Red green blue colours where they are

Here are the last few paintings from yesterday, done in Point st Charles, starting with a scene of the train depot and its prominent storage silos. This place allows cargo to be off-loaded and sorted for distribution. As usual, there were pylons along the street. 

Silos pylons, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

A scene looking up the street along the stacked containers and traffic. The containers were yellow, red and navy blue along with a few orange ones. For a painting like this its best to avoid too much accuracy and just try to get general shapes and colours down on the paper. 

Containers cars, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

Finally, this bright red building, which I believe is a retail store, had a red car, and prominent tree, almost black against the sky, giving a Halloween feel to the scene. So I made my initials creepy on this one, and on the first painting of the blog where my initials are like dripping blood... boo!

Red house red car, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026 

Gentrifying neighborhoods

Point st Charles is one of the rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods in Montreal, located east of Verdun and in between highways, the river, and the canal. Once a residential-industrial blended neighborhood, the old factories and warehouses are being razed one by one and replaced with condominiums and retail. In this scene on st Patrick street, I found a neat warehouse/building center, still open for business. It made for an interesting composition with contrasting angles and depth elements. 

Green wall construction center, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

A small park called Parc des Chaudronniers is nestled between buildings. Its surrounded by a vast empty gravel lot which has the look of something destined to be developed. It was a great place to stand with my bike and paint yesterday on a nice, cool fall day. In the background, is a newly built condominium with its yellowish insulation layer still showing before the bricks are set. 

Empty lot new condo, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

Same spot looking east, you see multiple building structures with a neat variety of textures and colours. Bottom left was a challenging dark-yellow with aluminum siding, behind were white-washed red brick, then an exposed-wood panelling wall in the background. To the right was a tall stainless steel or aluminum vat connected by piping to the buildings. 

Old textures and vat, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

And looking to the west, a towering wall of glass condos, the traffic on st Patrick, and part of the empty lot on the bottom left, with some graffiti on the wall. I hope the city can turn this empty lot into a park to extend the existing Chaudronniers park, and I have a feeling they will. In other areas, the city also reserved park space, so as to avoid an unbroken block of Condos in one area. 

Glass walls empty lot, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026 

 

Halloween end of October fall colours

Taking a nice bike ride down the Lachine canal path, albeit a chilly windy and cool day, I made some paintings of fall colours and various industrial scenes. Here, I featured colourful red and yellow foliage with a rusty train bridge in the background and Lachine canal running through the middle. I quite enjoyed painting this one, I dare say I had fun!

Warm foliage drained canal, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

Three scenes in one, we have stacks of things in an auto shop parking lot, an electrical station in the background with the highway, and one of the Verdun aqueduct towers visible behind the tree. With the paint drying slowly today, I made several paintings successively for each location. Start one, let it dry while starting another, then go back to the first one. 

Stacks of stuff electrical station, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

The side of the auto shop, which backs onto st Patrick, has a large ZO (by ZONEK), which I changed to PJD instead. It was a neat textural challenge, and I had all the same colours on my palette that ZONEK must have had in their spray paint cans. 

PJS colour wall, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

 

And a painting of the drained canal with train bridge. Usually this whole scene is under water, so it was neat to see what it looks like when drained. It was such a good place to stand I made all these paintings from the same spot, with decent sun, although a fierce wind barreling along the canal. 

Train drain, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026 

Frosty tree, thoughts on winter water

Yes a winter painting! But this one is from 30 years ago believe it or not, in fact, its one of the first winter paintings I ever made. The scene was in London Ontario at the main park downtown on a day with -10℃, which I wrote on the backs of one of these paintings. As it cools off, and luckily I did not need salt in the water for today's paintings although I brought some with me just in case, maybe its time to remember how to paint in the winter. I typically add salt, around 150g per 1L of water is good for -10℃, and 300g per L is good for -20℃. Usually I add 100g to 0.5L which fits in my container. Theoretically, salt water will not freeze down to -21℃ after which it will turn slushy and icy which I knew from experience too. Propylene is perhaps another option, at 60% propylene glycol the water wont freeze down to about -50°C, and a 50% solution will freeze around -30°C. Back in time, I did not know these things, and brought some warm water along with me to make winter paintings, but as you can easily see in the example above, ice crystals formed and it was difficult to finish the painting properly. Maybe if it gets cold again this winter I will try the propylene glycol trick. 

