Flag waving downtown Montreal

Doing a bit of shopping downtown and then I got a bit caught out in front of Alexis Nihon mall on st Catherine street. A large protest was walking west, shouting 'Hands off Iran' with a large police escort all around. These protestors were waving Palestinian, Lebanese, and both kinds of Iranian flags including the official one, and the alternative one with a lion at its center. Politically, these people were against the war and were pro-Iranian regime for various reasons. In the painting, they are on the right of the scene. Following them, were a group of pro-war people who are against the Iranian regime, waving American, Israeli, Canadian, and Iranian flags with the Lion in the middle. They are on the left of the scene. Each group were carrying placards showing different political figures dead and alive, I wont get into the details. A large group of bicycle police wearing neon vests stood and separated the two groups until the latter group dissipated. I just wanted to get the heck out of there since I understood the dynamic, but was kind of stuck on the sidewalk, also it was starting to rain. About 10 minutes later, everyone was gone and things went back to normal, so I made this painting on the spot, from memory.  

Protest counter protest, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 (No. 5052a)

Earlier I heard a celebration going on, music was playing and people were waving flags. These people were celebrating the war in Iran because they don't like their government. I don't know how I feel about it, generally I prefer peace and peaceful solutions, violence rarely results in anything but more violence. You should have seen all the tourists and weekend shoppers... st Catherine was mostly blocked by the protest, and people were shouting in various languages and waving all sorts of flags. So visitors were trying to walk down streets and alleys so as to avoid the to-do. 

Celbration glass skyscrapers, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 (No. 5051b)

Finally, just a painting of a tree with Christmas lights still on it, looking up. I embellished the angles and colours of the background buildings for effect. The sounds of sirens and people chanting could be heard in the distance. 

Tree looking up, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026  (No. 5052b)

Couple more paintings, slushy day

Where Decarie boulevard, which runs parallel with the highway, meets Maisonneuve, there is a five-way intersection. It used to be one of the most dangerous intersections in Montreal, but about 10 years ago they redeveloped it to be much safer for bikes, cars and pedestrians to co-exist. This barber shop is located near this corner, it had pictures of hipster dudes on the outside, I guess if you have a long beard in need of a trim its the place to go. 

Zanzibar Barber, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, January 2026  (No. 4998b)

There was not much light left so I painted a scene of the Vendome metro main entrance, at least the top part of it. The idea was to get in some details like the reflections, textures, and concrete tones. The concrete was done with a mix of raw sienna (PBr7), green umber (PBr7) and indo blue (PB60) tinted with orange (PO62) and magenta (PV55) here and there. When dry, I dragged a dry-brush with carbon black over top, and added some dots to make the concrete look sweaty. After painting all 68 Stations of the Montreal Metro, I taught myself how to get these colours down. By the way, in the last blog I was wondering if the graffiti person KONG was still active.... some time this weekend, he and the notorious SLUK defaced the MOLSON sign on the brewery that I painted late last year. Here is the CBC news story. When I say that I painted it... thats with watercolours by the way, I am not the graffiti person!

Vendome front door, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, January 2026  (No. 4997b)

Downtown, Lachine canal, Peel basin

Three of my favorite places to paint in Montreal: Downtown, Lachine canal, and the Peel basin! In the scene above, there was a protest in Phillips Square across from the old Bay mall, on st Catherine street. People were waving Iranian flags with the lion and crown in the center and chanting things in Farsi and English. A flock of pigeons flew overhead, a flying group of pigeons is called a 'flight of pigeons' by the way, while a police cruiser was parked by the curb. 

Flight of pigeons downtown, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, January 2026 (No. 4996b)

An old factory warehouse on the Lachine canal has been 'decorated' extensively by the graffiti writers including KONG, one of the original writers from the 1990's who may still be active. As usual I placed my initials and year in place of the graffiti... that is called 'biting' by the way, when you copy a graffiti artist's style. To paint something like that, the writer has to hang from the edge of the building with some kind of harness, and probably used a roller instead of a spray paint can for most of the work. The canal was starting to melt.

Lachine canal Kong, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, January 2026 (No. 4997a)

Its unusual for the ice to thaw in the middle of winter like this. With mild temperatures ahead it may start showing water again. The central element is where they hold the summer festivals like the Reggae festival, it used to be a shipping and receiving pier, while the background shows part of the Farine Five Roses building, actually the new Canada Maltage factory. To make that pale blue-green ice colour I use perylene green (PBk31) diluted and tinted with various cool paints like blue (PB15), green (PG7) and magenta (PR122, PV55). I  picked up more paper, a few tubes and brushes, at Avenue des Arts today in Westmount, Pierre was there, he runs the shop and also organizes a network of independent art companies around Canada. 

