June arrives, painting in Coffee Park

Taking the opportunity to do some painting in Coffee Park after work, here is a scene of a park bench with a lilac bush and commuter train in the background. Pops of red come from clanging train barricade lights up in the trees. I paid attention to make sure the perspective on the bench matched the perspective on the train and tracks. 

Bench lilac bush commuter train, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, June 2026
 

Trains don't stop here so I had to memorize details and recreate it best I could. I noticed a strong sun-highlight on the train, bluish shadowing, and tinted green windows. Trees on the other hand don't move, so I had lots of time to paint its bark. I've painted a lot of trees over the years. 

Tree train highlight, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, June 2026

Looking up and towards the West I could see the sun descending behind a tall apartment building up on Sherbrooke street. I painted the sky and sun effect first, let it dry while I painted the previous one, then finished with the building, tree and leaves. I twist the brush in my fingers while dabbing in order to randomize the shapes of the leaves. 

Looking up sun branches, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, June 2026
 

The train barricade had a creepy monster look to it which I depicted here in a bug-like creature. It does bug you when this thing clangs and flashes light and prevents you from crossing. 

Train barricade bug-like, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Finally a quick painting of some graffiti on a storage shed next to the train tracks. It had other letters there, not PJD, but I usually swap out the graffiti for my own name and the year, 26. Many graffiti artists put the year on their work, which tells you how long its been since Montreal and its municipalities cleaned up graffiti. 

Graff two tracks, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, June 2026
 

Just in before the rain

They say April showers bring may flowers, but this year May showers brought May flowers, and more showers! Actually it only rained a few times recently, today throughout the morning and later afternoon. I got downtown by bike and made a few paintings including this one of the flowering lilac and white shrubs near Place Cartier in Old Montreal. 

Lilac and white shrubs, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, May 2026

Setting up in the Garden Ramezay I got a view of the condos and ominous sky in the background. I had to paint fast because rain was imminent, and it was time to turn around. I went home after this painting, just getting a little damp along the way. 

Condos Garden Ramezay, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, May 2026

Viger street around the Convention center is being renovated, they are working on the connection from the metro station to Old Montreal. In the future tourists will have an easier time getting around, and by future I mean like far in the future, they will have hoverboards by then and sidewalks will be obsolete by the time they are finished. As usual I enjoyed painting the signs, they even had a sign covering another sign! It could be a Cindi Lauper song... "Sign after Sign".  

Construction signs Chinatown, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, May 2026

This construction vehicle parked on Viger street was idle, I just like painting these things from time to time (time after time?). The blue-green tint on the vehicle's glass contrasted with the yellow-green of the convention center in the background. 

Construction clashing greens, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, May 2026

This was the first painting I did, stopping just in front of Dawson College where they turned part of Maisonneuve street into to a pedestrian lounge area with benches and picnic tables. With a sky like this I should have turned around, but kept going instead and got some decent painting done. From here on out it is going to be sunny and hot. 

Ominous sky Maisonneuve, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, May 2026

Downtown scenes cool breezy day

Finding a corner to stand on I got this view of the Lucien L'Allier metro entrance with the Bell Center Habs arena in the background. A one way sign completed a trifecta of signs. It was a 'paint by numbers' approach, starting with an outline then filling on the colours. 

Habs other signs, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, May 2026

On Rue Argyle looking at Rue Guy, there was a teal fire hydrant which anchored the composition of this painting of a train bridge and billboard, interspersed with lush yellow-green foliage. I lost a paint brush around here, went back later but could not find it. I have others. 

Teal hydrant train bridge billboard, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Somewhere along st Jacques bike path there is an old factory called Paper Box Company, 1906. Now its a condo complex. A few old windows are plastered up, and a wing is undergoing more renovations. 

Paper Box Company one way, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, May 2026

Another view of the Paper Box company. I wonder what the made back in the old days? Must have been shirts and ties. Or maybe shoes and boots. Nobody will ever know. 

Paper Box Company, watercolour 6 x 7" cold press, May 2026

I felt kind of bad painting this scene, on the other side of the EMT ambulance they were helping someone on the ground in Chinatown. Eventually they loaded them up and turned the corner. To make the bright yellow I used bismuth yellow (PY184) with a slight touch of green (PG36). In the background you see the buildings of old Montreal along st Urbain.  

