I sketch once a week in the old working-class neighbourhood of Point St-Charles with a group from the École d'art Point St-Charles School of Art. This painting is based on a drawing done in the yard of a former bank on Wellington St., now a private home. Drawing establishes the relationships and energy of the objects being drawn, and serves as an excellent research tool for a painting on canvas. The painting starts as an act of imagination that is rooted in a reality but takes on its own life. This painting was built up in glazes of transparent and translucent colour, which served as the details among areas of opaque colour.