely the main reason the city exists in the first place. Long time a gathering area for indigenous people, it became a fort and trading post, then came the train and continued growth. There are many monuments all around this area (including the human rights museum), memorials for missing and murdered indigenous women, the residential school atrocities, and the interaction between colonial and indigenous people. There was also a large astrological installment, in line with Stonehenge, it is designed to spot constellations and sun/moon positions, it was called Odena celebration center. This painting shows part of the children's museum, with a small pile of snow remaining, and an iconic Winnipeg lime-green dumpster in the foreground. Virtually all the dumpsters in town were the same lime colour.  

The Forks Children's museum, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, April 2026  

Big blue sky in Winnipeg

There was a big blue sky in Winnipeg today, surprisingly sunny with a strong breeze. The city is surrounded to the south and east with wide spread industrial buildings, parking lots and the rail line. This scene is in the historic downtown, reminiscent of Montreal. Some Persian protestors gathered here and went for a march along the wide sidewalks. No cops escorting them! It was peaceful but a local person yelled at them. I made a lot of paintings today, now the conference starts late afternoon. Time for some immunology. 

Oxford Hotel, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, April 2026

Winnipeg Spring

Here is one of the many paintings I did today in downtown Winnipeg, it shows a popular shop. Using a Van Gogh style I captured the spirit of the scene. There were a lot of good scenes along the Red River, and around Forks Park where the rivers converge. The weather was cool and windy and mostly overcast. 

PJD POT 26, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, April 2026

Waiting for LUFA, last paintings before trip

Waiting for the LUFA vegetables after work, I rode out to the ridge line on Benny Hill behind the mega hospital. You can walk up a narrow, tree-lined dirt path to get great views of downtown. Somebody installed a vigilante park bench here, it was painted bright blue and had rust on it, no way it was a city installation. They always put a concrete slab underneath, and the benches are made of more durable material than this. 

Blue bench Benny Hill, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Behind the hospital there is an enormous grassy flats, probably a water reservoir underneath else it would have been developed. It could also be hospital land they are holding on to for a future expansion, who knows. This view looking due north shows the commuter train going by with some housing, and Mount Royal in the background.  

Commuter train grass flats, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Still no vegetable delivery (they text you when it arrives), I caught this view of the commuter train rumbling by, almost head-on from the bike path. I painted it from memory... when it passed, I just memorized the angles and some details. I made the grill look like an angry face. 

Commuter train head on, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

You think Quebec would have learned their lesson after Lac-Mégantic 's disaster when a train derailed, but they continue to build housing next to train tracks. This one is right beside the tracks, which are unseen to the right. As they build the condo, it has a red layer on top where they pour concrete for new levels, then the green insulation and window frames rising up from the bottom. Next they will lay bricks and install windows. 

New condos red and green, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Finally the delivery arrived at Trenholme park. I did one last painting of a poor old tree on its last days. The trunk was split and branches looked sad, that orange spray-paint is the way the city marks trees to be cut down. They plant new ones eventually, these trees are probably from the mid 20th century. 

Tree last days, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026  

Palette Cleansers, going to Winnipeg

With a trip to Winnipeg starting tomorrow, I made some extensive palette cleansing and loaded up the palettes for some location painting. The main reason for the trip is the Canadian Immunology meeting, and as usual I will make a few paintings here and there in Winnipeg. The weather forecast is cold and nasty with wind rain and snow... so pretty much what I'm used to, although it will be considerably nicer back in Montreal. This abstract painting was done as I cleaned the yellow and earth sections of the palette, it ended up looking like a blinged-out totem chimpanzee or something.

Berried in Earth, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, April 2026

This was done with the cool section of my palette and the high chroma area (yellow to red). You can see a paint-out of my normal palette set-up here, its organized into earth colours top left, dark shadow colours top middle, green range top right, high chroma colours bottom left, and a blob of black paint bottom right. 

Leaf Table Sunset, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, April 2026 

Life is a highway(s)

Tom Cochrane had that big hit in the 90's 'Life is a Highway'. Well, here are a bunch of highways, so, life is several highways! As usual I changed the main sign to have my initials and the year 26. The green on the sign is mostly phthalo green yellow shade (PG36) , while the early spring grass is done with a mix of earth paints raw sienna (PBr7) and yellow ochre (PY43), mixed with the PG36 green. Burnt umber provides some dark areas of earth. I like how the bright green plays off the olive earthy greens. 

