Blvd St Laurent is one of the streets in Montreal that has become known for its street art. Some of the past murals have disappeared as redevelopment swallows up older buildings but new murals keep appearing. Two of these recent murals are at Avenue Mont-Royal and were painted during Mural Fest 2026 earlier this summer.
below: This is Greg Mike’s contribution to the 2026 Montreal Mural Festival. It is about 85 feet long and 25 feet high. There is a white hand holding a paintbrush that has been dipped in blue. There are also several eyes and partial faces surrounding the woman with the blue circle around her eye.
below: Two little Waxhead creatures have survived – they were new in 2015. Looking good for their age!
below: This is part of a mural by Vincent Arnold, and is another 2026 addition to the murals along Blvd Saint Laurent. This pink faced man is reaching for ….
below: ….. fruit. The strawberry doesn’t seem too concerned though.
… where you can find two large murals on opposite corners.
below: Along Rue Marie-Anne is part of Izabelle Duguay’s “Toucher L’horizon” with its pink/blue mountain rising above the blue water. The whole mural wraps around two sides of the building.
below: The “Ange de Bordeaux” was Aristides de Sousa Mendes (1885-1954). He was Portuguese consul-general in Bordeaux France where he defied the orders of the Portuguese government and issued visas to thousands of refugees fleeing Nazi-occupied France, including Jews. He lost his job because of it and died in poverty after the war. The many accolades and awards that he received all came after his death. The mural was painted by Awie in 2022.
below: A blue lion is the centerpiece in Kevin Ledo’s mural on Marie-Anne (across the street from L’Ange de Bordeaux).
below: This is a more complete picture of the mural. The blue of the lion as well as the patterns formed by the blue squares and rectangles recall some of the features of Portuguese ceramic tiles.
below: Waiting to cross Blvd Saint Laurent.
below: More of “Toucher L’horizon”
One of the corners at St. Laurent and Marie-Anne is Parc du Portugal – you can see some of the park trees in the picture above. Directly across the park from Izabelle Duguay’s mural are more artworks with a Portuguese connection.
below: This is a portrait of Amalia Rodrigues. As you can probably surmise, she was a musician. Rodrigues (1920-1999) was known as the Queen of Fado; fado is a Portuguese music genre. The mural was painted by Paulo Carreira.
below: This mosaic, “Azulejos” was presented to the City of Montreal by the Portuguese community. The word ‘azulejos’ refers to the painted and glazed ceramic tiles that the artwork is made of.
below: A closer look at part of the image. There are a lot of little details hidden in it.
below: “Whatever make sense to your soul”. Interesting sticker even if it has a grammar mistake in the text.
below: Shitty graffiti!
below: “Ma voix est-elle muette a vos oreilles?” A literal translation is: “Is my voice silent to your ears?” Or would Portuguese be more appropriate?… “Será que a minha voz é silenciosa para ti?”
If you walk east on Bloor from Dundas West, you will encounter a railway bridge.
A section of the walls of this underpass have recently been painted by 40+ artists. The south side is now covered in new murals.
This underpass has been painted previously – back in 2015 both the north and south walls were painted in a Wallnoize project (see post from 2015). Some of the same artists appear on this updated version. This time it was StreetARToronto that sponsored the artworks. Let’s take a look at some of the murals (in no particular order)….
below: Stay young! An old man on a bike that he outgrew years ago! by Adrian Hayles
below:Opola Karim painted this Toronto skyline scene, a view that is well known to anyone who has visited the Toronto islands.
below: Peaceful, loving hands joining together by Phillip Saunders aka Loveishere
below: Close to the west end of the underpass is this colourful section. The collection of birds on the right side were painted by two artists, Just J. Art (the hummingbird and the hibiscus flower) and Ambsoul Art
below: A peace dove in a swirl of calligraphy, by Medeio
below:Danilo Deluxo, a woman in an elaborate helmet, futuristic pilot.
below: Facing each other, Danilo Deluxo and Drippin’ Soul
below: Using shades of black, teal and magenta, Drippin’ Soul has created a very metallic looking profile
below: That’s one creepy red eye! Or is it two red eyes? Ahhhh…. the red eye and brass (bronze?) pieces are part of a mask and the design was apparently “inspired by the taotie motifs of the Shang dynasty” (Quote is from MonkYi’s instagram page). The Shang dynasty dates back to between 1600 BC and 1050 BC; it marked the beginning of the Bronze Age in China. A taotie was a mythological creature that represented greed and gluttony.
