Belvédère Outremont sunset view

To better paint the night sky including moon and stars I did a little reading on astronomy and stargazing in Montreal. The fact is, Montreal is in a high 'light pollution' area rating a 9 out of 10 on the scale, making it one of the worst places to see stars at night. But local astronmers listed two locations where the view was a bit better including this spot, called the Belvédère Outremont, and the large park that used to be a landfill in the north east of town (Frédéric Back Park). Today I went to Belvédère Outremont after work and found a large clearing with rock slabs, chairs for lounging, and a wide open view to the west northwest direction. Its one of the few places that the city clears trees around the mountain, so as to not block the view. Several people arrived and snapped some pics with their smart phones. 

West view sunset realist, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

In the first painting I used a realist approach by painting the background, letting it dry, then over-painting the clouds and trees. In this version, I used an impressionist technique where I painted the trees first, capturing all the detail in the branches, trunks and leaves, then daubed in the surrounding sky and background vista. In the winter I will have to paint something like this most of the time since the paint wont dry fast enough. Even today, I did the background of the other two paintings, and did this one while they dried. 

West view sunset impressionist watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

This painting uses a surreal, colour-splash technique to create vibrant colour and energy. Its never clear how it will work out, in the midst of painting, I really thought it was a disaster and a waste of paper, but then I recalled the Cloud over Trenholme park painting, one of my favorites of all time. In today's painting, surprising colour blooms formed in the clouds and trees which added a mysterious texture to the scene. So I used three different treatments today of the same scene, realism, impressionism and surrealism. If I can make it back to this location in the winter I think it would be a good one. 

West view autumn sunset, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025 

Gravel field botanicals

Painting around the gravel field, I found an old disused asphalt road that stretched for several kilometers to the east. The road was surrounded by fields of dry grass and aspen tree saplings, with thousands upon thousands of small white daisies and other occasional purple or yellow flowers. I stopped to make a painting of one small yellow flower and a star-shaped green plant, with a small bee on the flower. The two plants were growing out of a pothole in the asphalt, which I depicted in black and white. 

Yellow flower green plant bee, watercolour 7.5 x 11" cold press, October 2025

There were thousands upon thousands of these, so I made a close-up of just one plant at the same location. This time, I filled in the gravel and asphalt with a grey wash toned blue to yellowish, then daubed in the yellow centers (PY154 + PY43), followed by some foliage and shadow detailing. I dont often paint botanical close-ups, but today the scenes at the gravel field were all pretty much similar, it was just interesting to see nature coming back on its own. I did another one of cosmos flowers in the gravel field.  

Daisies asphalt, watercolour 7.5 x 11" cold press, October 2025 

Old Turcot trainyard gravel fields

Down where the old Turcot trainyards used to be, there is a great expanse of gravel stretching from the Rue st Jacques bridge all the way east to the Turcot interchange, a distance of about 3 km. I painted a few scenes there back in June when there were thousands of yellow flowers. Today I headed back down there and made this panorama scene of the gravel field with its natural regrowth, and the highway and train in the background, with NDG up on the escarpment. The city has a massive plan, with Federal funding, to renaturalize the whole esccarpment area including these gravel fields. I found a link to the full plan in a gazette article, it was a 75 page pdf document filled with maps, pictures and plans. 

Gravel field panorama, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

Ever wonder where Concrete dividers go when they die? I never did, but got the answer today! In the gravel fields there is an area filled with rows of neatly stacked concrete dividers, with a tall pile of the broken ones lying at the end. A pylon had also passed away. Getting the concrete to look heavy and textural took many different techniques and layers. It does truly look like a pile of concrete dividers with a pylon. 

Concrete divider pile, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025 

Here is another scene from the same location, but looking towards the neat stack of concrete dividers. The sun was coming down from left to right here, which cast a neat blueish shadow on the sun-bleached rocks. The plan for this area is to turn it into a forest with some wetlands, and a meandering walking path. It sounds fine, but I don't mind it the way it is, silent and no people around. Given enough time, a forest will grow up, I saw thousands of aspen trees probably from the canal trees nearby. 

Concrete divider stacks, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025  

Vacant lot renaturalization project?