Peel Basin winter thaw, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, January 2026 (No. 4998a)

Slushy day for a ride

With soaring temperatures the heavy snow turned into slush. That didn't stop the city from removing the piles of slush, as you can see in the painting, which was done along Maisonneuve avenue. Across the street you see me, riding my bike east along the path while the snow blower throws snow into a large dump truck. How did I paint myself? You may wonder. I had to study the trucks as they passed by, then set up on an angle, and paint an empty street essentially. I started by outlining the illustration components with a #2 paintbrush, then filled in with gritty colours and textures. 

Slushy day for ride, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, January 2026 (No. 4996a)

Where I lock my bike up outside of PERFORM Centre, there is a view of the sports dome, and in the foreground, large puddles accumulating. The asphalt is in bad shape here, but it contrasted neatly with the crisp white snow and dome. A red bike rack in the middle part provides just about the only saturated colour. 

Dome puddles, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, January 2026 (No. 4993b)

Dusk J&R Autoshop

The sky was a shade darker, with a rich violet tint. I mixed the sky colours with indo blue (PB60) and pyrrol orange (PO73) along with dabs of blue (PB15) and raw sienna (PBr7). It takes some practice to get used to those colour combinations, which produce a wide range of purplish or yellowish greys. The red-white and green in the gas pump area made for a good pop against the drab background. Small details like tree branches and the gas pump patterns were painted after it all dried. 

Dusk autoshop side, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, January 2026 (No. 4994b)

 

With heavy overcast clouds, the sunset was not visible but it was getting dark fast. This is a partial front view of Joe and Ralph Autoshop, the most painted business in NDG. It started snowing heavily so I retreated to the condo entrance way which is covered, and then finished the paintings inside. When painting such a scene, the value (relative darkness) between the sky and the lights has to be correct in order to convey the atmosphere. In this case, the sky was a pale grey-violet while the lamps were just white paper outlined in yellow or green-yellow. 

Dusk autoshop front, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, January 2026 (No. 4995b)

Winter scenes along Decarie highway

The Decarie expressway is a below-ground highway connecting the north and south parts of Montreal. In the painting, you see one of the off ramps in the foreground connecting to Maisonneuve avenue, and another in the background connecting to Sherbrooke street. There was still a lot of snow hanging around, but the weather will warm up soon and it will all melt. It was bitterly cold today and I still had to use salt water to paint. 

Decarie ramps, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, January 2026 (No. 4994a)

A Swedish-car auto shop is located along the Decarie near the bike store. Its bright white walls contrasted against all the grey and beige surroundings. The reason its so bright white is that graffiti people mark up these walls, and the business paints over. If they paint over enough, the graffiti people might stop trying. I had to touch up this painting at home, the billboard had blurred into the background and a few other details were lost. I look forward to painting with fresh water again. There is a point in the winter where you start thinking about warmer temperatures. 

Swedish auto billboard, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, January 2026 (No. 4995a)

Nearly full moon, depanneur

Last night I went out after the clouds cleared and got a good view of the nearly full moon, it was at 97% according to the time and date web page. Interesting, twisty trees looked they were reaching up to the moon. I was standing near the skating rink in William Hurst park, using the strong flood-lamps to illuminate the painting. Considering how moist the painting was, I had to finish the trees and detailing at home when it had a chance to dry. 

Nearly full moon tree tops, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, January 2026 (No. 4993a)

Its always a bit risky painting a car when its in front of a shop because you know its going to drive away soon. I got the outline and basic colour blocks in time, then of course the owners came out and drove off. Like in the last painting, I had to finish the details at home including the black lines and lettering on the sign, and brick texturing. Its nearly impossible to over-paint on location in the winter unless you return to the same location. One painting that worked out really well this way was brave Montreal, where I painted the background, went off and painted other paintings, then on the way back finished adding the bridge elements. Last night was too cold to mess around, although with the amount of winter clothing I had on it was almost too hot. And by the way, the sign on this store has no accent on the first E... not my mistake!

