Vacant lot renaturalization project?

Along st Jacques street, which runs parallel with the NDG escarpment, there are many auto shops, 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 re-naturalize 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 (No. 4835a)

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 (No. 4836a)

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 traveling through a blood vessel. 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 (No. 4834a)

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 fortunate 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 (No. 4834b)

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 discernible 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 (No. 4875)

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 (No. 4832b)

Still standing on the viewing platform, I did this painting looking back towards the bridge, omitting all the fences. The crazy 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 (No. 4833b)

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 (No. 4832a)

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 (No. 4833a)

Dusk on the Lachine canal

After the sun had set, the sky turned a cotton-candy pink with big fluffy violet clouds streaked in red. The artificial lights were prominent against a darkening sky and surroundings. Pink, violet and orange light reflected off of the rippling water. To paint something like this in watercolour it is important to keep the light highlights free of paint... the white areas are simply paper. Creating the illusion is the greyish background, even thought is colourful its a middle value. I also composed one of the clouds around the lamp to give even better contrast. For the lights along the other side of the canal, I surrounded them in lime green, then a near-black green to give a glow. Finally, the dark condos (PBk6 + PR101), and dark lamp post and railings complete the effect. 

Dusk on canal with lamp, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025 (No. 4831a)

Just after the sun set, before I did the other painting, I did one of the train going over the bridge. In the background is a sprawling industrial complex turned into condos. Some of that structure used to be the Coleco factory that made toys until the 1970's when production went over seas. I swung by the glass factory after dark but the scene was not impressive, and I saw another good painting along the canal, but decided to save a few things for another day. 

Train over canal sundown, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025 (No. 4831b)

Autumn tree colours make an appearance

Autumn leaf colours have been hard to find this year so far. Like here, you can just make out some bright yellow looking under the bridge. In the foreground, there is an old industrial building painted magenta and brick-red with graffiti, and a curving bridge off to the upper right.  

Trees through bridge, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025 (No. 4828a)

Getting a better view of a red tree with a squirrel nest at the very top, I made this painting and included a yellow tree and an olive-coloured tree. The red is fairly high chroma but slightly neutralized, and more orange toward the bottom, greyish at the top due to the sky effect. The red is pyrol (PR254) with burnt sienna (PR101) in the middle of the tree, with orange (PO62) mixed in at the bottom and dilute blue (PB60) dabbed in at the top. Subtle variations like this are barley perceptible but still give a sense of atmosphere. 

Red tree squirrel nest, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025 (No. 4828b)

The back side of a long factory-turned-residential structure is covered in creeper vines that turned a bright, dark red with some yellow and green trees in front. To make the creeper-vine red I mixed perylene maroon (PR179) with a touch of pyrol red (PR254). The tracks were a simple combination of burnt sienna, carbon black (PBk6) with a greyish background (PB60 + PR101). 

Yellow green red leaves near train tracks, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025 (No. 4829a)

I took another crack at the El Pro factory, also turned condo a long time ago, and got some decent results. There were actually about 20 windows going across in the view, but I only painted about 7 across. If the paint was drying better I could have squeezed in more detail. On the way back, this structure is more impressive with lighting at night, especially in the back where I painted the other day. 

El Pro front side view, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025 (No. 4829b)

City scenes lights and flags

As I slogged up Peel towards the downtown core, I caught a good view of the sun peeking out from behind one giant glass tower and reflecting on the adjacent one. The view is looking up, in the direction of st Antoine west, the tower on the left is probably The Canadiens tower 3. Today, I brought along some old paintings done on 7.5 x 11" pieces of cold press paper, there was nothing on their backs until now! So there is still writing in pencil at the bottom here, it could be easily erased if needed. 

 Sun reflection glass towers, watercolour 7.5 x 11" cold press, October 2025 (No. 4869)

Usually its geese honking as they fly south, but today it was hundreds of cars honking their horns on Rene-Leveque boulevard, while waving Palestinian flags. Cop cars were interspersed in the traffic, they had red, white, and blue lights blinking (although no sirens). The whole spectacle looked like some kind of bizarre parade, but it obviously had something to do with the situation in the Middle East. One can only hope a sort of peace can be enacted to end the violence. Last night, I read parts of a Monet art book and he painted The Rue Montorgueil in Paris which depicted French flags on a narrow city street, that event was meant to celebrate 'peace and work' in France in 1878. 

Lights flags honking, watercolour 7.5 x 11" cold press, October 2025 (No. 4870)