Construction Site #3: Notre Dame and Dollard

Continuing my fruitless quest of painting all 44 construction sites currently in Montreal, here is number 3. Where highway 20 merges with highway 138 in st Pierre, there are soaring overhead highways going every which way. I have included them in many paintings over the years. In this case, I was featuring some of the imposing orange signs indicating construction ahead. Turn left, or merge, or right, or something something. 

Signs under overpass, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2025

Here is closer to the action, at the corner of Notre Dame and Dollard streets. The large arrow sign was blinking on and off, and there was one sign that had another sign inside of it. Genius, I thought, a sign within a sign, that costs at least four times more than just one regular sign. Cars and a bus were working their way through the pylons and confusing arrows, while the highway 138 ramp was still visible in the background.

Sign in sign, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2025

If you were driving and wanted a donut, it was not a simple matter. They did however, have custom printed signs telling you where to turn to get into the Tim Horton's. Somehow, a giant potato was growing in the background. If you look hard enough maybe you can spot Waldo too! Just kidding, no Waldo here, maybe next time.  

Donut anyone? watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2025 

Lachine old Dominion industrial lot

On the east side of Lachine there is a large, abandoned factory that used to be the Dominion Bridge plant according to the all-knowing internet. Actually, I found an article on the Heritage Montreal web site that talked about the plant which was built in stages between 1883 until 1947, presumably to make large parts of bridges. That explains the huge steel railing that run the length of the lot, they would have been for maneuvering massive lengths of steel. As you can see, steel rusts! 

Dominion Bridge plant, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2025

Here is a different angle, I am standing on rue st Louis, you can see the length and shape of the overhead steel spans. The actual factory is also enormous, I just showed a segment of it on the left. Apparently, according to the article, permission was not granted to demolish the structures, so now there is a 'for rent' sign. If anyone needs to make a bridge or two you know where to call. But seriously, the entire east area of Lachine is in the midst of a 20-year development plan that mostly entails condos. 

Overgrown lot, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2025

Just to make it three paintings, I did one more of these two trees with the factory warehouse, and some dry looking tall grass in the middle ground. It was nice and shady were I was standing on boulevard st Joseph. 

Two trees warehouse, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2025

Summerlea Park, rocky shore views

Things started off simple enough with a bike ride out to Summerlea park where I used to play with my family as a child. Most of the shore is covered in growth, which was done to protect the waterfront from erosion. I found a few spots to see through and make a painting or two of the rocky shore line. Today was the last day of my extended time off, of course its labour day too so everyone has it off. It was fun being an almost full-time artist for the past few weeks, I learned more about my limits. The main thing is my legs are in need of rest and recovery, or steroids... not too many artists would consider taking anabolic steroids just to keep riding. Just kidding though, some rest will do. 

Rocky beach, watercolour 6 x 7.5" hot press, September 2025

In this section there were large boulders in place to protect the shore from erosion. This painting was actually done on the front of an old painting I cut up.. sections of the original just had some bland washes on them which I could over-paint. The yellow leaves were done with bismuth vanadate (PY184) yellow, it is so thick that I can apply it like acrylic over top. The watercolour police might be upset through, its not 'transparent' Whatever, they haven't arrested me yet. 

Rocky shore, watercolour 6 x 7.5" hot press, September 2025

A launch wharf was here, part was wood the other part was some kind of floating plastic. Most people were just pushing off their kayaks from the rocky shore though. On the top right you see the end of a very small island, from Google maps it is called Dixie island. 

Rocky wharf, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2025 

A few scenes along Wellington east

Heading back home along Wellington I stopped to make another painting of the sunflowers on the corner of Robert Bourassa boulevard. Last year around the same time, I did a painting here and called it Sunflowers in the City, so I decided to go with the same name here but its the 2025 edition. This time, I reduced the amount of foliage so that the cars could show through a bit better since its an important part of the theme. The way that the yellow, brown and olive colours of the sunflowers play off the blue and grey glass buildings in the background adds visual interest. I like how the sunflowers were reflecting off of the passing cars which you see in the lower left. I omitted the traffic light in the background just to avoid too many distractions in the composition. If you want to see distractions, check out the construction site paintings I posted recently. 

