Sunset Turcot Interchange: C'est vraiment Montréal!

It was a colourful sunset on the Turcot highway interchange, as seen from ville st Pierre. Starting with yellow, orange, magenta, and pale blue, I worked up dark browns and greys with variations on burnt yellow ochre (PR102) and indo blue (PB60). Accents of pylon-orange, green, pops of red, and dark sketch elements done in carbon black (PBk6) completed the scene. As I flicked the brush, little droplets accidentally hit the painting, reminiscent of Jackson Pollock, a late American painter who threw paint on the canvas quite intentionally. When painting something like this on location, you just have to be along for the ride, so to speak, and let your brush do all the work. Its a great spot to catch the sunset, albeit a little noisy and smelly, along with the massive construction project that is ongoing. I really liked painting a juxtaposition of bright pylon-orange against a pastel sunset. C'est vraiment Montréal!

Sunset Turcot Interchange, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, May 2026

Sun down moon up, sky colours

Riding down to ville st Pierre with the sun going down and I found myself at one of the many elevated highway ramps, this one in the west direction. The elevated ramps often catch the sunset, and concrete happens to look pretty neat when its illuminated in orange or red-orange. I did a fantastic one last year of the sun setting on Turcot interchange in st Henri area. In this scene, I emphasized the convergening shapes of the ramp and the access road, and contrasted coral orange, purples, chartreuse, and the emerald green pops of car windshields and traffic signs. Cutting through the pastels are bright-red tail lights on passing cars, done with the excellent pyrol red paint (PR254). 

Sundown off ramp, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Here is a scene of one of the many factores-turned-condos along st Ambrose street. I am standing on the Lachine canal bike path looking across. Composing the moon low in the scene was an artistic license thing, in fact, the moon was hanging high today. With near-complete darkness and no artificial lights with me tonight, it was tricky to get all the colours right. Deep purple clouds were rolling in on the horizon. 

Crescent moon condo living, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

In among the soaring new condo towers downtown, there is a new dépanneur on Peel called dépanneur Peel, pretty original name eh? Again, I composed the moon low so as to include it in the scene, near a bright LED street lamp. I painted the yellows and oranges first, then over-painted with darker colours made mostly of burnt yellow ochre (PR102) mixed with carbon black (PBk6) or dark blue (PB60). When painting at night you have to hang in there because its hard to see the effect until the colour blocks are filled in, and only the white and yellow light sources remain. One of my favorite night paintings of the year is Night Goose. It has a lot of views already. I did another good painting of the Sunset over Turcot from st Pierre, I will post it separately. 

Dépanneur Peel crescent moon,  watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Thinking back on my paintings

With a holiday I did some spring cleaning and got into one of my boxes of paintings. It got me thinking back to my paintings from that era, in this example, its London Ontario early 2000's. I was sitting near the corner of Richmond and Dundas, back then I sat on a small camping chair to make paintings, looking to the east direction. It was an overwhelming scene but I gave it my best try, even getting the green light on the traffic lights, and a complicated sign with the word restaurant on it. Even today I would have trouble with such a scene! 

The other reason was to look at the back of my old paintings, as in, can I still paint on the backs of them? Basically every painting had an unused back, although they were mostly 5 x 7", so I went through and trimmer them down and got them ready for a second life. Before doing so, I pulled the good ones out, the memorable ones, and set those ones aside. So it looks like I'll be doing more 5 x 7" this summer. On my catalogue, grey font means I pulled it and painted on back, while strike-through font means I ripped the painting up and put in our composter. Fun fact, 100% rag watercolour paper composts quite well! 

Mallard sleeping, reamains of Otter Lake

On the way back today, I stopped by the remains of Otter lake, also once called little Pierre Lake. When they built the Lachine Canal in the 1820's, this lake was drained and eventually turned into a mega highway going through Montreal. At one of the lowest points, adjacent to the canal, there is a drainage ditch which the city preserved and landscaped as part of the Turcot interchange project. Its main role is to prevent the nearby truck depot from flooding, but this Mallard duck was having a good nap in the shade. If you rode past this, it would just be a storm ditch, but knowing its history adds more meaning. I kind of wish the lake were still here, or I had had a chance to see it, but no drawings or paintings seems to remain, just a few ancient maps from the 18th century. 