Depanneur car night, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, January 2026 (No. 4992b)

Seats in field

As I wrote before, there is a field at the end of Harley street where people set up seating to hang out mostly in the summer. A bench, wooden chair, office chair, and some stools and a table were lying around today covered in snow. Trying to paint so much detail in the winter takes some getting used to, a few adjustments like the hatch-marked sky, and leaving white gaps here and there really help. The paint dries so slowly at the low temperatures and with salt in the water. I am not touching these painting up at home at all, so what you see was done on location. If the opportunity presents I might go paint the moon tonight, it is one day past being a full moon. 

Seats field winter, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, January 2026 (No. 4991b)

Piles of snow and tires

Although the bike paths are scraped clean I was on foot today with my new shoulder painting bag... the old leather one finally had the biscuit. Near the Benny sports complex was this huge pile of snow from the nearby walkway and staircase. From this perspective it seemed to be higher than the building in the background. 

Snow pile sports complex, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, January 2026 (No. 4991a)

Across the street is the Joe and Ralph auto shop, today I painted a scene of the spare tires covered in snow. Since they changed the walls to grey, I use a mix of pyrrol orange (PO73) and indo blue (PB60) adjusted with raw sienna (PBr7) to make the warm and cool grey variations. That combonation of paints brings you into a difficult to reach purple-grey area of the colour wheel. Its also a good mix to adjust value from dark to light by the amount of water added. The PO73 is one of the more expensive paints to buy but worth it in my opinion... good for night skies, warm highlights and soft grey mixes. I had the Winsor & Newton version (Winsor red orange), and recently got the Daniel Smith version (Pyrrol Orange), they are identical but the latter one costs less and has 1mL more. Winsor & Newton has 14mL per tube, everyone else sells 15mL. 

Tires auto shop, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, January 2026 (No. 4992a)

Frozen scenes, demoed mall tree shadow

At  the end of Terrebonne where it meets up with Placette Guillaume-Couture, there are some trees growing including a prominent birch tree that I have painted before. Its a good place to walk in the winter when the bike paths are snowed-over. By the time I walked home they had plowed the bike paths and they seemed ridable, maybe tomorrow. The first painting of the year, gee its been a whole year since I last painted! We are in the middle of a cold snap that will last a few more days, then it is supposed to get up over zero, meaning the snow will melt. 

Frozen birch tree Placette, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, January 2026 (No. 4990b)

The old shopping mall that was demoed late last year has been scraped clean. A fresh blanket of untouched snow covered the small plot this morning which gave a new angle to paint. Sunlight was beaming down a gap between buildings, and casting a long shadow of a tree behind me. When I finished the painting, I was that guy who tromped across the fresh snow leaving a trail of boot-prints. It was so cold today the paint was crystalizing despite the amount of salt in the water (20% salt solution). Zooming in you can see the crystal patterns in the sky and other wash areas.  

Demoed mall tree shadow, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, January 2026 (No. 4989b)

Frozen dumpster, icy reflections,

Behind the High school there is a large parking lot that was totally iced over. Somehow, a few cars were still navigating it and parking here. In the middle of the parking lot there is a large maroon-coloured dumpster which I painted with a mix of perylene maroon (PR179) and quinacridone purple (PV55). With the cold temperatures and windchill persisting, paint dried slowly resulting in a slightly dull finish. It does give the atmosphere of a very cold day. 

Dumpster frozen lot, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, December 2025 (No. 4989a)

Last location painting of the year, here is the frozen surface of the basketball court in Coffee Park, its reflecting trees and a passing commuter train. Its been a good year... I posted the 2025 year in review, and will update the annual painting count shortly. I have a few ideas for 2026, and it wont be long to wait, happy new years ! 

Icy reflections, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, December 2025 (No. 4990a)

Diner Domes and other winter scenes

Down in the Old Port Montreal, boats are gone from the frozen marina, and replaced with... diner domes? I hadn't seen these before, geodesic plastic domes sitting upon a table and two chairs. There were about two dozen such domes strewn about the wharves, unoccupied for the time being. With some internet searching, these diner domes are part of an outdoor restaurant, at night they are illuminated with LED lights and attended to by a waiter. 

Diner dome, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, December 2025 (No. 4987)

The artificial beach in Old Port is covered in snow, making the umbrellas look rather useless. In the background, the restaurant boat that is usually sitting in the canal near Atwater market was moored on a dock, not operational. Wind had swept over the snow-covered sand creating a wavy pattern. 

Snow umbrella restaurant boat, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, December 2025  (No. 4986b)

From Viger Square there was a good view of Cartier bridge and Molson's old brewery, still standing. When painting with heavily salted water in the winter, the paint stays moist for quite awhile. I have two wood drying racks, so I can do two paintings on location, ride to the next spot, and change for fresh papers. For dexterity, I wear very thin gloves underneath the oven-mitt gauntlets, so when I need to change papers I take off the outer-mitts briefly, but never expose skin to the frigid conditions.  