Sunflowers in the city 2025, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, August 2025

Wellington begins (or ends?) at McGill street downtown, where there is a large manicured park full of interlocking bricks and concrete planters. There is also a very old, circa 1960's brown concrete tube-shaped platform with a staircase winding up to the top. I lugged my bike up and made a painting of one of the alleys looking downwards, its probably rue de Soeurs-Grises, and the park in question is Charon Brothers park. Definitely religious sounding names. Most of the city is in shadow at this time of day, just the building in the background was catching a bit of sun, and the headlights from a passing car illuminated the alley. 

Illuminated alley, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Water paintings Port of Montreal

Down at the Port of Montreal, which is adjacent to the Old Montreal area, there are often boats moored along the narrow spit of land that houses Habitat 67. In this case, it was a massive 3 master that looked heavy duty, maybe it was a fishing or research vessel. I was looking down on the ship which gave a good view of all the details of the bow. I really just wanted to paint water, and there was plenty of it in the background. 

Sedna V, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, August 2025

Further towards Old Montreal and there sits the Daniel McAllister, a retired tugboat. According to the all-knowing internet, this vessel was built in 1907 which would have been during the time the Lachine canal was an active shipping and receiving conduit. Its been preserved for tourism now, lots of people like to take pictures of it, and today I did a painting. The main theme was water and how it reflected the background elements. 

Daniel McAllister tugboat, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025
 

Continuing on the water theme, here is a view of the massive cruise boat docking tower in the background, with an old fashioned lamp and concrete blocks in the foreground. The water had a pale turquoise appearance with variations of green ripples from the tower's reflection. The Cartier bridge can be seen off to the left center. The aft of a boat can be seen to the lower right, its part of the health spa on the water. 

watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025
 

Construction Site #2: Courcelle street

 

The corner of Courcelle and st Jacques street down in st Henri has been undergoing a seismic construction for the past few months. Mostly blocked off there are still some passages to get through by foot, car, or bike as the signs would seem to indicate. I changed the walking sign to a jumping character, like you have to jump over things to get across! Today I adjusted the orange mixture to contain more PO62 pigment so it scans more accurately. For some reason the scanner and computer monitor make fluorescent orange appear to be too red. Book idea: The science of painting construction signs by PJ Darlington. 

Construction signs Courcelle, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025
 

At the same site, which was wonderfully silent and free of traffic today, I found a good view of the giant pit they are digging. I changed the colours to be molten red, orange and yellow giving the impression that some deep layer of the earth's crust has been breached. There is a mysterious box in the middle of the wreckage, and the signs are a ? of confusion. 

Pit of construction, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025
 

Next to the giant scooper machine, a narrow path allowed people to cross over st Jacques and into st Henri. A person hit the fence and fell off their bike here but they were going slow and seemed to be okay. The more of these construction site paintings I do, the more exaggerated they become. In this case, the vehicle occupies about 75% of the scene. 

Walking path, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025
 

44 Construction Sites of Montreal #1

Recently, Mobilité Montréal announced that there will be 44 new construction projects on the roads of Montreal this fall. And I was just saying how the number of projects seems to be down compared to previous years... looks like they were just saving them up to do all at once. The ministry even warned car drivers to consider public transit or riding a bike instead of driving around Montreal. This gave me an idea for a new series, although not one that I am likely to want to finish... 44 Construction Sites of Montreal. Well I did one today after painting up at the Chalet, then taking it easy up at Beaver pond for an hour, I zoomed down the south and east side of Mount Royal on my bike and came upon the massive project going on at the corner of Avenue Parc and Rue Mont-Royal. Let's call it site #1. The sign on the left said complete 2025, but I changed the date to 2029 in the painting just to be sure. 

Av Parc Turn left, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Rue Mont-Royal looked like an archeological site, they were digging down for artifacts. The orange of course, is Montreal orange, a blend of PO62 and PO73 to create the perfect fluorescent orange for signs and pylons. There are many kinds of pylons, I am getting to be quite the expert on the matter. 

Dig down rue Mont-Royal, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

What construction site would be complete without a dumpster? This one was a bright neon yellow which contrasted nicely with the blue-violet shadow. The rear end of a bulldozer could be seen, in fact, the whole painting was composed around the small orange triangle on its back which I made using the Montreal orange blend and overlapped with strips of pyrol red (PR254). The olive greens and dark yellow complete the warm colour-scheme. These projects might be bad for cars, but for an artist it gives me a safe place to stand and no traffic to block the views. 

Yellow dumpster bulldozer rear, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025