Frosty tree, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 1996

Paint resupply, abstract paintings

Here is an abstract painting I made awhile ago, using a variety of warm earth colours with blue accents. It was a so-called palette cleanser, where I was cleaning the palette paints with a brush and using the excess to make a painting. Its also fun to just paint something without any constraints. With abstract the idea is to paint what you feel. Getting reading glasses was a mid-life chroma! 

Mid life chroma, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, October 2026

Realizing the supply chain and cost issues are creeping into the fine-art supply world, I decided to stock up on some of my favorite and most used paints. The first 6 tubes are DaVinci brand delivered from Studio Six Toronto, and the last six are Daniel Smith brand, mostly from Kama pigments Montreal except for the pink ones. The pink ones are called quinacridone lilac PR122, and I used to get a good version of it from Schmincke brand, but that brand is not really available anymore, and other companies do not carry it.

From left to right, these are 37mL tubes of raw sienna (PBr7), raw umber (PBr7), 2 x yellow ochre (PY43), and 15mL tubes of 2 x DaVinci yellow (PY154), followed by bismuth vanadate yellow (PY184), burnt yellow ochre (PR102), lamp black (PBk6), phthalo green yellow shade (PG36), and 2 x  quinacridone lilac (PR122). Should last me awhile!  

One last painting I did, after being reminded at work about the importance of getting 'high impact' publications, I did this painting instead. Its a high impact painting... like lots of clashing colours. You would think 'high impact' is a bad thing after all, like collisions, but in science it seems to be a good thing, it means you spent a lot of money on the research project. 

High impact, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, October 2026

 

Sundown shadows parking lot

Capturing the setting sun and glints off car-tops took some deft brushwork. Its that time of year when painting outdoors becomes increasingly difficult due to cold moist air, although so far its been an excellent autumn. Getting shadow values correct is also tricky in watercolour, you have to apply it a shade or two darker to anticipate how looks after drying. 

Sundown car shadows, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

A quick study of the passing commuter train, one of the newer ones, with some earthy-yellow/orange trees. An art store chain Deserres, recently discontinued Schmincke paint, reduced their Daniel Smith selection substantially, and were out of stock on most PWC brand paints. Thinking ahead, I decided to make a round of purchases at Kama Pigment Montreal and Studio Six Toronto. One paint in particular, quinacridone magenta (PR122) was hard to get, so I ordered two tubes of it. Maybe supply chain and cost issues are going to hit watercolour paints and art retailers as stocks dwindle. 

Train passing trees, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

Looking east, its part of the sports dome, and the PERFORM Centre casting a shadow across the rear parking area. That shadow colour is a mix of quinacridone purple (PV55) and phthalo green blue shade (PG7). I received the Kama Pigment shipment already, got Daniel Smith 15mL tubes of Lamp black (PBk6), burnt yellow ochre (PR102), phthalo green yellow shade (PG36), and bismuth vanadate yellow (PY184). 

Centre dome rear view, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

 

Underground tunnel signs of autumn

Riding east along the st Jacques bike path and I encountered many construction sites, and finally stopped off at Montagne street where underground highway 136 emerges. I paint there frequently because there are good sight lines, angles, and plenty of sun comes in which is a rarity in the city especially in the autumn and winter. These signs are reminding drivers to turn right, no left, no right... on Montagne street. 

Right right right, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

Along the exterior of the tunnel exit there are a number of power boxes and cables that are no doubt connected to the many lights within the tunnel. Graffiti adorned the stainless steel boxes, which I replaced with my own initials and year. To paint stainless steel, I applied a warm wash, then tinted it blue on top, and yellow-green on bottom. In doing so, it gives the illusion of reflecting the sky and green grass. 

Tunnel power lines, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026

Standing up behind the retainer fence, its surrounded by an open lawn next to the dog park, I got this view of cars coming out of the tunnel. Yellow signs said turn right, and watch out for pedestrians. Towards the upper right of this scene, I depicted some of the tents that were set up, people were living in them. As drivers sped past the people living in tents, I noticed a parallel, this is, the car shadows and the tent shadows looked very similar. Regardless of our status in the world, we all cast the same shadows. 

Exit looking down, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026