Zen Factory (graffiti inspired)

As the structure of this old factory/warehouse in front of me started to emerge on the paper, it occurred to me that all of the graffiti had transformed the building into an open air art gallery. Seemingly, every square meter of its walls had some colourful tag, legible to only those that made them. Instead of trying to transcribe the graffiti onto the painting, I channeled its energy to produce a surrealistic fusion with the old industrial structure. Vertical clouds, red and green fauvist shadows, and a neapolitan ice cream colour scheme come together to create this awe inspiring interpretation of a derelict factory. After spending the weekend carefully crafting realistic looking landscapes, it was liberating to just blast this one with whatever colour came to mind. Kind of a palette cleanser. The result was pretty unique to say the least. 

Note, the history of the structure is unclear... 4010 st Patrick was registered to a Federal Corporation dissoveld in 2019. On google maps it says Bando factory but that could be a joke... some locations around here have prank names on google maps. 

Zen Factory (graffiti inspired), watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, September 2024 (No. 3908)

Atwater market, rust, and graffiti

Looping back around the wonderful Lachine canal path, here is a scene of the Atwater market across the canal. I was not intending to paint this, but on the way home I had to stop behind a utility building to get out of the wind for a few minutes. Looking to my left, there was a flock of seagulls, about 50 or more flapping around and hovering in the air, which tells you how strong the wind was. Sheltered, I could paint this scene at my leisure which shows the market, the canal, the boat that is a floating restaurant, and some gulls on the water. In the background is mount royal, and the condo towers that I painted with black and white scratches.

Atwater market across canal, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2024 (No. 4045b)

 

A lot of times I paint this iconic water tower it gets lost in the details, so this time I painted it as a close crop, almost like a rusty space ship in the sky. Hey, its like the space capsule that Boeing made! Lucky they didn't put the astronauts in it, needs a little rust paint touch up.

Rusty water tower, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2024 (No. 4041b)

 

A large factory/warehouse sits derelict on st Patrick, all the windows are smashed and its plastered in graffiti. What interested me was the contrast between the colourful spray paint and the fall colours in the foreground. One can only imagine that this whole thing will be razed and replaced with condos, its prime real estate being right next to the canal. I did see wildlife here, a small mole or vole or something was swatting its little claws at me and it was showing me its little teeth. It wasn't very scary, but it was a tiny reminder that if you leave things alone nature will come back.

Graffiti and fall colours, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2024 (No. 4035b)

Old Montreal, a popular painter?

Its always fun painting in Old Montreal and the Old Port, its usually full of tourists and they like to take a look or make a video of me painting. Not shy, I just park my bike in the middle of the walking avenues and start painting. This scene is the classic dome of the Bonsecours market, despite the cloud cover, the metallic roof and dome were reflecting light. Technique is required for a scene like this, I used wet-in-wet followed by side-drag to create the shiny, texture roof and dome.

Bonsecours market roof line, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2024 (No. 4037a)

 

Quite a few people talked to me here, and seemed to think it was a good painting. One lady asked me what kind of trees those were, I said crab apple and the apples are too bitter to eat! I liked the violet colour of the ice cream kiosk, made with quin magenta (PR122) and blue (PB15) and a touch of quin purple (PV55). The darn ferris wheel never turns out right, so here I just made a basic image of it with some circles, lines and blobs. You get the feeling here, just imagine someone is looking over your shoulder.

Ice cream and ferris wheel, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2024 (No. 4043a)

 

No its not fair, fall colours are here already? In this painting I had to wait for it to dry before applying the ferris wheel over top of the cloudy sky. Using the drunken master technique, this painting seeks to capture the elements and the feeling of the moment without fussing over the details. On a painting trip like this I usually start of 'tight' and by the end of it I am slapping paint on the paper with glee.

Fall colours ferris wheel, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2024 (No. 4044a)

 

This is the spot where it rained yesterday and I had to abandon ship so to speak. After doing the outline in paint, I filled in the details and textural elements. I don't know what they were thinking when constructing the monstrosity in the background, the steel and pink tinted glass really doesn't go with the whole stone and brick theme of Old Montreal. 

View up street Old Montreal, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2024 (No. 4043b)

 

It started to rain a tiny bit here and the washes collapsed on me, that is, turned to a moist mess. Anyways, you see the old stone and brick buildings with a grotesque glass and steel thing in the background. Maybe next time I will find an angle without the modern building, there are plenty of options in and around this part of town.

