Bike path old Cadillac

Thinking I had done enough painting for one weekend I stopped at the Decarie overpass and made a few more. This one shows the Maisonneuve bike path with its warning stanchion dividers, and a low sun creating monochrome tones and glaring highlights. I left part of the road white to increase the glare effect. 

Backlit bike path, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, November 2026

And an old classic Cadillac by the looks of the emblem, about a boat-length long, parked at the auto shop. It seemed rather difficult to paint this, and I used the two inch round for added challenge. It turned out better than I hoped, the chrome grill is neat. If its still there I can try and drop by and paint it again, although the forecast is for clouds and rain on and off the next while. After a search, it may have been a 1950 series 61 coupe Cadillac, or similar. 

Cadillac study, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, November 2026

 

Half path to nowhere

Going back to 2020, the city was building a bike path under autoroute 15 in Verdun, direction point st Charles. It was closed all that time although one day the fence was open a bit and I rode in to find a half-finished path to nowhere in particular. Since then, they removed the barriers and its free to ride on, so today I explored it a bit on a cool but blue-sky day. In this scene, I am looking back towards the authroute after passing underneath. 

Half path under autoroute 10, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, November 2026

Vast piles of gravel and earth adorn the landscape, totally deserted. It looks as if they are planning a massive infrastructure, probably a park/recreation area. There is an enormous swath of land here, likely landfill from last century. 

Hills city pylons, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, November 2026

At the end of the line, the path turns and ends at where autoroute 10 peels off along the river-side. In the background are the elevated train on the left, and part of the Cinema production buildings on the right. It looks as if they are planning to route the autoroute 10 traffic to a new road slightly to the north, in order to open up the rest of the river front. If they succeed, it will eventually hook up with Port Montreal and provide a continuous bike path. 

End of line, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, November 2026

Exact same spot looking due south east, and there are massive condo towers over on what must be st Lambert. That is the st Lawrence river at the bottom of the painting. When painting such buildings, I prefer to embellish the colours and patterns using variations of magenta and blue-green. 

Condo towers river, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, November 2026 

 

Red green blue colours where they are

Here are the last few paintings from yesterday, done in Point st Charles, starting with a scene of the train depot and its prominent storage silos. This place allows cargo to be off-loaded and sorted for distribution. As usual, there were pylons along the street. 

Silos pylons, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

A scene looking up the street along the stacked containers and traffic. The containers were yellow, red and navy blue along with a few orange ones. For a painting like this its best to avoid too much accuracy and just try to get general shapes and colours down on the paper. 

Containers cars, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

Finally, this bright red building, which I believe is a retail store, had a red car, and prominent tree, almost black against the sky, giving a Halloween feel to the scene. So I made my initials creepy on this one, and on the first painting of the blog where my initials are like dripping blood... boo!

Red house red car, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026 

Gentrifying neighborhoods

Point st Charles is one of the rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods in Montreal, located east of Verdun and in between highways, the river, and the canal. Once a residential-industrial blended neighborhood, the old factories and warehouses are being razed one by one and replaced with condominiums and retail. In this scene on st Patrick street, I found a neat warehouse/building center, still open for business. It made for an interesting composition with contrasting angles and depth elements. 

Green wall construction center, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

A small park called Parc des Chaudronniers is nestled between buildings. Its surrounded by a vast empty gravel lot which has the look of something destined to be developed. It was a great place to stand with my bike and paint yesterday on a nice, cool fall day. In the background, is a newly built condominium with its yellowish insulation layer still showing before the bricks are set. 

Empty lot new condo, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

Same spot looking east, you see multiple building structures with a neat variety of textures and colours. Bottom left was a challenging dark-yellow with aluminum siding, behind were white-washed red brick, then an exposed-wood panelling wall in the background. To the right was a tall stainless steel or aluminum vat connected by piping to the buildings. 

Old textures and vat, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

And looking to the west, a towering wall of glass condos, the traffic on st Patrick, and part of the empty lot on the bottom left, with some graffiti on the wall. I hope the city can turn this empty lot into a park to extend the existing Chaudronniers park, and I have a feeling they will. In other areas, the city also reserved park space, so as to avoid an unbroken block of Condos in one area. 

Glass walls empty lot, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026