Highways signs early Spring, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

From the new Falaise path, one can see the train tracks, highway, and even the giant brown mountain of crud through the landscaping. Each year the landscaping gets thicker and taller, it will soon be a dense forest with full sun and enough rain. Those red lines are a kind of shrub that has bright red branches fanning out from the ground. I mixed the incredible burnt yellow ochre (PR102) from Daniel Smith, with pyrol red (PR254) to get that shade of red. The pine trees are diluted perylene green (PBk31).

Falaise path train and highway, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

In the distance you see the downtown Montreal skyline and the white point from the st Jacques Decarie overpass bridge. Then you have the curving shapes of the Falaise path, left, the train tracks, middle, and the highways on the right. Getting the curves right was key here, and preserving the white contrasts on the highway. 

Falaise path tracks highways, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026  

Mega Hospital, columnar oaks

At the newly renovated corner of Courcelle and Notre Dame in Ville st Henri, there is a large triangle of grass with a monument and a wall mural. Looking west gives this gloomy view of the Mega Hospital up on Glen Hill. Colours and shapes were embellished to give that sense of a pile of Lego bricks. 

Mega Hospital gloom, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Looking east and there are a row of squiggly oaks, they are tall and narrow with 'frizzy' looking branches and a few dry leaves left over from last season. Technically these are called columnar oaks, they are tall and thin like a column. On the right you see the edge of the mural in turquoise, the mural shows an indigenous woman with a sign 'White Supremacy is Killing Me'. Graffiti writers have defaced the lower part of the mural. 

Squiggly oaks horizontal, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Here is the same view on the vertical, I tried overlapping the trees on the graffiti and things got a little too busy. I did the horizontal one next, omitting the graffiti and emphasizing the trees more. 

Squiggly oaks vertical, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026  

Sign, three pylons Notre Dame

Its been awhile this location is under massive construction. At least there is a sidewalk going under the highway ramps on the east side now which will make it easier and safer to get through. That remarkable neon-orange colour is made with pyrol orange (PO73) and benzi orange (PO62) mixed just so... it scans a bit more red-orange than I see it on the original painting. I call it "Montreal Orange" because you see so much of it around especially in the summer. Here in Ville st Pierre, they also add magenta flair to the signage, the main sign had a magenta post, and the pylons mostly had magenta bases. The new Mayor called for removal of all orange pylons, I can't wait to see what colours they go with next! 

Sign three pylons Notre Dame, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Colourful trailers, donut drive through

From the canal bike path there are good views of a truck depot parking lot, today there were different colour trailers. In the background is the highway and escarpment wall, which is now covered in graffiti. One lone pylon anchored the composition in the foreground.  

Colourful trailers, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Here is a real Canadian painting, of a Tim Horton's drive through. I put my  initials on the screen, so now you can order some PJD 26 with your maple cream donut and double-double coffee. 

Donut drive through, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

As I painted a cop drove up and went in, no joke. They were out patrolling for speeders or people going through the traffic lights. It was chaotic down here in ville st Pierre, construction was still going heavy on the highways. 

Tim's front cop, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

A few painting near the Lachine Canal

Part of the canal wall was removed and replaced with a wetlands area, consisting of reeds mostly, and a few small trees growing. Birds like to stay here especially the red-winged black birds. Grass was starting to turn green, it was a lime-chartreuse colour made with bismuth yellow (PY184), yellow (PY154), green (PG36) and earth colours. 

Reeds near Canal, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

This big tree grows in a popular lounge spot near the Lachine canal, it must be near a hundred years old. All of the old iron utility poles were cut down by the city, they left just about 2 meters of each one standing as a memento perhaps. The structures had become unstable. 

Big tree Canal, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Where the footbridge crosses the canal, there is a roundabout to help bikes merge with the path, and to protect pedestrians. Arrows show you which direction to go. In the background is the canal, with PJD26 written on the wall. 

Roundabout Canal, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026  

Parc du Souvenir, highway ramps

Parc du Souvenir is a small square with a few benches and plenty of tall trees. Oddly enough, the ground appears to be paved in asphalt, and covered in old leaves. A turquoise tent was set up towards the back to the park, behind, two highway overpasses and hints of Montreal's skyline can be seen. The trees are done with a mix of earth paints, applied over top of the background elements. 

 Parc du Souvenir spring, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

This on-ramp connect Fort street to highway 136 (Boulevard Ville Marie), and goes over the train tracks. Typical 'sweaty' Montreal concrete is adorned with a yellow paint tag by PJD26, done with bismuth vanadate yellow (PY184).  

