Autumn approaching

With Autumn fast approaching, just one official day of summer left, I saw the first real scene of a tree with falling leaves. For awhile now I've noticed the subtle shift in hue of tree leaves, from yellow-green towards olive and light orange. Here you see three variations, with yellowish-green, yellow-orange and green-yellow tint. To make autumn leaf colours, I mix low chroma with high chroma. For example yellow ochre (PY43) with benzi yellow (PY154), or burnt yellow ochre (PR102) with pyrol orange (PO73). Those mixes combine an earth paint with a bright synthetic paint, resulting in an interesting middle-chroma mix. If you go pure bright chroma, it looks fake, and pure earth, too dull. 

Autumn trees circle, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

 

A chaotic scene, even the seagulls were agitated, maybe waiting for French Fries at the nearby burger joint. This is the bizarre  7-way st Jacques interchange where you have major streets and parking lot exits going every-which way. An auto dealership is nestled into the background around the Falaise escarpment. 

 

Noisy gulls traffic, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

This scene had a desolate, almost apocalyptic feel to it. I've painted back-lit scenes for a long time now, it can be rewarding, but also frustrating if the first set of washes dries too light or dark. Starting with a reliable mix of burnt yellow ochre (PR102) and indo blue (PB60) with the correct amount of water generally works best, then over-painting with the details. I left some white space for an illuminated sign. The cars are simple blobs with just enough detail and colour to indicate their identity as cars. Since I got new reading glasses, I saw my paintings clearly for the first time in years and noticed some of them were getting sloppy... so I will try to sharpen them up a bit. I also noticed all the dirt and grime on my office desk and was appalled! Some things are better without the glasses I guess.  

Apocalyptic burgers, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026 

Decarie Mall scenes

There has been an announcement that the Decarie mall will be re-developed, i.e. demolished and replaced with Condo towers. I've painted up there quite a few times, first discovering it during the pandemic year. This scene shows a view of the parking lot grassy area, with a hydrant, and small yellow flowers. Its surrounded by a gloomy image of highway and condos. Yes, trees are turning orange already. 

Hydrant yellow flowers, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

Using a curve-linear perspective, I depicted the Decarie mall in a panorama scee. It was quite busy, the parking lot full and lots of shoppers here. 

Decarie mall panorama, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

From the same spot as the previous two paintings, this one looks due north along the Decarie, where it goes under the train tracks. Its a tricky painting with lots of angles and detail, but I have a new brush with a very sharp and firm point on it, which helped immensely. 

Decarie underpass train., watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

Finally, up on the overpass sidewalk, and I got a view of these railroad ties piled up beside the tracks. It was done with a base wash (PB60 + PR102), then over-painted with an umber (PBr7) and pyrol orange (PO73) mix, then a dark mix of indo blue (PB60) and black (PBk6) created the shadow elements and texturing.  

Railroad ties, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026 

Little Italy south, Réseau-Vert Linear Park and nearby scenes

This narrow strip of a park is squeezed in between the train tracks and a large factory/warehouse complex in the south part of Little Italy neighborhood. I go out there from time to time to buy bulk spices, tea and food from Anatol spices, a store I have been shopping at for over 20 years now. Actually I rode out to Mile End with Cilei where she met up with her sister and Fritz to do the Tour-of-Island bike ride, its when the city shuts off large swaths of Montreal for a 30km bike ride. I passed on attending since I wanted to paint and besides, I do Tour of Island practically every weekend! There is not much I haven't seen. One thing I haven't seen is a tree surrounded by stolen 'No Parking' signs. It was worth a painting. 

No parking no more, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

I would normally have painted more on a sunny, blue sky day like this, which is a rarity, but the medication gets the better of me sometimes so I hung on my bike and brushes for four paintings. The second one shows a stop sign, a parked bike, and some colourful graffiti, n the back-ground upper left, is part of the new elevated bus terminal. 

Signs graffiti bike, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

Standing on a narrow sidewalk, here is a view looking due east at the Van Horne-Rosemont overpass on the left, its slated to be demolished, and a long factory wall on the right. I liked the sliver of bright blue sky and the triangle shape it made against the structures. 

Rosemont overpass factory wall, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

Actually in Mile-end across the tracks, this is a water-tower on top of a derelict warehouse. Its slated for redevelopment when the city decides what to do with it. demolition is off the table because its a prominent landmark. In the painting, I cleaned off all the graffiti, its almost completely covered now. So much for landmark, its a graffiti canvas. 

