Montréal Est: The Biggest Day Part 2

After reaching the end of the island, I retraced my way back to the nature reserve and rode through its woods which offered a refreshingly cool temperature. A small path caught my eye, at the end of it was a very brown very green swamp with two families of ducks with many ducklings swimming through the dense weeds. You can barely see them in the painting, I used a lifting technique to create their fluffy bodies. Half the scene was in darkness, the other in light. I used plenty of umber (PBr7) for this one.

Parc-Nature Pointe-aux-Prairies Duck Swamp, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2021 (No. 2716a)

As I headed for the upper parts of the nature reserve, this scene emerged, it is looking down a steep embankment into an algae-filled swamp littered with fallen trees. It was just missing some cobwebs and spiders to be a complete Halloween theme. It was fun to capture the intense chartreuse (lime) green and variety of shapes in the broken trees. Another tourist saw me painting this and then took a picture of it. The black blobs at the top were actually the water showing through, an inky black.
 

Parc-Nature Pointe-aux-Prairies Creepy Swamp, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2021 (No. 2716b)

 

Did you know there are two kinds of chartreuse, one greenish like in the swamp, and another yellowish like in this painting of a winding bike and pedestrian path going through the woods. The path itself was caput mortum (PR101) a kind of violet-red earth paint, and the intense yellow was copious amounts of lemon (PY175). I really embellished this painting to convey the feeling of the scene, you can imagine zipping your bike through this path with intense sunlight and a cool breeze.

Parc-Nature Pointe-aux-Prairies Winding Path, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2021 (No. 2717 not numbered yet, at parents' house)

 

At this point in the day I was tired and starting to run out of water. Luckily I could use my dirty water for the swamp scenes which left some for a few more paintings. These sumac trees had very interesting shapes colours and textures which contrasted the wavy field of grass and reeds. A train rumbled by in the background. By now I was painting smoothly, just see anything interesting, stop, paint, repeat. I wonder if this was how Van Gogh felt when painting in France.  

Parc-Nature Pointe-aux-Prairies Sumacs, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2021 (No. 2718)

 

On my way back to the hotel I crossed one more park, this one was a non-de-script stretch of paths and benches in the heart of the Point-Aux-Trembles neighborhood. It was also coffee time, so I fixed up a little instant coffee with remaining dribbles of water, and thoroughly enjoyed it, you see the small plastic cup of coffee in the painting. I actually dabbed on some coffee to make the coffee in the painting, then finished it with raw umber (on the painting not in my coffee). I was feeling a little loopy at this time, probably mild heat stroke or exhaustion maybe, but my spirits were high. These chess-board tables were interesting, I composed them in a dream-like arrangement. Then I had the idea to include my paint brush painting the painting that I was painting. Like I said, high spirits!

Parc René-Lecavalier, High Spirits, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, June 2021 (No. 2895)

That had to be it, I was done for the day, or was I?

 

On my way to pick up some Indian food at a great little spot called Resto Indian, I noticed the industrial area just up on Blvd. St. Jean-Baptiste. Curious, I headed into the stench, a kind of chemical toilette aroma. The road had a steep grass embankment that was not fenced off, so I headed to the top bike in tow. The view was awesome, like not in a nice kind of way. It was extremely windy and smelly up here. The little pond area was sectioned off with giant concrete blocks, and half of the water behind a barrier was greenish. There were little shrubs and vines growing all around the water area. The main feature was a giant chemical drum, which surprisingly had a door on its side. The rest of the facility was a tangle of pipes and metal chimneys. What a shock, this all surrounded by suburbs and shopping areas.

Montreal East, Discount Resort!, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2021 (No. 2719)

The longest painting day was over with 15 paintings completed. