Plateau mural is a 9-storey love song to Leonard Cohen

The opportunity to paint a giant portrait of Leonard Cohen on the side wall of the nine-storey Cooper Building just offSt-Laurent Boulevard is something of a double dream come truefor mural artist Kevin Ledo.

"I've been wanting to paint Leonard Cohen for a few years, and I've been wanting to paint this wall for a few years I live around the corner so the two together, I couldn't say no," he told CBC News.

While he specializes in portraits, Ledo said he's never attempted one ofthis scale before. He began by photographing the wall from a distance and then superimposed the image of Cohen over the photo.

He then used the existing lines and features of the wall as his grid and then plotted out the mural with their help.

Tracing the image on the building came down to a marker taped to a stick.

A nine-storey mural has gone up in honour of Leonard Cohen

7 years ago

Duration 0:29

Mural artist Kevin Ledo painted the mural on Montreal's Cooper Building

Inspired by Cohen's last two albums

Ledo said the mural is inspired by Cohen's later work, especially his last two albums.

"They had this dark kind of feel that I really liked, and yet there was always this light around it," Ledo said.

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As a long-time Cohen fan, Ledo said the project is as much a personal tribute to the legendary singer and poet as it is a work of public art.

Still, he's happy to see the positive response his work-in-progress has been receiving.

"I've always liked Leonard Cohen and his music and I really respect him as an artist and, as time goes on, I'm starting to see that it's very meaningful for everybody else as I'm doing it," Ledo said.

"I'm happy that it's becoming a public celebration of Leonard Cohen."

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