below:Ghazaraza‘s ladies are sharing a pot of tea.
below: Flowers in her hair, flowers everywhere… Oh, I don’t know just why She simply caught my eye…. Or you can all it by its title, “Wildlife in Bloom” by Lula Lumaj.
below: A cute little grey cat with green eyes.
below: GO train – definitely On the Move!
below: “The Lookout aka the Fruit Bandits” not letting a fence get in the way! by Jim Bravo
below: Mother and daughter watching the traffic in a mural by Colin Tea.
below: Part of a monochrome mural by Nicolas Araneda aka niko.volts that has a lot of very American feet walking all over the faces of other people as lay on the ground…. ‘Trampling’ might be a better verb than ‘walking’
below: Some walk in heavy boots, and others swim with open mouth ….
below: “Not today Satan”. There’s a lot going on here – the Silly Sausage Gang being front and center. 33wallflower33 in her white coat with the fuzzy collar and little decorations by catchoo . There is also a T-bonez (of urban ninja squadron fame) wearing a green shirt and a necklace with a pendant – that’s Sticker Eddie he’s wearing, apparently. The red-hearted pug’s name is Mopsi. Mopsi has something in his mouth but the donut is in the way (for more Mopsi see the Instagram page of his creator, So schoen immer weider)…. And the other dog is a collaboration between TRP613 (check out the reflections in the sunglasses!) and DivadogLA
below: “Get me out of here” and a dose of Instant Karma.
below: Free Iran
below: This painting of a woman with her headphones above and yellow birdie walking a dog below was one of the first murals in Graffiti Alley – the work of Uber5000. Not many originals still exist!
below: Elicser Elliott’s contribution to a larger mural that has been painted below the pink Poser bunny, “Don’t watch me cry”
below: Half a face. He only needs one eye to stare at you.
below: Gold… With a garland of white and blue flowers.
below: A very large and very purple bear is at the door.
below: He or she looks rather cramped in there. Signature says Neem?
below: Another flower garland and another Neem head squeezed into a box.
below: Scowling and smoking with ace in his cap.
below: Skydome forever and ALCS, as well as Vladdy’s number 27 shirt and World Series 2025…. little blue and white pieces of ceramic that celebrate the Toronto Blue Jays that someone lovingly made.
below: One Inch? … And other stickers crammed together.
below: “We are the colours of corn”
below: More stickers and pasteups including catchoo’s dumpster fire that t-bonez from urban ninja squadron is using to dry his socks and underwear.
below: A couple of contributions from Dogmaslaps here (they’re all about dogs in case you haven’t guessed yet).
below: More pasteups, some of which are quite intricate and detailed … especially the top two (vulture and jaguar?) which are both the creations of Ezpektro.
below: Sharing space with the Ezpektro pieces are a few smaller pasteups, some of which were made by artists that are new to me. There is a pink bike in the top right, the same bike that is in the Make Art Not War poster in the above image… BikeDeSuro creates stickers and wheatpaste featuring bikes. From the left, a woman by Fiigueers and then a young girl with the Spanish words, “que nunca se apague la llama de la autonomia” which translates to “may the flame of autonomy never be extinguished”… The collection is rounded out with a guitar player from Sentient Cookie and a cute little green guy from Catchoo.
below:MonkYi cat with a very real looking heart in his claws. Two carp swimming on the pavement in front.
below: Charmander, a Pokemon character.
below: Alfred E. Neuman makes an appearance in a couple of places – he’s the dude from MAD Magazine.
below: By 50 shades of greatt aka Adam McKnight – It looks a lot like Sponge Bob… maybe it’s his cousin? But what’s with that tongue? It looks like a slug is trying to slither out of his mouth.
below: Verity and a happy face.
below: Someone is not impressed…. Lame
below: Green guy says: “In one year’s time, strike your blow, I shall return.”
below: Dance the Dance My Girl,” is located in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood of Vancouver. It is a collaboration between Ari de la Mora and Irving Cano and it was painted as part of the 2017 Vancouver Mural Festival.