Water-tower Mile-end warehouse, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

 

Sunset (colours) on Elmhurst

Weary from teaching pharmacology for two and half hours, I could image how the students felt, I got out as far as coffee park and set up on the corner with Elmhurst. The sun was setting and I caught it on the horizon, hiding behind the tops of some trees up on Sherbrooke street. Adding cars like this was a challenge, they were reflecting the sunset colours, shimmering in the day's last light.

Sunset (colours) on Elmhurst, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2026

Looking the other way, due south, the commuter train stopped and the barrier made loud clanging noises with bright red flashing lights. the train was only there a few moments so I had to paint it mostly by memory. Its one of the new exo trains that goes out to Vaudreuil-Dorion. although this one was heading to downtown Montreal.  

Red lights commuter train, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2026

Downtown around Cabot square, pigeons, bins, empty lot

Down in Cabot square there is always some action and not always the kind you want to be around. But the people are generally just there to hang out and enjoy the blue sky in the midst of downtown Montreal. I got half way through this painting when a person came by yelling at something and the pigeons flew away. Oh well, the birds ended up looking like chickens!

Pigeons Cabot square, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

Looking due north up Atwater avenue, that is Alexis Nihon mall on the left, and in the upper right is part of the old Forum arena which is clad in black now. The red hydrant anchored the whole scene, pyrol red (PR254) made it pop. That's the same red pigment used to paint Ferraris.

Blue green brown bins hydrant. watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

I am by now familiar with the stages by which asphalt and gravel can gradually turn back into a forest given enough time. Once the hardy plants get through the rock-hard earth, they loosen things and then a field of grass and flowers will emerge, to be overtaken by tall trees eventually. This plot will be developed at some point, the city is just wrangling about what will be there. Its on Sherbrooke near the mall. The plot is a lot wider than depicted in the painting, I compressed its size to fit on this narrow aspect ratio. Today I dropped by Avenue des Arts after work and picked up some more watercolour paint and a few brushes. 

Empty lot growth, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

 

Pick a corner and paint

After work I rode down to the Maisonneuve and Girouard underpass area and found a good corner to paint on. This scene had an impressive tree growing out of the concrete-base of a sign pole. I managed to get perspective on the stop sign and still keep the white lettering and border clean (white = paper showing).

Insistent tree sign pole, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

Similar spot, looking due south towards the underpass, you see traffic going to and from the Decarie highway. Cutting across is Maisonneuve in the background, and the used bike shop is in the upper right corner. 

Girouard underpass pylons, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

Closer to the corner with Maisonneuve, looking due east, here is a view of the Legion building, which has caramel-brown bricks and red and green facade elements. The windows have iron gratings over top. 

Legion building side, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

This painting called for a close-up of a red tow truck but it did not turn out quite right. It didn't help that the mechanic came out and drove the vehicle off while I was painting. 

Red tow truck study, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

To trouble-shoot I did another one of a black tow truck which looked cool, but in the painting it looks like a toy truck! I will practice these car profiles some more, it rarely goes well for me due to shoddy drawing skills. You may wonder how a painter can be such a lousy illustrator, and I often wonder the same thing!

Black tow truck study, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

 

Looking back: London Ontario, bus stop, rainbow wall, cows

I've probably posted some of these before, but still worth a mention as I look back on the London Ontario collection of paintings. This one shows a bus stop and yellow mail box, composed with a tree on the left. It was a clever composition and took a delicate touch to get the foggy glass effect, and yellow shadowing correct. 

Yellow mail box bus stop, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press,

At the time I was not aware of the symbolism of a rainbow flag, which likely refers to LGBT issues in this context. I just liked the colours, and everything else in London Ontario was grey and beige, especially in the Spring time when this was painted. These were all done around the year 2000 give or take. 

Rainbow wall, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press,

I rode my bike around town to make these paintings on location, although I used a backpack to carry the equipment including a small camping chair upon which I would sit unless there was a bench handy. So a lot of the paintings I did had a bench or ledge to sit on. It was not until the year 2020, when I did the Montreal Metro series that I began painting standing up and using my bike pack to hold the gear. 

Cows sitting in field, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press,

 

Looking back: London Ontario campus cool weather

Around the year 2000 I was at University of Western Ontario and often painted the campus. Here is a scene of the small observatory that would have been used to look at starts back in the day. Not sure if it was still functional at the time. 

