Green roof restaurant, bridges

Over in st Henri near the Atwater Market, there is a famous restaurant called Green Roof, its specialty is hot dogs, fries, burgers etc. I've never eaten there but made many paintings of its emerald green roof. A mix of phthalo green blue shade (PG7) and yellow shade (PG36) does the trick. Part of a McDonald's can be seen in the background. The smell here was... greasy. 

Green roof front side, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Trying to get the value contrast correct, here is a scene of the rear side, with a window full of patrons on the bottom right. I would have stayed and painted the full frontal scene but didn't quite feel like it today. The green roof had to be a value lighter than the sky, but here it turned out equal. So a dab more water in the green mix would have been good. 

Green roof rear side, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

The train goes over Notre Dame street here, its an ancient concrete bridge crumbling to pieces. Probably 20 years ago Monet wrote his name on the bridge, its barely visible now. I changed it to PJD26 though. Getting the texture and sweaty old paint correct was fun. It works best with cold press paper and a semi-moist brush. A petrol train rumbled by as I painted, it was noisy. 

Monet bridge underpass, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 

A pigeon hopped around expectantly, eating gravel just to make me want to feed it> i had no bird feed with me. PJD put his name on these concrete dividers, and on the bridge in the rear. 
 

Pigeon Monet bridge, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Beside Atwater market is the tunnel, I stood in shade and made a painting of it. I composed the scene with about 50% sky, and stuck the road to the bottom of the page to make it look like a decent underground. Holding the brush up helped understand the odd angles. 

Atwater tunnel, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 

The first painting of the day, I did the front of the new st Henri metro entrance. A glass box, it makes for some interesting and challenging reflections and transparencies. I will paint this again some time to practice more. Painting reflections and transparencies is the hardest technique possible,  although watercolour makes it possible. Last year I spent a week or two practicing scenes with glass and reflections. 

Metro station st Henri glass front,watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026