Scenes from North part of Winnipeg

Venturing along Main street to the North part of Winnipeg, I found some very charismatic scenery including this cannabis store. A large group of people were congregated outside of the store, they seemed very agitated, or excited to be there. I took a photo of this scene on location, although the people had all moved on by then. You see in the sky, I made it like smoke coming off a cannabis joint. 

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

Later on, I took a longer walk, along Isabel street from west to east. This scene was a typical row of mid-20th century houses, with the towering glass and brick sky-scrapers of downtown Winnipeg in the background. The houses had a lot of land around them, giant backyards, and enormous distances between houses along the road. Unlike Montreal, there are plots of grass and trees all over, although I saw development here and there, especially in China town, they were bulldozing old structures to be replaced with massive, higher density structures judging by the size of the foundations being built.  

Isabel street City View, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026

 

A block from the last scene, and I found this bright blue-violet corner store with a canary-yellow house in the background, and a lime-green dumpster (typical of Winnipeg) stuck in the middle to the right. I had to paint it, even though it was a noisy, dusty street full of traffic. I didn't bother trying to make the angles too accurate, just to get the energy an feel of the scene onto paper. The blue was nearly pure indo blue (PB60). For the yellow I mixed benzi yellow (PY154), with orange (PO62) and green (PO36) and dabs of yellow ochre (PY43). That mix gets you a high-chorma 'baseball mustard' colour that plays well off the blue-violet. I was lucky in a way, I checked google maps, and just a few years ago, the buildings were boring beige here. 

Corner Stone Food Mart, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026

 

It was time to turn back to the Hotel, but I wanted one more painting, and all I could see was a big lime dumpster with rust, and a Tim Horton's in the background. It seemed like, if you wanted to know what Isabel street was all about in North Winnipeg, this scene says it all! A little run down, but with everything needed to live, like donuts and coffee. The lime dumpster was done with bismuth yellow (PY184) and dabs of green (PG36), then over-painted with mixed of yellow ochre (PY43) and burnt yellow ochre (PR102). Burnt yellow ochre is actually the colour of rust red. A cubist-like composition adds to the feeling of chaos and immersion. I quite like this one, its the 'artist's choice' scene... PJD26 was scrawled on the dumpster in faux-spray paint. A fellow came out of the shop and dumped some trash in here, looking at me quizzically. 

Tim Hortons Lime dumpster, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026

 

This one was posted earlier, I wanted to include it in this blog since it completes a story of my walks up in the North part of town. Its an ornately decorated marshal arts center, next to a group of community buildings. There were many indigenous people mulling about here, they seemed to be socializing and having fun on the street, living their lives. I was impressed with all the community services around the North, and did not see evidence of tent encampments or other tell-tale signs of homelessness that I see in Montreal. I think most people here have homes, and looked to be in good spirits.  

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