Just about 20 minutes bike ride from NDG is the beginnings of the Lachine canal. There is a short stretch of it that looks just like Amsterdam complete with bridges, houses, and little docks with boats here and there. This one is just where the canal turns, in the background you can see the dome of College St. Anne. The trees are just starting to turn colour now, they are a blend of yellow, orange and green. To capture that rusty orange colour I mixed some very bright yellow and orange paint with umber, which is mud brown! Umber is the least expensive paint in my collection but it is turning out to be the most useful.
Lachine Canal with Bike/Pedestrian Bridge, 5 x 7" hot press, watercolour, September 2020
I could have painted all day at the canal, but I wanted to save something for another trip. So I headed out to the Musee Plein Air de Lachine, a breakwater peninsula that is a family friendly park with dozens of large sculptures. I found a relatively secluded and quiet spot to sit on the shore of the St. Lawrence River, with a great view of Mercier bridge. It wasn't quiet or secluded for long though. Some poor fellow floated by in the river clinging to a turned-over windsurf board, and then a police car roared up full siren and parked right behind me. The officer shouted over her loudspeaker at the man, she was telling him to get to a nearby boat. The commotion attracted a crowd of people, kids yelling, dog barking, people filming with smart phones. The guy in the water was waving and thumbs up like he was okay. Finally a rescue boat got the guy and the crowd dispersed. Luckily I had been wearing my mask the whole time.
St. Lawrence River with view of Mercier Bridge, 5 x 7" hot press, watercolour, September 2020
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