Near the Canadian Maltage factory which is still operational, its the business with 'Farine Five Roses' sign on top, there are a few closed warehouses. The one in this painting used to deal in something related to boats, maybe anchors or parts. Up in the background is part of the lengthy grain elevator that transports malt around for making beer ingredients. Beer starts here!
Closed warerhouse grain elevator, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, June 2026
The wall towards the right of this painting is stone covered in plaster. The plaster is falling away in big chunks revelaing old stacked-stones underneath. A large gear sits on the other side, and some other gear-decorations are attached to a door, although the structure has no roof or anything inside of it. I imagine it used to make giant iron gears for boats or factories.
Old gear wall, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026
An old warehouse with iron siding is buckling and rusting. To create the effect required at least five layers. First a moist wash with the shadows from a nearby tree, then contour lines for buckling siding, followed by a rusty orange glaze leaving space for graffiti. Then graffiti, with additional detailing over top to complete the effect. It was an immensely complicated procedure to pull off on location, but it worked out all right. As usual I replaced the graffiti with my own initials.
Buckling graff wall, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026
Switching over to China town, here is a small shop on the corner of Clarke street, its a Chinese tea house called Specialtea. Several signs adorn the front, listing off products for sale. If I didn't already have so much tea I might have gone in to see what they have.
Chinese tea house, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026
Over on st Laurent street there is a small clothing store called Nice & Mode although all the signs were in Chinese writing. I found out the name in English on google maps. Racks of clothes for sale were out on the narrow sidewalk. I changed the Chinese symbols into patterns that resembled my initials and 26. Since about 2018 I marked my paintings with the year so as to help organize them. Its been close to 5000 paintings completed just since 2020, a few thousand before that. I will update my catalogue soon as we reach halfway through the year.
Nice & Mode clothing, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026
Walking my bike down st Laurent brought me past small shops and restaurants including this interesting looking noodle shop. Its called Nouilles de Lan Zhou. People were waiting to get in, I just set up my bike on the sidewalk and started painting. Inside, there is a staircase going down to a take-out counter, you see the bright yellow and blue of a TV screen showing a menu. Upstairs was a sit-down restaurant, presumably where Lan Zhou was serving their noodles were. I could have used a bigger piece of paper to do this one, maybe I will try it again, and get some famous noodles next time!
Nouilles de Lan Zhou interior, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026
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