Mallard sleeping Otter lake, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Nowhere Montreal, bridges, train, factory

Back in the pandemic year 2020 I rode my bike along an old industrial road that is normally hard to access due to heavy traffic and very noisy. Its an industrial area between east Lachine and ville st Pierre, although condo housing is popping up all around due to its location being near the Lachine canal. Due to it being in between a bunch of neighborhoods, I dubbed it 'Nowhere Montreal'. Perusing Google maps the other day, I was looking for a way to ride my bike onto the other side of the Lachine canal, the side you're not allowed to be on! From an access road off st Joseph blvd (in nowhere Montreal) on the east side of the train bridge underpass, there is a direct lane to a grassy ridge leading down to the canal embankments. There are no railing on this side so I stayed away from the edge. I've painted this bridge many times but always from the other side. You can see the bikes going a long across the canal, I could hear cyclists talking to each other. It was mostly quiet and sunny here, but I didn't stay long it wasn't exactly allowed to be here! 

Other side canal train bridge, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

The first painting I did, its the same bridge but further up on Norman street. A red-orange tanker car said Canada on it, but I changed it, and the graffiti to my initials. There was some really old graffiti on this bridge, by SAKE. He used to write everywhere in Montreal (including nowhere Montreal), but most of his stuff is gone now. I used a lot of bismuth vanadate yellow (PY184) which can go over top of other paint layers to create lime-green foliage. Its a bad habit I know, I like the way it turns the rinse water yellow. My rinse water was olive army-green after today!

 Train bridge and rail car, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

An old factory in Lachine's east side used to make giant steel beams for bridges, such as Cartier bridge and Mercier bridge. Massive overhead cranes are all along its front side, they were used to move the beams around and load them onto train cars. I wrote about it in more detail in a blog from last September. This scene is showing the rear of the old factory in perspective. There was an impressive array of different cladding, and bright blue tarps used to fill holes. It seems they are trying to preserve the structure and not let it crumble down. 

Old beam factory perspective rear, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, May 2026

Here is a side view featuring the textured brick wall and aluminum siding with bright yellow door. Along the top runs a long tinted-glass sun roof, presumably to let natural light into the interior. 

Old beam factory side facade, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

This factory is still functional, its called Corbec inc up on Victoria street. Like the other factory, its exterior is a collage of different cladding including old red brick, red and blue aluminum, green-tinted windows, and a giant aluminum sided warehouse looming in the background. It seems to do metal work from what I can tell. In fact, the internet says it is a galvanizing plant. So, toxic runoff. 

Corbec Inc spring, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

 

Lachine in spring, pink tree, canal construction

I've been seeing these pink flowering Magnolia trees all around town, they only bloom for about a week and even that depends on weather. This one is in the backyard of a house that backs onto the old part of the Lachine canal, in Lachine proper. You can see part of the canal retainer wall in the foreground. 

Magnolia tree spring Lachine, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Looking west along the old canal, there is a bike and pedestrian bridge in the foreground, and another footbridge in the background. On the right you see part of st Joseph blvd, and all around are green trees and green grass. I used a lot of bismuth vanadate yellow (PY184) to make all the chartreuse colours today. 

Old Canal Lachine bridge, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

A bike path winds its way along the piece of land between the old canal and the marina. There was a city-plan to 'blow up' this whole sector for five years in order to pave it over with marble interlocking bricks and fountains, but people complained and thankfully so. Its fine the way it is.

Ess shape bike path, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026 

An old industrial plot has sat empty for many years now, but today I saw that an enormous construction pit was dug deep into the earth. For about two or three stories down its a yellow-ochre earthy shale, then it turns to greyish bedrock. Trees would have put their roots down here, now it will end up being a parking garage. It was interesting to see what the land looked like underneath, you see a section of it towards the right of the pit. The back and left had tall retaining walls. 
Lachine pit, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026 

Viger square, maze and ferris wheel

Viger square is a large expanse of interlocking brick with concrete features and a few grassy hills. Looking west gave this creepy tree view, back-lit by a strong sun. Dandelions were blooming which created an ethereal glow. 