Observatory, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press

These smoke stacks were part of the campus power plant, the stadium field is seen in the foreground. This one was done some time before the winter if memory serves. It was one of my favorite paintings at the time. 

Smoke stacks stadium, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press

I can tell the sun was going down from looking at the painting, judging by the amber glow, and yellow-orange tree tops. There was still snow on the ground. I was not shy about painting in the winter, some of my first location paintings ever were in the middle the cold winter of 1995. This one was probably around 2002. 

Middlesex college sundown winter, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press

I seem to remember this being one of the last winters I spent there, it is more ambitious than some of the earlier paintings, even containing small figures. When I started location painting, I would select scenes that I knew I could paint. Over the years, I took more chances, challenges, and slowly learned new techniques from trial and error. 

Middlesex college birch tree, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press

Between the canal and aqueduct

Cote st Paul is a small neighborhood between the canal and aqueduct, bordered by auto route 15 and Monk Blvd. As I rode my bike around, there were some neat buildings here and there, including this dépanneur. You can see how well these small convenience stores are integrated with the housing. 

New CL dépanneur, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

This gas station is at the corner of Woodland and Vérendrye Blvd, you see all the cars on Vérendrye which runs along side of the aqueduct. It was a nice place to stand, despite the din of the cars, there was a warm sun out today. 

Gas station traffic, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

Lastly for the day, I did another dépanneur painting, this one of Raymond dépanneur, which is painted with a blue-cyan colour. Too bad the paper is so small, but I've run out of larger pieces for now. Its almost time to buy a new stack of paper at the shop. 

Raymond dépanneur, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026 

Sundown on Cabot street

After painting at the Zen Factory location, I rode around the neighborhood a bit, its an odd mix of old single family houses, a few duplexes, in and amongst light industrial warehousing, auto shops, and equipment depots. This scene looks due northwest along Cabot street, the auto route 15 is just to my left, and you can see one of the bridge structures on the horizon. That building on the right has the "SCAN" mural on it, a tribute to a late graffiti writer of Montreal, I have painted that a few times before. 

Sundown on Cabot street, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

Here is a pickup truck with a trailer and a long shadow, parked on Cabot street. It was one of those 'challenger scenes' which meant I had to try it. The main issue is getting the drawing and perspective correct, and judging the final values. I started with the triangular sidewalk shape on the right, then lined up the vehicle's angle and perspective with a faint paint outline. Then I filled in colour blocks making sure to leave the highlight areas blank paper. There is no white paint in watercolour so you have to leave paper showing. 

Pickup truck trailer long shadow, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

This auto shop specializes in large vehicles such as ambulances. In the background, there were some impressive trees, although one was clearly dead, seen on the left. To paint the big green tree I applied the sky first using a blue, green, orange fade (PB15, PG7, PO62), then while moist, I applied the tree colour using bismuth vanadate yellow (PY184) tinted with orange (PO62), dark green (PBk31) and black (PBk6) with brown overlay for branches (PY43 + PR102). It was quite fun to see the tree shape emerge from the sky in real time as I painted. 

Ambulance auto shop, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

In the background you see a teal warehouse with PJD graffiti on top, part of auto route 10, and a huge pile of dirt in the foreground being illuminated by the setting sun. The main trick with this one was to get the blueish shadow correct in the foreground, it took a heavy mix of burnt yellow ochre (PR102), indo blue (PB60) and raw sienna (PBr7) over-painted with burnt umber (PBr7) and black textures. It can dry exceedingly pale, so I had to paint the shadow about 1.5 values darker than needed so it could dry this way. 

Warehouse pile of dirt highway, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026 

Zen factory growth and graffiti

I've always enjoyed painting down at the so-called Zen Factory, its actually an old business that shut down ten years ago, and has since been degrading steadily and plastered with graffiti. This scene shows part of the front facade, with large trees growing, and my initials in pink graffiti letters. 

Zen factory growth magenta PJD, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

Same spot, looking due north towards st Patrick street and the Lachine canal in the background. I keyed in on this pile of old asphalt and concrete with wild plants growing all around. It is a textural and organic location to paint. 