Bridge and Molson's from Viger square, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, December 2025 (No. 4984b)

 

Sunlight a valuable commodity?

Riding across the Maisonneuve bike path in downtown Montreal and you start to realize that sunlight is a valuable commodity in the city. From Atwater market all the way to Place des Arts, there is hardly a sliver of light. After they finished the massive condo towers recently, the last remaining sunlight is all but gone. Standing in the shadow of Montreal, I thought, might as well embrace the situation and paint the scene as it is, giant monolith-like condo towers blocking the sun entirely. 

Montreal Shadows, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, December 2025 (No. 4988)

Off towards the Place des Arts building, where they hold the University convocation and other types of entertainment, there was a sliver of light coming through. I've painted this snow pile before, for the same reason, its one of the few spots that gets sun this time of year. Those condo towers get plenty of sun through their all-glass exteriors... the condo owners, no doubt, are sitting up there having a cup of coffee with sun in their living room. While the rest of us plebs down on the street walk in the shadows.  

Sliver of light, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, December 2025 (No. 4986a)

Turning south I rode towards Old Montreal and stopped off at Viger square, a recently renovated park area with seating and about a million interlocking bricks. Heavy snow fall, undisturbed, cast a warm glow and produced flat blue shadows. A single trail of footprints cut through the snow. Framed structures sprawl throughout the square offering a Stonehenge-like display of concrete.

Viger Square snow shadows, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, December 2025 (No. 4985b)  

Westhaven field cold day

Down at the end of Harley street in Westhaven there is a field I talked about in the year in review post, today I stopped by to make a few paintings on a cold weekend. Behind the trees you see the Perform centre on the left and the sports dome that collapsed earlier this year on the right. The Perform center has a long and tall tinted glass window that runs around the back of the building, you see it in the painting, that's where the administrators have their giant board room that is seldom used for anything. Back in my office and the laboratory where everyone actually works there are no windows! 

Field dome perform, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, December 2025 (No. 4984a)

As the background dried in the previous painting, I turned towards the west and painted this view of Raffi's auto shop with a truck parked out front. Tall trees filled the sky. It was fairly quiet out, not much traffic and most shops including the auto shop were closed, although Snowdon Bakery was open and I picked up a couple of fresh loaves of bread. 
Raffi's with truck, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, December 2025 (No. 4985a)  

Molisana bakery font

Gloomy weather outside, at least it looked warm and cozy inside of the Molisana Bakery shop on Somereled in NDG. I went in there once but it was more like a social club where the customers and owners chat incessantly and try every type of deli meat before buying anything, so I didn't last long. The roof of the building has the most interesting shade of olive green, I mixed it with the useful perylene black (PBk31) and orange-yellow (PY110). Despite its name, perylene black is a dark green, in fact, Holbein sells it as shadow green. Its an indispensable paint for landscape and city painting. The sign on the other hand is mostly phthalo blue-green (PG7), and I tried to get the sign right after practicing fonts the other day. 

Molisana font, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, December 2025  (No. 4971b)

Downtown looking up

The holiday shopping season is in full swing. I got downtown as soon as I could from campus, the weather was unseasonably warm for a change. Painting with just thin gloves and fresh water (salt) was possible today with above freezing conditions. This scene is along st Catherine's street at the heart of the shopping district, on the left you see the Cinema star and red ribbon lit up in neon, while the background shows some of the old buildings looming over the city. The year in review blog is nearly complete, it should be out before we go travelling for the holiday week. And yes, I finished my Christmas shopping!

Cinema star, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, December 2025 (No. 4979a)

Blue sky Sunday, neighborhood scenes

Since the train was going by, I stopped my bike at the old clothing factory that is now a restaurant and condo complex. The structures are seen around the edges of the painting, with the bright sun, blue sky and prominent tree featured as the center of interest. I had to do another painting while this one dried, so that the tree could be painted over top of the sky. 

Sun tree industrial condos, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, December 2025 (No. 4964b)

In fact, I did several paintings on this location in st Henri, since the sun was beaming down and I had full light to paint with, which is a rarity these days. Much of Montreal is hidden beneath shadows from tall buildings, but this clearing provides good sight lines and open sky. The train was crossing Courcelle street creating a line-up of cars and a few bikes. 