EMT Chinatown, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, May 2026

 

Visceral Glow

I was going to call this painting 'RIP Habs' since our hockey team was eliminated from the conference finals of the Stanley Cup playoffs tonight. At least they had a surprisingly good run and we got moments of excitement. I made a painting on location down at the arena during one of the matches. Instead the painting is called Visceral Glow because it kind of looks like internal organs, and uses a glow-effect technique that I explored with some recent digital artwork. You can click on the digital tag to see all those blogs. By studying the digital images up close, I am starting to figure out how to paint neon-glow effects with watercolour, which is exceedingly difficult to do with real paint. Digitally it is quite easy though... in fact making digital art is like Charles the Gorilla... he was a gorilla at the Toronto zoo who liked to finger paint, and the zoo sold his work to raise money. What I do is much the same. I think using a paintbrush to do watercolours is old fashioned and somewhat obsolete, but I still enjoy it immensely. The fact you can make art with just paint, paper, brushes, and attitude will never grow old. 

Visceral Glow, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, May 2026

Another Digital Dump

Here is the last batch of digital art images I made while travelling recently, they are done with Sketchbook App on Amdroid. In this example I started with 'finger painting' various shapes, then overlaying with a textural mesh, followed by boxes. Contrast is important in abstract art, ideally there are both white and black elements with various middle shades. 

This piece features starburst shape stencils with various sizes... I set the tool to randomize the size, so I just click around the screen with colour variations. A full range of colours are represented, along with textural spots placed over top. 

There is a neon brush tool that works best on a dark background. Overlapping the shapes leads to increasing illusion of brightness. Some textural meshes were added to create a tactile sense of fabric. It looks like a night-time fire show, I though about my Samoa painting while doing this one. 

Primary colour scribbles were surrounded by an earthy, textural frame and grid. To create juicy brush strokes I used a soft pastel tool, it gives a crumbly appearance reminiscent of crayons. To do the signature I zoom in and use an appropriate style that matches the overall composition and colour scheme.  

 

Organic forms were created with pattern brushes. I like this one because it looks almost alien, as if looking into the bottom of an ocean of a moon of Saturn. wiggly larvae wait to hatch into something creepy. 

 

At the end of a previous blog, I did a painting of an old red post stenciled with a number, it was heavily rusted with silver spray paint graffiti. I was trying to figure out how to simulate a metallic glow, which was done here with variations of grey on an earthy background. 

 

Who needs the Habs when you have Romeo?

I rode down to the Bell Centre hoping to do a painting of the sun setting, get it? Sun setting on the Habs. The Habs is a nickname for our local hockey team, and they are close to being out of the playoffs now, although made a good run so far and it aint over. What I found were police blockades and lots of people walking around as if in a dance club. Closer inspection of the Bell Centre and I saw an ad for Romeo Santos, who turns out to be a popular Latin American singer doing a concert at the Bell Centre arena. 

Romeo concert blockade, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Changing McD to McP, this painting shows a fast food restaurant next to the Bell Centre, along with a lamp and adjacent construction fence. A massive condo looms in the background.

McP dusk, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Looking east and I caught this view of the CN building in the background still illuminated blue white and red, the Habs colours. I changed CN to PJD just to be a smartass. On the right is the facade of the arena with its illuminated player images. No sign for Romeo Santos however. 

CN Habs colours, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, May 2026

Slightly to the northeast, is this view of Place Villa Maria lit up in Habs colours, with a rotating beam of light emanating from the top of the rooftop restaurant. There was a convenient spotlight to stand under, and the police barricades meant no cars on this road, so I could stand and paint. 

Place Villa Maria Habs colours,  watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, May 2026

Looking for a good view of the nearly-full moon, I found an interesting scene of the commuter train rolling by, with lamps and grass in the foreground, and the elevated REM track in the background. The canal was visible on the bottom of the scene but I'm back to using 5 x 7" and its too small for certain compositions. 

Lamp glow commuter train, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, May 2026

Finally getting a good view of the moon, here it is hanging over the REM train that goes off island. In the background are some of the new developments along the shore. 

Moon over REM train, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, May 2026

Starry night under bridge

Looking at this scene of the Decarie expressway got me thinking of the Suriname painting I did in the World Inspired Landscapes series which featured glowing eyes in a dark jungle. Here, the car head and tail lights gave a similar impression but from underneath an overpass bridge. That bizarre feature in the foreground is from another painting I started but never finished decades ago, as usual it got cut up and used for more paintings. Thus, its a realistic painting with surrealism elements added in. Last year as I was using a lot of backs of paintings, I used this method for some weird results. Since I am getting towards the end of the paintings I can cut up, it occurred to me to paint something abstract on a large piece of paper with the intention of cutting it up and using it for landscape painting later on. 

Starry night under bridge, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026