Along st Jacques street, which runs parallel with the NDG escarpment, there are many autoshops, light industrial, and parking lots, not to mention the Enterprise car rental. Nearby, a large vacant lot has been growing wild for a few years now. I did a sunset scene there, and a few scenes just after the snow started to thaw. In the last painting on the snow thaw blog I did a scene of the adjacent lot which was full to the brim with trucks and dumpsters. Today, the main lot was really overgrown with a small forest almost, while the adjacent lot was completely cleared out of all trucks and dumpsters and trash. The city recently got 25 million to renaturalize the escarpment forest and I suspect this is part of the plan. In the painting, I showed the bright sun hiding behind a tree, with the golden-green field that is coming up through the gravel and asphalt. Of course, it could just be another condo project, time will tell!

Sun on vacant lot field, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

In the background of this unusual scene you can see a very weird condo they built to kind of look like a castle, with an even weirder truck in the middle-ground. The truck was some kind of heavy utility truck with a lot of hydraulics, it may have been for cutting down tall tree branches, or lifting components on construction yards. On the right is the overgrown vacant lot, which has filled in to become a field with a small forest in the middle. I also stopped by Terry Fox park and pulled more creeper vines off the trees, they are doing a lot better now, I cut a lot of the creeper vines over the last few years. 

Weird truck condo overgrown lot, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025 

Autumn views from Glen hill

Standing up on Glen hill behind the mega hospital provides excellent views of Montreal and the southern neighborhoods. In the foreground, there were a variety of trees with different autumn colours ranging from green to red to orange to yellow. The cars were moving along the highway like red blood cells travelling through a blood vessle. To create contrast I did the cars with a black, white red and green colour scheme which popped against the earthy and warm surrounding elements. 

Highway panorama autumn, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

From the same location looking east there is a good view of the curving highway and downtown core. Last time I was here the hill was overgrown with wildflowers and blue butterflies, today it was mowed, and only a few butterflies were left over. The weather has been furtunate although still a little chilly lately. Yellow and olive are predominant, there is not much orange or red this autumn. 

Downtown highway Glen hill, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025 

Jacques Cartier bridge night scenes

It gets dark so early now its night by 7pm. The other day I read about twilight and found out that there are three phases of twilight including astronomical twilight, nautical twilight and civil twilight that differ by the number of degrees below the horizon the sun is at. Technically it is night in this painting since the sun was well under the horizon and there were no discernable traces of the sunset remaining. To do the painting I set up near Notre Dame avenue and captured the Jacques Cartier bridge illuminated with funky fiber optic orange pink and yellow lights. It was noisy and still a lot of traffic was on the road as you can see. 

Jacques Cartier bridge lit up, watercolour 7.5 x 11" cold press, October 2025

Looping around and then riding up the Jacques Cartier bridge on the bike path, I found the small viewing platform and made a panorama painting of the city at night. In the foreground is the st Lawrence river, then the train yard, then the down town core. Off to the left is old Montreal and the ferris wheel illuminated in pink light. 

City night panorama, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

Still standing on the viewing platform, I did this painting looking back towards the brige, omitting all the fences. The carzy lights and geometric patterns with the cars roaring by made for a hectic scene. At the bottom left you see a sliver of the river, and a bit of the traffic going by on Notre Dame av. Finished in 1930 it was originally called the Montreal Harbour Bridge, its clearance over water is about 50 meters, and its highest point is about 100 meters. It is around 3km long, although I was only a short distance along the bridge where the first viewing platform is located. 

Disco bridge, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

Aspiration trees, colourful inventory

After work I picked up a few things at Snowdon bakery on Harley street then made a couple of paintings down the street at the field. The field is an undeveloped plot of land that Reno depot (now Rona+) donated to the community and now its a community garden, flower area, and they recently planted several rows of trees. In the background, you see the tree line that grew up along the fence next to the train tracks, while the newly planted trees are seen in the foreground. The new trees are aspiring to be bigger!  

Aspiration trees, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025

Next to the field is the loading dock and storage area for Rona+. The fence has vines growing on it, which were painted last after the colourful inventory was completed in the background. Of course, I fit in a small neon orange pylon on the bottom left. Pylons are practically my signature by now, although I added PJD25 for good measure. The pylon is done with a mixture I call "Montreal orange" after all the pylons they have here, its mostly benzi orange (PO62) with a dab of pyrol orange (PO73). 

Rona+ inventory, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025