Creepy tree Viger square, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Most of Viger square is surrounded by highways and bland condo developments, but this building still had its old-fashioned Victorian-style facade. Working from top to bottom I kept as much detail in the roof features as possible. A small drop of paint in the sky was turned into seagulls to hide the mistake. 

Old facade Viger square, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

They installed ridiculously long benches in Viger square, along with pillow-shaped concrete platforms. Wonder what the idea was other than pumping up the contract price? So it becomes a heat desert in the summer, useless the rest of the year. Better than condos I suppose, its a hard place to get a decent painting but I keep trying. 

Long bench Viger square, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Down at Old Port, its starting to fill up with tourists, so I did a painting here before the crowds get any bigger. On the left is part of an old warehouse turned into a maze, on the right is the Ferris wheel. Orange awnings adorned the front of a corner bistro. 

Maze ferris wheel, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Empty lot flowers, shadow corner

Standing on the corner of Rue de Boisbriand and Rue De Bullion, which is along st Catherine east, there are some gritty urban scenes to paint including this empty lot. Sometime around 2019 according to google maps street view which I consulted afterwards, this was a collection of old buildings and shops, then it was demolished in 2020 to make way for... a field of wild flowers and trees. One can imagine this becoming a condo development, like you see in the background. Painting an empty lot is tricky, somehow it has to be a feature element, so I amped up the contrast and made everything around it grey and purple. 

Empty lot flowers, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Same spot, looking west, there is a view of the back of a famous pub called Les Foufounes Électriques. Live bands were playing folk-rock music from the back patio while patrons cheered them on. All four stories of the back-walls were painted black with graffiti over top. Looking at google street view historically, this scene has been covered in a variety of artworks, it seems to change every year. 

Shadow corner graffiti, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Looking down Rue De Bullion and the entire east wall of the building was in shadow, making all the graffiti and other features pop out. Its been awhile since I got to paint blue shadows... it happens when the sun comes out and the sky is blue, a rare occurrence in Montreal this year! 

Graf wall shadow side, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Pastel colours, Spring rain ending soon?

Thinking it might rain, and it was drizzling a bit, I made a few quick paintings around back of the Benny cultural center after borrowing a few movies. The structure has periwinkle-blue and maroon cladding with pops of pink and yellow. Pale green, cream white, and pink-orange trees were starting to put out flowers and leaf buds. A few dandelions were already up.  

Pastel colour trees Benny, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Looking to the community garden and condos, here is a scene framed by a turbulent cloudy sky. The rain held off for the most part and forecast calls for sunny days ahead. With a long weekend I should be able to get out and paint a few around Montreal, before heading to Bolton for a visit soon.  

Benny community garden spring, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Spring around Lachine canal and Peel Basin

A prominent bridge goes across the Lachine canal on Monk Boulevard, although the graffiti people have covered a lot of it with their names. I was drawn to the sweeping curve of the canal at this point, with a triangle of spring-green grass dotted with dandelions. In the background is part of Ville-Émard on the other side of the canal. 

Spring grass Monk bridge, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

From the same vantage point but looking south, here is a scene of some dragon boats tied up, ready to go! In the background is one of the many factories that got converted to condos. Its trendy to live in a converted factory in Montreal, they have high ceilings and open plans inside.  

Dragon boats ready to go, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

It just occurred to me that the locks along the Lachine canal have names, this one is the Côte-Saint-Paul Lock, not far from the Monk bridge. The water was high in the lock, being held back by enormous wooden doors, with a walking path on top. I sketched out this painting first with paint in order to get the complex geometry to work. 

