This scene was done downtown at the corner of McGill College and Maisonneuve Boulevard looking south, the main building featured in the background is the Sun Life Building, and the foreground structure is Place Montreal Trust. Sandwiched in the middle is the Rogers building. I had to use google map and the streetview feature to figure out where I was exactly. I walked around for awhile to find this scene, most of the downtown is rather generic, this scene however seemed to have some distinctiveness... each layer is from a different generation of architecture: the Sun Life, from the old classic stone days (with a baroque theme), the Rogers building -ugly brown concrete from the 60's or 70's, and the Place Montreal Trust-all modern with a pre-fab look. I also liked the two flags on top of the Sun life building.
I don't often paint in the city because the sight lines are bad and the sun is often obscured by the buildings. In this case the sun was reflecting off another building windows, so I had some decent light to paint in. Also, the background building was lit up directly by the sun, which created the perfect focal point... the mid- and fore-ground structures were in shadow which gave a nice 'frame'. Usually the background is not the focal point, but in this case it works well. You really get the feeling of being downtown and seeing something spectacular hiding between the skyscrapers.
5x7.5" cold press 2012.
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