Dépanneur Beaubien Ouest fermée

At the start of Beaubien Ouest road, near the corner with Saint Laurent boulevard, there is a closed Dépanneur and Laundry shop. It is reminiscent of the dépanneur in NDG that was demolished last year. You know, I don't just stop for every corner store and make a painting, only for the interesting ones, or ones that will not be around for much longer. Its part of the local heritage and culture, these small community shops. It feels like this one's days are numbered too, the whole area around Beaubien Ouest is gentrifying, that is, down with the warehouses, factories and dilapidated retail, up with the shiny glass condos and trendy cafes. 

I actually painted over half of an old painting, the original had a large pastel sky done in cerulean blue and magenta (probably PV19, maybe rose madder genuine) Painting over it, I started with a dark outline to establish perspective and structure, then applied earthy tones and shadow elements to create volume. I had to write the sign at home because it started to drizzle on location and didn't stop until after I got home.  

Dépanneur Beaubien Ouest fermée, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, June 2026

Between rainstorms

Planning to visit Beaubien street west, I left by bike with a nice blue sky and some sun, only to encounter an ominous purple-grey cloud looming on the horizon. I backtracked to Wasserman forest and made a few paintings before the thunderstorm really hit. This one got some extra paint on it after packing it up in a hurry. 

Ominous sky Wasserman forest, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

 

I had to bail on this painting, the rain started coming down and I headed for the forest to get some cover. There were cars on the road that I planned to add, but the painting was too wet and rain would have ruined the whole scene. Wasserman forest is on the right.

Grey sky Wasserman forest, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

 

Finding refuge in the forest, I had a view out onto the corner with rain pouring down. There was loud thunder and lightning too. It was a hard painting to do on location, I had to lean over and protect the paper from rain... I was standing under a tree and had my rain jacket on. 

Thunderstorm from Wasserman forest, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

 

I got as far as Université-de-Montréal when the rain really picked up again, worse than before. I tried waiting it out under a big tree but started to get soaked and hurried over to the nearby metro station. From the interior I had a good view of the rain storm, and did a painting of this view looking down the stairs, and also seeing cars on the road above. I took my time because the rain storm lasted about 45 minutes. 

Université-de-Montréal metro interior, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

 

As the rain subsided, I set up outside of the metro station under the roof overhang, and did this scene of a sign someone put up saying Le Québec. Next to it was a no-entrance sign, because the road is one way here, and a bunch of pylons for construction on Tour Path road which goes up to campus. Le Québec refers to the province of Québec, as opposed to just saying Québec which refers to the city. 

Le Québec no entrance, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026 

Digital on the go

With rain subsiding, I can finally get out and do some painting on location. Before I take off, here are some digital pieces I did last week while I was on the go. Taking the bus to the Cancer Research center and waiting for some meetings gave me time to make art on my cellphone using Sketchbook app. This one used the chalk pastel tool in the first group of brushes, which has the texture of a very bright crayon. Include earth tones (dark orange, dark red) to make the bright colours pop. 

Pop art digital crayons, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

 

Reminiscent of germs under high magnification of an electron microscope, this piece used stamping features by varying size, colour and transparency in the advanced option tab. Starting with a dark brown background helped make everything glow. The bus was bumping around making this one harder to do accurately. 

Germs surface, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

 

Going to monochrome, this one is mostly grey scale with some dark neutral yellow mixed in. I overlaid as many brush tools as possible, ending with confetti-like spatters. Sometimes I keep overlaying things until there is no more possible...its the Jackson Pollock technique he used for drip painting. 

Party favorites, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

 

At the Cancer research center I sat in the large, light-filled lobby and made part of this sketch, then finished it later on with textural and light-effects. The character is going down a staircase with bright sun coming in from a lush exterior. There was a simultaneous sense of both openness, and claustrophobia. 

Visit the center, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

 

An art installation contained a tangle of matching ribbons wound up tastefully in a plexiglass case. I emulated the effect in this piece, which started with one ribbon, the green one I think, and then I tried to follow its shape as closely as possible with a succession of differently coloured ribbons. 