Pile of asphalt and concrete, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

Last scene from this location, just to the left of the pile of asphalt, you see some concrete dividers that sit next to the adjacent sidewalk, and a concrete cube. I applied a series of interlocking washes first, and then over-painted a variety of textural effect to create the wild growth, keeping the colours in the orange-tint, brown, yellow, chartreuse and olive range.  

Teal PJD concrete blocks, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

 

Looking back, Tadoussac Sauguenay river

Here is an old painting I did in Tadoussac, looking due north up the Saguenay river. Cold wind was blasting down the river valley, it was October. From this vantage point, looking south, there were whales jumping out of the water. They feed at the mouth of the Saguenay because the warm water mixes with the st Lawrence here, creating conditions for food to grow. I have always wanted to return here to do paintings, its a very rugged landscape.  

Tadoussac Sauguenay river, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, 2008

 

Sunset Coffee street, Night lights Girouard

I was standing there with my bike thinking where should I go? Here on Coffee street one can turn south east along the Maisonneuve bike path towards downtown, or go across to the st Jacques connector with the Lachine canal, or continue through NDG to ville st Pierre toward the canal and Lachine. Or turn right and go home! Then I figured, just make a painting right here, of the sunset on Coffee street. 

Sunset Coffee street, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

This scene is about where Girouard merges with Decarie underground, in the background you see the radio tower with red lights, the bike shop with yellow street lights, and some red glow from the underground road in the foreground. Cars were driving by on Maisonneuve. 

Night lights Girouard, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026 

Sailboat river scene

The last painting from my trip to Dorval on the weekend, here is a scene of a sailboat on the river. I was standing in the Pine Beach park looking due west, with sun glaring on the river. I used side-drag technique to apply the shimmer, then filled in with a variety of textural techniques. To get the sailboat right, I made the triangle shape first, then painted the scene around it. After painting a bunch of chaotic scenes at the airport it was somewhat refreshing to do this painting. My parents actually taught me how to sail and I took lessons as a teen, so maybe one day I can sail again. For now, I'll settle for making a painting!

Sailboat river scene, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

Dorval sunflowers, pine trees and other scenes

In front of the Dorval commuter train station there is a garden full of small sunflowers. The city bus was parked in behind, and a plane was landing at the Montreal airport. I made these ones yesterday on my way back from painting around the Montreal airport. 

Sunflowers bus Dorval station, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

One of the main roads in Dorval is called Pine Beach Blvd., it must have once connected to a beach on the river with pine-trees. Now there are just a few pine trees around like you see in the painting, with no sign of a beach. There is a bike path here, and park area.  The pine bark is a mix of brown earth (PBr7) and magenta (PV55) with various tints and textures applied. 

Pine tree beach, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

To get from the airport area to Dorval's urban area, you have to go under the tunnel at the Pine beach station. Its a fairly small, well lit tunnel with fresh white paint, they must have to cover up graffiti on a regular basis. This old building had a Coke a Cola sign that I warped into my own initials. It is called Pine Beach grocery and convenience, but yesterday it was all closed up, perhaps permanently. A lot of 'deps' go out of business. Dep means dépanneur which is Fench for convenience store. 

Pine Beach dépanneur, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

This was actually done in Ville st Pierre on my way back, it shows some tall industrial silos with sun-glare. In the upper background are the Turcot interchange overpasses. The city plans to demolish and rebuild that part of the Turcot in places to make a transit connector hub with better access to the airport. 

Industrial silos sun glare, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026 

Montreal airport other scenes

After painting scenes that you might expect of planes taking off at the airport, I made a few other paintings in the area. This one shows the frontal view from the bike path on Cardinal Av., you see the main airport terminal in the background with the construction disaster out in front of it, where the parking garages used to be. It was a tricky painting with a lot of detail, I smelled jet fuel exhaust while painting. 

Airport construction, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

The one neat thing about airports is the amount of nature that gets preserved in and around, like the vast fields of grass that I enjoy painting. Here, a massive clump of reeds was growing in a ditch. You see some planes on the tarmac in the background. 

Reeds near airport, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, September 2026

Of course I couldn't resist painting this lime-coloured dumpster, with a bit of airport shown on the upper left. That's the radar dome thing in the background. I liked the yellow sign on the chartreuse dumpster, and surrounded it with different shades of green for contrast. 

Airport dumpster, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

Finally from the airport, a scene of the main YUL Montreal Airport sign next to the highway, although I changed it obviously to my inititals. It looks like a monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. 

PJD monolith, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026