below: A woman in traditional clothing and jewelry, holding a very realistic looking heart and a pineapple. The latter symbolizes hospitality and abundance.
below: The Mississippi Mudds is an amateur theatre group based in Carleton Place (Ontario). Why Mississippi? Because the town of Carleton Place is on the Mississippi RIver, the one in Ontario, not the more famous one to the south.
below: mmm
below: Ode to Stompin’ Tom Connors (1936-2013), country and folk singer and songwriter. “Everyone’ll tell ya around Carleton Place – Mississippi dripped off of big Joe’s face…” This quote is a line from Connors’ song ‘ Big Joe Mufferaw’. In the song, a very large Joe was a logger and when he worked, the sweat dripping from Joe’s face was so massive that it formed both Mississippi Lake and the Mississippi River.
below: A mural in memory of Captain Roy Brown (1893-1944), a WW1 flying ace and the pilot who was officially credited with shooting down Manfred von Richthofen, otherwise known as the “Red Baron”. Brown was born in Carleton Place where his father owned a power company.
below: This picture is one of several that illustrate some of the events in the town’s history. They are mounted on the walls of a small building next to the city hall. Ballygiblin refers to Ballygiblin House, North Cork, Ireland where many Irish immigrants came from in the very early 1800s. They settled in Lanark County around the Mississippi River back when Carleton Place was known as Morphy’s Falls. At the time, men had to register with the local militia (mustering). During one of these mustering events in 1824, fights broke out between the Irish of Carleton Place and the Scots of nearby Almonte. There were also religious differences. The fighting lasted for a couple of days with one dead, several wounded and some buildings damaged. Picture by Shaun McInnis.
below: In a couple of places, old style signs have been painted on old buildings. Taylor’s Hardware did exist in downtown Carleton Place and in fact, it was in this building. William Taylor built the store in 1888 and his sons Jack and Frank continued the legacy until the Depression in 1929. At one point it was Taylor’s Department Store and Garage.
below: Just up the street from Taylor’s is the Canadian Tire wall. Here you can find four images from old Canadian Tire ads along with an older version of their logo – probably from 1957.
below: She quietly sits, absorbed in her book
below: “Last Train to Carleton Place #1226 – January 8, 1960,” was painted in 2013 by artist Shaun McInnis on the side of Edwards Grocery building, another old building in Carleton Place. Back in the 1920s trains on the CPR (Canadian Pacific Railway) stopped here on their run between Montreal and Vancouver. There were also many trains to Ottawa, Brockville, and Pembroke.
below: Memorial to Wayne Richards, also known as Wandering Wayne. It too was painted by Shaun McInnis.
Wayne Richards (1936-2016) Wayne believed that “one step at a time” was good for the soul. He will forever be known as “Wandering Wayne” to the town of Carleton Place. He was one of the last milkmen to deliver door to door by horse drawn wagon, working for both the Maple Leaf Dairy and Carleton Place Dairy. If you took the time to talk to him he could tell you more about the town and your family than you thought possible. Wayne asked for the best of each of us in our little town and hopefully we met his expectations. Thanks Wayne for always reminding us to take the time to be kind. May you be walking the clouds in heaven.”
All of the pictures in this post were taken on Dundas East, just west of Jones Avenue. Along this stretch of Dundas, garages and backyard fences line the street. Most of them have been painted with bright and cheerful images of flowers, birds, animals, and other living things.
below: There is only one person who would paint a mural with these cute but mischievous raccoons, Emily May Rose
below: Sadly, unsigned and unknown. Two snakes slithering through pink flowers and green grass.
below: La Pupila (aka Valentina) has painted rosy red apples with faces, and even a bite taken out of one of them.
There is a wall in Doug Fluhrer Park in Kingston that has been designated as a legal graffiti wall. At the moment (or at least last week when I was there) many of the paintings were the work of the same artist, Steve Oakley, aka ridinlow613. Pop culture references are plentiful.
below: Homer Simpson snores again.
below: Another character from the Simpsons (Otto Man, the school bus driver), but this time they share space with Ozzy Osborne.
below: Pennywise the Clown from Stephen King’s “It” has sprouted green leafy hair on top of his already colourful red.
below: Her sleeves suggest Disney’s Snow White.
below: With mouth wide open – singing? yelling?
below: Lola Bunny has a smile for you.
below: Huckleberry Hound and Top Cat lounging around in the shade.
below: If it was Snow White above, perhaps this is the wicked step-mother?
below: Snakes!
below: Richie Rich “poor little rich boy” first appeared in 1953, later in the 1980s he had his own TV show.
below: Deconstructed. Eyes, ears, mouth, and nose. It brings to mind the childhood song of ‘Head and Shoulders’…..
below: Garfield is a basketball star (or he just thinks that he is?)