Fort street on ramp, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

This off-ramp connect the highway to st Marc street downtown. There is actually a wide area called the Ernest Cormier Esplanade which is a mix of grassy lawns, concrete slabs, and architectural-style sculptures. Its a surprisingly good place to stand and paint urban scenes, and there might be a large number of flowering shrubs, good to check out again in May. 

Off ramp spring, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

 

My Birthday Trip

Today is a special day, on April 19^th 1943 a scientist named Albert Hofmann accidentally took some LSD that he prepared for entirely other reasons, rode his bike home... and had an 'acid trip'. Everything looked a little odd and he had a kind of out-of-body experience due to the drug's effect. Coincidentally, I was born on this day, although quite a bit later than 1943! Truth is, I never tried LSD, which may surprise some people who know my abstract art... In this painting I went with the theme, using an old painting called sky emotes, which has like 250 views by the way, and turned it into a new painting. 

My birthday Trip, watercolour 8 x 10" hot press, 2026

 

Here is part of an older painting, done in 2010 shortly after watching Avatar... I liked the idea of neon things creating a variety of glowing effects. The rest of the painting is purely abstract expressionism, I like to call it doodleism. 

Neon trail right, watercolour 8 x 10" hot press, 2010 

 

Completing the birthday trip, here is a floating flower, I might have been thinking of stem cells or something something. More truth, I used to drink a fair bit of beer and then make watercolour paintings, I don't anymore, mostly sober for 12 years. In fact, my art is even better and slightly more odd while painting sober which is cool to know. But you can tell whatever story you want. Anyways, here's to 50 more birthdays!

Floating Flower, watercolour 9 x 12" paper

 

 

Old Maltage factory panorama

With wind blasting down the Canal today, it was all I could do to hold on to the painting and keep my bike from blowing over. From across the canal, there is a great view of the old Maltage factory, now a Montreal icon. Its completely visible from all angles, and provides a great backdrop for selfies along the canal bike paths. People stop all the time to take pictures of it, and intrepid kids still go in and explore the dangerous unstable structure. Its one of the few places where you can still see a SAKE graffiti art... he used to be the most prolific writer in Montreal, with thousands of graffitis, but he retired about ten years ago and people painted over his stuff. The PJD 26 on the right most silo was actually a SLUK rappel piece, he uses mountain climbing equipment and paint rollers to make these large wall murals. Recently, he did a piece on the Molson Brewery along with KONG but it has been buffed off now. 

Old Maltage factory panorama, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, April 2026 

Yellow flowers, Spring is here!?

I had been lamenting the fact that everything was still grey and brown... today I finally saw some yellow wild flowers growing down in the industrial-residential area near the Lachine canal. The rest of the grassy expanse, which is a community nature reserve, was a mottled mix of toasty yellow, olive, brown, dark yellow and green. I used a variety of colours and brush techniques to create the effect of a Springtime field of grass. 

First flowers, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026  

On the left you see part of the SCAN tribute wall, along Cabot street south of the Canal. I hadn't noticed before but the wall, seen in tuquoise here, is a giant rendition of SCAN, the letters reaching about 4 stories high. Also, the people who did the wall, shortly after SCAN died, are graffiti artists from Montreal and around the world. If you are into graffiti or urban art, this place is worth a visit. Its near the corner of Avenue Gilmore, seen in between the green shed and the SCAN warehouse. The writer on the side wall was FOST, an old timer, but I changed it to my initials. 

Scan wall, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026

Here is a painting of the Canal lock overflow falls, it has a pedestrian and bike bridge going across. In the background there were a bunch of highway signs from autoroute 15. There was a massive BTH graffiti on the stone walls, its the name of a crew, but I changed the first letter to P, and put in a JD. In fact, I almost always change the graffiti to be my initials because its fun to do so. Copying a graffiti artist's style is called 'biting'. 

Lock falls Spring, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

I sized-up this old metal post several times for a painting, but never went ahead with it. Today I figured it was time, you never know how long these things last. The post was originally painted with iron oxide colour, and had a number stamped on with yellow painted font. Over the years, it rusted out, paint chipped, and someone spray painted their initials over top with silver paint. It was a very technical painting to do, since you can not paint light on dark, I had to establish the yellow and silver-effect, then paint around the lettering. In the background is a sweaty old warehouse covered in PJD 26! Some kids were walking around the roof of this thing... seemed dangerous but I can understand the appeal of exploring old buildings. 

