Montreal Beach

How often does one visit the beach in Montreal? White sand, blue beach chairs, the smell of the water. It turns out that there actually is a beach, down in the old port area, they filled in a whole section with sand and put some chairs in there. Of course it isn't free to get in. The painting I did on location makes it look like the water is right at the edge of the sand but there is actually a rod iron fence and a 2 meter drop off to reach the water. In the background you can see the Molson Brewery.

The hardest thing to paint with watercolour is water. Ironic. After all these years I still feel completely challenged when trying to depict water. It has different colours, it reflects light, and worst of all it moves. In this painting I started with a sky blue layer, making sure to leave the white highlights.... you do this by dragging your brush sideways across the paper. Then I overlay a more purple-blue, but leaving little slices of the sky blue showing. This makes a wave-illusion because waves are three dimensional and reflect colour differently on each side. Finally I put on the greens and darker blues, in reality these are coming from the silt and deeper water below.When it is dry, I take one of my beat up old brushes and make it moist (not wet) and go over the area a few times really quickly. This makes things a little smooth and glassy. Cheers.

5x7" cold press. 2012