Côte-Saint-Paul Lock spring, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Down at the the Peel basin, the commuter train, and other trains, rumble by every five or ten minutes. Looking up at the train from this angle was neat, and the trees cast interesting shadows down a grassy embankment. A photographer looked over my shoulder and said, nice work! Some artists talk about how they feel when making art, but the fact is, I actually don't feel anything most of the time. Perhaps there is a sense of anxiety that the painting wont work, its a waste of time and paper etc. On occasion, it occurs to me that I am a painter, and its fun. 

Commuter train spring shadows, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026 

Point park spring river scenes

Next to Lachine there is a marina, protected from the river by a long point with a park on it. I paint there often, usually in spring and summer because its hard to get there in the winter. This one is looking upstream from the end of the park, with some new leaves on an overhanging tree. 

Upstream view Spring, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Looking downstream towards the Mercier bridge, you see one of the many park benches in the foreground. It was a cool and sunny afternoon, quite pleasant. I used dilute indo blue (PB60) for the water, and a mix of indo blue with burnt yellow ochre (PR102) for the park bench, with carbon black (PBk6) for the iron parts. 

Bench Mercier bridge, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Lucky they had this sign, because two people tried to walk this way as I painted. Its a long narrow spit of land that comes off the point park, but the current on both sides is strong and dangerous. Plenty of red-winged blackbirds were cawing and flying around, they love to congregate along the shore. The fresh air here was, well, refreshing... it smelled of river water and fresh earth, without the exhaust fumes from the city. The view here goes on for miles, in the distance, its the south shore. 

No walking upstream view, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Cultural monstrosity, genetically modified fart

We went for a walk today to see the tulip beds up at the Cavendish underpass, but the city had left black tarpaulins on the gardens, and only a few tulips could struggle through. It was quite a disappointment, so I joked that the tulips were cancelled. A cultural cancellation. As I cut open old paint tubes that are mostly empty, its an opportunity to do these funny paintings. The main paint here is lemon yellow (PY175), a slightly whiteish yellow, pleasant for summery scenes. 

Culutre Cancelled, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, May 2026

What does the interior of a monstrosity look like? This painting sums it up. For the design, I emulated a digital drawing I made on my smartphone awhile ago you can see it linked here. On digital, you can go over things no problem, or erase entirely, but in watercolour, its hard to layer things unless you go light to dark, like you see in the painting. Placing the black highlights on last took a bit of courage, it can easily go wrong!

Monstrosinterior, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, May 2026

Starting with orange dots, surrounded by yellow, then circled with brown and filled in with maroon, you end up with... genetically modified farts. Enough said. 

Genetically Modified Fart, watercolour 7.5 x 11" watercolour paper, May 2026  (No. 1473b)

 

How the Cat Saw It

How do cats really see things and think about things? Who knows, but its probably different than we think. In the painting, a cat prowls after a green laser-dot from a pointer, while a one-eyed mouse creature scurries in the foreground. This painting is a remake of an old painting I made in 2009 of the same name which I never posted on the blog. When I saw the name of the painting in my catalogue, I was like, what is that!? Digging it out of the box, and it was a very odd painting, kind of Halloween style set in an orange and pink cavern. For this version I redesigned the scene a little and changed the cat around to be on the prowl. I almost didn't even sign this painting, because who else would paint something like this, other than maybe, the cat...  

How the Cat Saw It, watercolour 8 x 10" hot press, May 2026

Endless Pylons

I hope the Mayor of Montreal sees this painting, after proclaiming that orange pylons would be banished from Montreal! Its a scene looking along the Concorde Bridge towards downtown. The nice thing is they finished paving the bike path after many years of working on it, so the path was silky smooth. Traffic was actually moving along the bridge, the pylons seem to be there instead of road lines. Not sure... 

To paint Endless Pylons, I started with the road, bike path, and side of bridge, along with the river underneath. Next I filled in the sky and tree-line, with building details in the background. When dry, I applied the pylons over top of the road using a mix of benzi orange (PO62) and pyrol orange (PO73), which I call "Montreal Orange" because it replicates the exact shade of pylons. Its looking like there will be a lot of orange this summer!  