Zen factory biting, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

What's the blue stuff in the sky?

Today, after I got out of the office finally, I wondered: What's the blue stuff in the sky? Normally the sky is grey and rainy... oh yeah, its a blue sky! And that yellow circle up there... its the sun! Finally a bit of sun, and tomorrow will even be a balmy 21℃ in Montreal. In this scene I am looking up at the old Maltage factory tower adorned with a red and pink house. The sky is done by blending phthalo green (PG7) with phthalo blue sapphire (PB15), the one from Holbein. Using most any other phthalo blue wont work because the formulas tend to be staining and obnoxious. The Holbein one is easier to control in blended washes, its one of the few paints I would recommend by brand, phthalo blue sapphire from Holbein. 

Old Maltage looking up, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Here is the adjacent view, although I omitted all the graffiti this time, just PJD 26 if you look closely enough. I cut up another painting and am using the back of it for some paintings. The brick is a blend of red ochre (PR102), pyrol orange (PO73) and orange (PO62). 

Old Maltage side, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

The boulevard Monk bridge it hard to paint, its a light grey against a dark blue and orange background. In watercolour you have to paint the background in between the foreground elements since there is no way to paint light over dark. 

Monk bridge canal, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

This secretive building is some sort of data center, it has imposing green tinted windows and a confusing array of lego-brick-like architecture. The olive greens of the pine tree and grass set well against the greens and turquoises, along with a sapphire blue sky. 

Secret building entrance, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Here is the so called 'Twisty Groove', its a small vacant lot that was once mowed, now they just let it grow wild. At the moment, the grass is coming up and it almost looks like a normal lawn, but soon it will overgrow with wild plants, flowers, and attract butterflies. That is, if the city can leave it alone! 

Twisty groove spring, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026  

Night angles

Along the Maisonneuve bike path there are a few car washes and auto mechanics, including this one called Lave Auto. It was closed of course, being late at night, but there was still an eerie greenish glow coming from the interior. In the background there was a residential building with lights on. The sky had an interesting gradation of mauve, which was mixed with indo blue (PB60) pyrol orange (PO73) and some purple magenta (PV55) along the top. 

Lave Auto night angle,  watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Further towards downtown and there are good views of the Farine Five Roses sign at night, illuminated in bright red lights against a dark blue-cyan sky. In the foreground is a long warehouse with lights reflecting on the Lachine Canal, ice melted finally, and a commuter train went by, you can see it in the middle of the scene. 

Farine Five Roses train canal night, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Dépanneur Elephant, colourful signs

In downtown Montreal there is an area called Shaughnessy Village, its roughly between Dawson College and Concordia University (Sir George Williams campus). This old dépanneur, called Elephant Direct is on Chomedey st, near the old Forum. It looks to be shuttered, and an adjacent building looks boarded up too. One can imagine this prime real estate would make for a good condo tower, they built many around here. The architecture was a hodgepodge of ideas, you can see a classic French roof-line with bay windows and a steep sloping shingled facade. In the middle, is a corrugated plastic roof that covers a balcony. It looks like someone still lives in the mid and upper floors. Metal bars were behind the window, and a metal grating was in front, so pretty secure it would seem. 

Dépanneur Elephant Direct, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, April 2026 

 

Looking east along st Catherine, there are many restaurants and shops with interesting exteriors. Over the years, they have been renovated, painted over, built on, painted again... resulting in more hodgepodge architecture. This one had tall 'stucco' panelling, like a slap of rough asphalt, and brown aluminum siding, with a black shingle roof. Red, orange, yellow and chartreuse signs popped off against an otherwise grey, blue and brown drizzly day. The building at center bottom in the distance is the Place Ville Marie tower. 

Red, orange, yellow chartreuse signs, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026  

Please come back another day...

Rain, rain go away, please come back another day... actually, the rain is great for the plants outside, and its clearing out all the dust and dirt from winter. In Cabot square, there was a final pile of dirty snow melting away in the misty drizzle. A bus was parked in the background, with a port-o-let in the middle of the scene, anchoring the composition. I'm looking forward to painting scenes like this on sunny days when I have a bit more time. 

Cabot remaining snow pile, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

The old Canadien's arena, the Forum, is now a large shopping complex with black cladding. There is a Dollar store but I changed the sign to my initials. The trees here are very mossy, a dark olive green with black accents and hints of red-orange leaf buds. 

Trees old Forum, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026