Over the past thirty years the city of Oshawa has added murals to many of its downtown buildings. Most of the murals celebrate the city in one way or another. Several focus on past events and the McLaughlin family appears a number of times. In the early years of the 20th century, the McLaughlin family turned their Oshawa-based carriage manufacturing business into the McLaughlin Motor Car Company. It eventually became part of General Motors.
Back in 2024 the city had a debate as to whether or not to refurbish and upgrade the 14 or 15 older murals that had been painted in the 1990s, or to just paint over them. Since they are still here, the paint over proponents must have lost.
below: “Oshawa 1935” by Dan and Peter Sawatzky
below: “Recreation by the Lake” by Tony Johnson, 1997 – relaxing on the waterfront at the foot of Simcoe Street. Barnhart’s Pavillion is in the background – this is where you’d go to dance on a Friday night. The round thing in the middle? That’s the Ocean Wave!
below: On the walls of the bandshell in Memorial Park there is a mural by David Yeatman that showcases Northern Dancer, a famous thoroughbred racing horse who was born and raised on Windfields Farm in Oshawa.
below: Although the first Windfields Farm was in Toronto (on Bayview Ave), a second was established in Oshawa in 1950 when E.P. Taylor bought 1500 acres from the McLaughlin family. It was here that Northern Dancer (1961-1990) was born, and where he is buried. in 1964, he became the first Canadian-bred horse to win the Kentucky Derby. On April 16, 2018, Northern Dancer’s grave became an official heritage site.
below: These four panels depict some of the history of the Ontario Regiment starting with its formation in 1866. The other panels memorialize various battles and conflicts that they have been involved in since then. These panels also stand in Memorial Park and were painted by John Hood
below: Borsberry Music Hall, by Brian Romagnoli
below: Building on a strong foundation in ‘Oshawa’s Development (Historical Industry and Development)’ by Robin Burgesse. Three local businesses are shown – Warren Mills, Williams Piano Factory, and the McLaughlin Carriage Company
below: The Oshawa Generals was a Major Junior League hockey team that was formed back in 1937. Bobby Orr is probably the most famous player but Billy Taylor,Terry O’Reilly, and Eric Lindros are also pictured in this mural (Paul Ygartua, 1997)
below: ‘Turning the Wheel’ by Dani Crosby commemorates the John Bolase Warren Flour Mill that used to sit on this site. (tore down a mill to put up a parking lot?!?). This large gristmill was built in 1837 and demolished in 1981.
below: Instead of looking back at the past, this mural by Bruno Smoky (Clandestinos) focuses on the future, a green future (including electric vehicles).
below: This long horizontal mural on the side of Wall ‘N Floor Decor is “Driving Force” by Rudolf Stussi (1996). It illustrates the evolution of the automobile starting with the Oshawa Carriage Works.
below: Another history mural that references the Oshawa Carriage Works is “Full Steam Ahead” by Gus Froese, 1995. The title is shown as a headline in The Oshawa Daily Reformer newspaper.
below: Another artwork that celebrates the automotive industry is one that consists of 5 panels by artist John Hood. Here are two of them – crash test dummies, and a nod to the people who helped develop and refine engine technology
below: “Camp X” by Tony Johnson (2001). It tells the story of a secret Special Training School 103 that opened in 1941. It was here that 500 “secret agents” were taught hand-to-hand combat, interrogation techniques, psychological warfare, explosives training, espionage, sabotage, and how to survive behind enemy lines.
below: The perils of painting murals beside parking lots! A hummingbird is front and center in this bright and cheerful mural, “Stop and Smell the Flowers”.
There are two large murals by Nick Sweetman that cover the two sides of Bathurst street as it passes under the 401 highway (in Toronto). Both of them are a collection of animals – birds, frogs, cows, cats, foxes, bats, tigers, and more. This is a selection of images from those two walls.
Eyes on the Streets 