Endless Pylons, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Tulips and Montreal Orange construction

Spring is a time for colourful flowers like these orange and pink tulips, with a few yellow dandelions in the grass. Its also a time for construction signs and pylons.... "Montreal Orange". Its a mix of benzi orange paint (PO62) and red-orange paint (PO73). To do this painting, I worked up the colour highlights first, then filled in the sky, bridge, and middle-ground. Today, I used a separate brush to do the sky with phthalo blue (PB15) and blue-green (PG7), so as to keep the other brushes clean. Since I started cleaning the brushes after every trip, I noticed how much phthalo blue remains in the brushes, and it makes the bright colours difficult to achieve, especially yellow and orange. So today, the colours were really popping in my paintings. 

Tulips Cartier bridge, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

It was pretty disappointing today... the boardwalk that oversees Old Port was completely blocked off for construction, every other street downtown was construction, and the bridges connecting to Notre Dame Island were completely blocked off. I was hoping to get to Notre Dame Island to paint the flowers and flowering-trees. You can see my post from May 3 2025 on the location. So instead I made another tribute painting to Montreal... Construction blocking the Concorde bridge with sage advice on the signs. 

Montreal FU construction, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Spring flowers and greens

Down in Parc Gédéon-De Catalogne (st Henri) near the Lachine canal, there is a long and narrow park with landscaping, including a long ess-shaped garden with hundreds of flowers. At this time, white and yellow daffodils were coming up, along with a few red tulips in the background, and some magenta ground cover flowers in the bottom right. The lawn was done with bright yellow (PY184) and green (PG36), when dry, over-painted with green and yellow hatch marks for texture. 

 Daffodils st Henri, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, May 2026

 

This scene is Viger square, which is built over top of the rte 136 underground highway. There was a noisy seagull cawing at me. Two trees with very different shades of green are in the background. The left tree is mostly done with bismuth yellow (PY184) dabbed with yellow-orange (PY110) or dilute green (PG36). On the right, the tree is dilute perylene green (PBk31) overpainted with a mix of perylene green and regular green. The lawn is bismuth yellow with regular green. It was nice to practice painting green again!

Shades of green noisy gull, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

In the same Viger park, I turned and painted this scene of a bench painted with 'Land Back'. It was a great place to stand and paint... good sight lines, and a warm sun falling on the scene. I had almost forgotten what shadows looked like with all the overcast weather we have been having. 

Land back bench, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

It was also good to see the water flowing down st Lawrence river, its been frozen for ages it seems. This view is looking upstream from Old Port, you see the Concorde bridge which connects Montreal to st Helens Island. After, I would ride across that bridge towards the island. 

Concorde bridge spring, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

No garbage

Taking a bit of a ride after the office, I headed down the Maisonneuve bike path and made a quick painting near the Girouard underpass. This sign is posted at the alley behind a car mechanic, I just liked the contrast, and the interesting textures on the brick wall behind, which was covered in graffiti. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny for once, I hope to get some good Spring scenes done. 

No garbage, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Spring... even pylons turning green

Trees need lots of rain in the spring but how about liquor? This tree had a small plastic liquor bottle wedged in its branches, as if it were taking a swig. Its down at the Fort street ramps, part of a small park called Ernest Cormier Esplanade. I was hoping there would be flowers, but maybe this kind of tree wont make flowers. Its only half the tree shown. 

Spring tree drinking, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Even the pylons are turning green this spring! I spotted some rare green and orange pylons down near the Notre Dame and Peel construction site, it seemed essential to paint them. Usually the pylons are orange and white, sometimes with magenta or black. This location is where the highway underpass starts, and many signs.