Old Montreal blue building, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2024 (No. 4044b)

Shaughnessy Café and other scenes along the way

The first painting of the day was a second attempt at the Shaughnessy Café location, this time facing almost head on. There was a minivan blocking the best spot to stand so I had to mentally straighten out the perspective into a single point view like this. It took some time, all the while getting blasted with cold wet wind, there seems to be a wind tunnel effect next to the massive old forum building, it was all I could do to hold onto the paper, which was held on a cardboard backing by elastics. In the painting you can see the pale yellow, ornate wood trim which has sun-burst patterns on top of the windows. Whomever designed this built a sun theme into the architecture, combining the yellow with the sun beam detailing, something I had not noticed before. The rest of the painting was a jigsaw puzzle of textures, details, and various shades of grey. Under the awning, is the half-basement floor which contains the actual Café. Its a scene worth revisiting, now that I understand the structure I can probably do an even better version. Last year, or maybe the year before I've lost track, I made several visits to the Dépanneur Diamond 10 in Lachine which was a good thing since it has been knocked down last time I was there. Unlike the Lachine location, this building is a mega triple A+ heritage building and will likely never be changed.

Shaughnessy Café, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, September  2024 (No. 3907a)

Continuing with the theme of making corrections, this is the funny old yellow ochre office tower that looks quaint next to the soaring glass and steel sky scrapers going up around it. At the time, I'll bet this building was impressive and very prestigious, it seems to be a brick and wood structure, although it may too have a steel frame underneath. Definitely a 1960's style construction. Its right next to the Bay building, behind the Hertz rental. Like the cafe location, I was here yesterday but the shade of yellow was not correct, so here I amped up the chroma with yellow ochre and dabs of synthetic yellow (PY97).

Yellow ochre building, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2024 (No. 4042a)

Speaking of soaring buildings, these ones really take the cake. If you look to the bottom left of the painting, you see the old triplex buildings, which would have seemed tall when they were built in the 19th century, then behind you see tall, taller and tallest buildings. In fact, the condo on the left was about 20% taller and more narrow than you see it scaled in the painting. My brushes were not fine enough to paint the triplexes small enough to scale it to the sky scrapers. This scene by the way is standing in the Place des Arts area where Jazz fest and other festivals are held. If there is a housing crisis in Canada, its not here!

Tall taller tallest, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2024 (No. 4037b)

 

 

Lightness on Jolicoeur street, Dépanneur Freesia

After years of riding my bike around Montreal its not often that I get lost, but today to be honest I got turned around somewhere after going under the A15 along Angers street. In retrospect it was Cote st Paul, a small neighborhood wedged between the highway, the canal and the aqueduct. Eventually the canal became visible with the mega hospital on the horizon and I was found again. On the way, this corner Dépanneur stood out, it had greyish plaster walls, a colourful sign, and warm amber light coming from the front door. It was reminiscent of Darkness on Ontario Street, but in the inverse. This could have been Lightness on Jolicoeur street, and Jolicoeur roughly translates into happy heart. Most people were going in to get smokes, alcohol and chips, so not sure how happy the hearts were, but it definitely was a community hub here. For proximity, this is very close to Monk street. Luckily the rain held off and I could produce another 14 paintings today after doing the same number yesterday. With more time, I used a larger format of 6 x 7.5" and a few of 8 x 10".

Lightness on Jolicoeur street Dépanneur Freesia, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2024 (No. 4041a)

Montreal Convention Center, with yellow underpass

Part of the plan of going downtown was to find some shelter in case it rained, such as the massive Convention center. Here is a view of where the underpass begins, it has bright amber yellow track lights, which gave an eerie glow. On the right is the concrete exterior. The idea here was to create an abstraction of reality, its just about exactly how it looked in real life but the painting is almost cubist.

Convention Center abstraction, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2024 (No. 4036a)

 

Avenue Viger goes under the convention center, here is a view of the underpass illuminated with the eerie yellow orange glow. It was a colossally difficult painting to conceptualize with all the angles and bizarre lighting conditions. The idea was to keep it light and airy so as to convey the sense of space and depth. At least there was no rain down here.

Convention Center underpass, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2024 (No. 4036a)

In this panorama view you see the convention center with its glorious green glass facade. Apartment buildings and a grey sky complete the scene. I've cut a 6 x 7.5" format that I will try out next time, it will be better for social media on that ratio and give a little more space for these ambitious city scenes.

Convention Center green, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2024 (No. 4034b)

China town on a rainy day

 

Some locals were doing tai chi in this notable community square, surrounded by tourists and at least one painter. The main focus was the ornate shrine-like structure on the right and how it played against the background elements. Tall trees had red lanterns hanging on the branches.

China town community square, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2024 (No. 4033a)

 

It said art gallery on the sign in both languages, but the whole thing looked shut down and derelict or something. Just some faded prints in the upper floor window signified a gallery. I liked the building across the street that was reflecting in the tinted glass, and how the red and yellow sign popped off against the dour surroundings.

China town art gallery, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2024 (No. 4033b)

 

The narrow street had hundreds of people, with rows of tall trees adorned with red lanterns. The overhead street lights were also shaped like lanterns which was neat. The crowd underneath was just sketched in with some textural elements and brushstrokes to signify people.

Lanterns in trees, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2024 (No. 4034a)

It was one painting too many, the rain finally came down. It was only spitting rain but enough to sort of ruin this painting. For three minutes of effort it turned out okay anyways, but I can definitely return to this spot on a better day.

Old Montreal rained on, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2024 (No. )