Matching ribbons, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

 

Finally, I saw some graffiti on a door while riding the bus and tried to memorize its colours and textures. Using a variety of textural brushes and digital spray paint tools, I recreated a metallic surface covered in bright coral-red paint, complete with drips. 

PJD26 drips, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000 

 

Digital donuts

Maybe I was craving donuts? Using the sketchbook app on my cell phone, I created some artistic renditions of everyone's favorite pastry. In this example, a "Homer Simpson" style donut with pink icing and colourful sprinkles was created with a variety of brushes, airbrushes, and texture stamps. The night's sky was created from spray paint and speckle textures, along with my knowledge of what colours compose a night sky. Its an impactful piece of art work, just one big hole in it. 

Celestial donut, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

 

Using neon brush tool I created a digital donut with illuminated sprinkles and a circuit-board like background. Even in the future we have donuts!

Steam punk donut, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

 

Going for a dark icing with art deco touches, this delectable donut jumps of the screen. Contrasting pastel tones with earthy donut texture and fluorescent highlights made for a striking image. 

Digital art deco donut, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

 

Taking a turn for abstract, here is a pop art, cubist approach to a donut, or maybe its a magnification of sprinkles? 

Pop art donut, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

 

Finally, a cherry cake with icing, sprinkles and frosting details. The cherries were made with several stamping layers, brush work, and a highlight effect. If you zoom in, there is lots of texture in this one. 
 

Cherry icing sprinkles, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000 

And not so exotic paintings

To me anyways, London Ontario was not considered to be exotic. But I suppose if someone were visiting from far-off Reunion Island it would seem exotic. In this scene, I set up in a parking lot at the famous City View breakfast diner, with a view of the city in the background. It was an ambitious painting, probably done in 1998, complete with poles, wires, paint on parking lot, a car, and plenty of other details. I used cerulean blue back then, but since stopped due to its poor mixing qualities and slight toxicity. 

City View London Ontario, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 1998

This is among the first location paintings I ever did, during winter of 1995/1996. To think, the internet was not even a big thing at the time, although I was playing around with the Gopher server, a list-based early version of the internet. It was overcast on this day, and I captured a soft range of pastels using a limited palette. 

Park structure winter overcast,  watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 1996

By 1997 or so I had incorporated cerulean blue in my palette which you see in the sky. It was my go-to blue sky colour until I switched to phthalo blue sapphire (PB15 red shade) and viridian hue (PG7) in the year 2020. I was adding cerulean to shadows at the time, you can see the violet appearance on the structure's shadows. 

Park structure winter sunny, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 1997

I assume this was done afterwards in the summer of 1998 perhaps, I wasn't into record-keeping back then although I tired. There was an old University calendar where I documented which paintings I did on which day, but never kept it up. I started blogging around 2006, then moved to Blogger in 2008. 

Park structure summer, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 1998

Exotic paintings from archive

About 15 years ago I visited Reunion Island, a French territory in the Indian Ocean. It is south of Seychelles, and east of Madagascar, at the end of the world! Honestly I felt crummy the whole trip due to the lengthy transit time, about 40 hours door to door via two planes and a long transfer in Paris, and then the altitude of staying on the heights of an old Volcano mountain in the main city st Denis. The whole place seemed a little unsafe with falling rocks and intense storms from the surrounding sea. This painting was done on location in the center of the island where there is a hidden valley and village famous for its flavoured rum and potent pot. 

Cloudy blue mountains, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 2011

This painting captures the general atmosphere of the island... a misty haze with intense colours. Looking more closely I see what appears to be aureolin yellow, I must have been still using it back then. I would have used bismuth vanadate if I was there now, although I have no desire to return. I am warming up to the idea of going to India though. 

Palm tree haze, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 2011

 

Down in the town, a Chinese food restaurant had this sign, I tried to copy the symbols accurately but who knows what it said. You can see in the background how intense the light was, and how most buildings had white and cream coloured plaster facades. 