Green and orange pylons, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Its a sign of summer more than spring... orange traffic signs and construction. This one is part of the massive upheaval around Peel street downtown, but the site is up on st Antoine cross with Cathedral street. I made the background deliberately confusing, like WTF, or where am I? The orange is a mix of PO62, with dabs of PO73... I call it 'Montreal Orange'

Cathedral st Antoine construction., watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

 

Spring palette, thoughts on Winnipeg

After rebuilding my entire colour palette during the pandemic year, its been pretty much stable for the past several years. In the paint-out above you can see the range I use on location. Top left are earth paints, top middle are cool shadow paints, top right are green range, bottom left are highlight colours, with a blob of black paint off to the right. I keep a few within the mixing areas, like raw sienna, pyrol orange, indo blue, and for the Spring I carry bismuth yellow for depicting new foliage. So there are a little over 20 paints here, with some duplicates. The scribbles are the pigment codes, which are usually marked on the tube somewhere. I go to Jane Blundell's website to look up pigment codes and paint names on her colour swatches.  Also Handprint.com by MacEvoy has a tome of knowldege in his guide to watercolours page. 

Winnipeg surprised me with its subtle colouration. To be fair, I was there in Spring about a week before the green started to come out, so things were rather dusty, or rather sandy. The earth around Winnipeg comes from the great plains, grassy lands, its a sandy colour the same as raw sienna. They use this sand to put on the snow in the winter, so streets and parking lots were still covered in it. Moreover, the bricks of many older buildings were sandstone... a yellow ochre tone that could be easily made with variations of earth paints. There are prominent trees... not too tall, fanning out like mops pointing up, and with scraggly branches. They were painted with raw umber a dark brown, and indo blue to create greyish brown. Its the first time I ran out of brown paint on one of my palettes. I bring two palettes when I travel now so as to not run out. In the painting above, I mixed various yellow and brown colours, and called the painting Winni-beige, a play on words. 

Winni-beige, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, May 2026
 

Night Goose

With night falling upon Montreal, this hopeful goose thought I might have some handouts. It seemed slightly mad to paint a goose at night under a lamp next to the Lachine canal, with a train bridge and creepy looking tree in the background. Eventually it wandered off. Geese fly up to Canada to feast on grass and insects, then fly back down south for the winter. There were lots of geese in Winnipeg, which was neat, I painted two geese flying over the red river. To do the grass I made a three-part blend of lime yellow (PY184+PG36), neutral green (PBk31 plus the lime mix), then dark green (PBk31 + PG36). When dry, I overlaid the grass texture using various colours so as to create the illusion of a lamp illuminating grass. As I painted this, the thought occurred to me: "What the heck am I doing?" Lol, I quite like this painting. 

Night Goose, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Night paintings, pops of colours all around

Heading out into the evening and feeling a little down, I sought out pops of colours all around. Here, a lamp was illuminating the grass at dusk, just after sunset. In the back groud is the Atwater market tower, some city buildings, and the Lachine Canal in the middle. It was very moist and cool which made for lively watercolours tonight. 

Canal dusk lamp Atwater tower, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

This prominent graffiti on an old warehouse by the Peel Basin can be credited to P2EE, WAR, and FOST. I changed it to PJD26 though for the painting.. In the background is a new condo with a bright green light running across the roof, and other pops of lights from windows and lamps. I vary the light colours from orange to pale green, and bright green for the feature light on the top. The feature light was done with green (PG36), then a mix of green and yellow (PG36 + PY184), then a strip of paper showing through to give a glow-effect. Its tricky to do this, let alone when standing by my bike in the dark downtown. 

PJD graff downtown green light, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

I was standing under the train bridge where the canal path ends, and heads off to the Old Port. There is a bright lamp with LED white light making it possible to paint this scene, you see my shadow standing by my bike in the foreground. In the background I changed the sign to say Farine Five Roses PJD. That's one thing the graffiti people can't do... put their initials in fluorescent red light. 

Farine Five Roses PJD under bridge, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

On the way back I caught this view of a bunch of corporate office towers illuminated in red white and blue, which took me a second to understand.... its meant to support the Montreal Canadiens, bleu blanc et rouge! I used an abstract approach to get the idea down, and omitted the interesting trees from the foreground for the sake of time. It would have taken 20 minutes or so for this to dry enough, and I really just wanted to go home at this point. It was a nice cool evening though. I did one more painting that I will post separately, its kind of outrageous. 

Corporate passion, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026