Cars waiting train crossing, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, December 2025 (No. 4954b)

This painting shows an electric charging station and the sound-wall that runs parallel with the train tracks in the background. Enormous piles of snow were piled up here, and a tree leaned out over the pastel sky. 

Electric charging station, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, December 2025 (No. 4971a)

It didn't take long for the graffiti people to cover this wall in 'artwork'. As usual, I replaced the actual graffiti names with my own crew, including PJD, D-DAWG, CILS, JD CD, DYER, and FITZ. Being backlit, the shadow from the wall had a prominent blue-violet tint that I made with indo blue (PB60) and magenta (PR122) and a touch of blue saphhire (PB15). 

Train wall graff, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, December 2025 (No. 4955b) 

Why do I bother painting on location when that painting of the tomato wearing sunglasses will probably end up being the most popular painting? At any rate, this burned out condo in st Henri had some interesting contrasts, with plenty of snow piled on top. I am not familiar with the story on this particular fire, a quick google search shows a number of major fires have happened in the neighborhood in recent times. Half of the roof had caved in and windows looked pretty scorched. 

Burned out house, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, December 2025 (No. 4972a)

Nice Autumn day, a little bit windy

It was a nice Autumn day, just a little bit windy and a tad bit of snow. Painting was a challenge, in this scene you see snow blowing across the basketball court down in Coffee park. I applied a moist wash to the area of the blowing snow, then painted details around it, using the trees and post as a device to create an illusion of floating clouds of snow. 

Basketball net blowing snow, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, December 2025 (No. 4963a) 

Cars at Raffi's auto shop on Harley street were buried in piles of fresh snow and the strong wind was whipping it up even more. Quebec issued a travel advisory for cars, to basically stay home if possible, but the travel advisory did not say anything about riding bicycles today!

Raffi auto cars under snow, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, December 2025 (No. 4964a)

Riding east along the Maisonneuve bike path brought me to a group of trees that offered some respite from the blizzard-like conditions. On cue, the commuter train rolled by and I could paint its outline real quick, then integrate it with the foreground trees. To begin, I painted out a faint outline where the snow highlights had to be, then filled in the little bits of tree trunk and branches that were visible. So most of the snow is just paper showing through since there is no white paint in watercolour. 

Train through trees, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, December 2025 (No. 4963b)   

Intense sunset Lachine canal

It was intense in more ways than one... intense colours, intense brightness, intense wind, intense cold...intense painting! When I completed this on location, standing at the Atwater footbridge looking west, the entire painting was still moist and shimmering in the sunlight, like a mirror-glaze on a cake. I waited around an extra 5 or 10 minutes to make sure it would dry enough, and with the wooden drying rack, it dried just about right. Every now and then a painting comes together to be more than just a sum of its parts, there is something about the bright colours contrasted against the earthy brown and black of the old factory-turned-condo buildings, the rail bridge that crosses here, and the snowy, frozen canal shimmering in tri-coulour like Neapolitan ice cream. The windchill was so severe here I had to pull up the wool scarf to above my nose and tighten up the parka hood, just peering through a small crack, fighting off the tears and sniffles as my face got blasted with winter cheer. Glad I hung in there and could ride my bike home in one piece to tell the tale.  

Intense sunset Lachine canal, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, December 2025 (No. 4956)

Tunnel and bridges blue sky cold day

Here is a painting of the underground highway 136 entrance off Notre Dame corner of Peel, I painted a similar scene of the tunnel and building in the background on a vertical format last month. This time, the glass building was cropped to the left, with additional structures visible on the right along Notre Dame avenue. The train bridge is sandwiched in the middle, with the highway tunnel entrance at the bottom left of the scene. With giant puffy gauntlet gloves the size of oven mitts, it was a complex scene to pull off but I am much better painting detail on cold days. It was nice to see a blue sky for once!

Tunnel winter glare, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, December 2025 (No. 4554a)

Along the Lachine canal, just before Peel basin, there is a view of the new, old, and oldest bridge structures, with Farine Five Roses sign and New Canadian Maltage factory looming in the background. Instead of 'SLUK' I put my initials on the Maltage building, in real life, there is an enormous graffiti up there. Getting the lettering correct on the Farine sign was quite a feat given the circumstances. In the winter, shadows have an interesting blue-violet shade that can be mixed with blue (PB60 or PB15 red shade) and a dab of magenta (PR122), and dilute accordingly. I did one more on the day, will post separately in a moment. 

Bridges canal winter, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, December 2025 (No. 4555a)