Chinese food sign, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026 

Jardin du Luxembourg

Here is an old painting I did in Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris France, 15 years ago. At the time, I used burnt sienna (PR101) in mixes, which gave a warm glow to the overcast sky and autumn trees in the mid ground. It would be nice to go back if I get the chance.  

Jardin du Luxembourg. watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 2011

Dorchester square scenes late Spring

Down in Dorchester square park the other day and I made a few paintings as the sun was still up. Here are benches arranged in a semi circle around a berm of grass and trees. An acre of interlocking brick adorns this park, along with a steady aroma of weed.

Arched benches, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

 

I found this solid looking canon to be in great contrast with delicate parasol-style umbrellas the city installed to make it feel more like Paris in the summer. Painting reflective iron required multiple layers and texturing to create the illusion of volume. Many people were enjoying the seating, the furniture is done in 'ice cream chair' style painted pale whitish green. According to google maps, these are Canons de Sébastopol.

Canons and parsols, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

 

Pink ground cover and yellow flowers provided a pop of colour against an otherwise green and brown background. My yellow paint got goopy on location and I actually ran out, had to find scenes with less yellow after this one! I just rinsed and reloaded my palettes at home, so I am ready to go for more when the opportunity arises. 

Pink and yellow flower garden, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

 

Yet more digital art !

If I keep this up I will have to rename my blog to Darlington Digital! I can whip off a bunch of these in short order, sitting on the couch or waiting for the dentist etc. This one started with a near-black background and used a variety of neon stamps and brushes to create a whirling electrical affect. There is a symmetry tool that replicated the brush stroke which allowed for some neat patterns. 

Sky eye twister, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

This one used mostly stamp tools with some some eraser applied over top. Colour schemes can be controlled by avoiding one colour in particular and using all the others. In the example, there is no green anywhere. 

X marks, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Same idea with the colour scheme, no green, or blue for that matter. I drew hands reaching up with soft pastel brush, just varying the width of the brush to create fingers. Then circle stamps were applied in successive layers along with a few starburst stamps in white to create glow. 

Bubble trouble, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

An earthy approach, I also used lots of stamps along with various types of brushes and pens to create the foliage. Orange, yellow and green can go well with brown. The nice thing about digital art is you can overlap things and it works perfectly. Hard to do with paint, especially watercolour. 

Forest growths, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

And my signature piece, PJD, in neon turquoise over a textured brown surface. Sparkles were created with a variety of textured brush strokes, spatter, and dotting tools. Its like a piece of artwork you can eat, chocolate mocha icing with sprinkles on top! 

My name is, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000 

Digital Tuesday, neon, pastel, splatters

Here are a few more digital sketches made using Sketchbook App on my smart phone. For this one, I set the background to dark maroon, then drew random shapes using the neon paintbrush tool. Varying the colours between yellow, white, red and cyan gave a neon look. The tool makes the glow effect automatically. 

Neon doodle, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Going with another dark background, this time on the blue side, I stamped over a variety of colourful patterns. To change the stamp, one has to delve into the advanced feature, nib, then find the little pictures and there are about three dozen stamp varieties which can be further altered for shape, size and randomness. 

Tangle splatters, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Starting with the default white background and some pastel lines, I over-stamped green splatters which caused negative effects. The initial lines look white where the splatters are green, I am not sure why that happened but it looks pretty darn cool. 

Pastel foliage swirls, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Using soft pastel brush gives a chalk-on-the-sidewalk effect. Varying colours and aligning the brush-strokes gave a breezy appearance. Just the background seemed bland, so I overlaid a few smudge brush strokes on different angles to complete a windy feeling. I accidentally reversed the image, you see my initials mirror-image, just noticed now.... I guess the painting blew over!

Chalk line smudges, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

I forgot which brush this was in the background, it was from the texture essential menu. Concentric rectangles followed a roughly rainbow progression of colours. Smudge-brush over top was used to write my initials and a few random shapes. This one really felt like I was finger painting!

Smudge over texture, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Paths and greenery

These large sun seats are perfect for relaxing and catching some rays. Interlocking brick and landscaping complete the scene. Dark magenta (PV55) provided a scintillating spring tint. I ran out of yellow paint, it was gloopy and clinging to the brush today. 

Curve path sun seats, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

 

Some metal artwork adorned this path, with plenty of greenery all around. The iron colour was done with burnt yellow ochre (PR102), pyrol orange (PO73) and dark magenta (PV55). 

Path iron post art, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

 

On the upper right strut a rare SCAN graffiti remains, protected from the elements. Although the city repaired this beam thereby covering the SC part of the writing. SCAN was a well known graffiti artist who passed away in 2017, this work was dated 2013. PJD wrote on the rest of the structure

Scan under bridge, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Coral sunset, downtown night paintings

Riding my bike down Maisonneuve path and I caught a neat view of a coral sunset over Decarie. The highway was illuminated with artificial lights and car lights. The sunset was done with variations of orange yellow (PY110), red-orange (PO73) and magenta (PR122). Clouds were indo blue and pyrol orange with some raw sienna. 

Coral Sunset Decarie, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, June 2026

 

This nearby auto shop had another expensive sports car in front, this time a Porsche. It was an old-fashioned coupe soft top model, but it turned out looking more like a station wagon in my painting!

Sports car auto shop, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

 

Using a technique I learned from a digital Sketchbook app, this painting has soft-pastel like brush strokes. Smudging also helped create an atmospheric night scene in the city. As usual I enjoy painting Metro signs. 

Downtown night lights textures, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

 

Standing in front of palais des congrès, the convention center, there were strong overhead lights to paint under. Across the street, a tall office tower had Google's symbol on top. It must be where all the search engine stuff goes. 

Google skyscraper, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

More interesting, this watering truck went by as I painted and watered all the plant potters along the Palais entrance. The truck drove off before I could complete the painting so I filled in by memory. Getting colourful reflections off the road was tricky, I used two layers, then some texturing at the end. I used a different approach for the blinking arrow sign, starting with orange dots, then outlining in a neutral orange, followed by a jet-black fill. It made the lights appear to glow. 

Watering truck night, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Harley Beach

Down on Harley street in Westhaven neighborhood the city demolished an old apartment block revealing a sandy expanse reminiscent of a beach. Looking more carefully the other day, and I noticed a view of palm trees and emerald green water of the Caribbean sea! Who knew there was such a treasure nearby, this will surely boost tourism in the area.  

Harley Beach palm trees, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Colourful barricade and other iconic scenes

Perhaps the city was feeling bad about putting ugly barricades that get graffiti on them, so this one downtown had a dozen or so colourful placards branded with transportation symbols. Additional barricades including concrete dividers, fence with blue tarp, signs, and pylons completed this iconic summer Montreal scene. Oh, and that is beautiful Montreal in the background! 

Colourful barricade, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, June 2026 

 

Park Dalhousie is found along st. Hubert street near Old Port, it used to be a train yard with many parallel rails, now its a manicured sitting park with historical displays. These benches sit in front of a small field of purple puff-ball flowers growing under the shade of trees. Getting the perspective correct was key here, so I started with a fain paint outline of the path and benches before filling in the colours. 

Parc Dalhousie purple puff balls, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

 

Rue Notre Dame is elevated here with what used to be a train bridge one could assume. A lot of the area is sectioned off since the city is working on the new neighborhood where Molson Brewery used to be. It will become a multi-use housing and park project, with views of the river.  

Rue Notre Dame elevation, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

 

Peeking through the construction fence I got a glimpse of a giant crater where Molson's brewery used to be. The main part of the brewery with its iconic sign is still up, its just off to the left of this scene. In the background is Jacques Cartier bridge and Park La Ronde off to the right. One day this crater will be a community development, the Molson family donated the land to the city. Their new brewery is an enormous modern facility down in Longueuil.

Molson's crater, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026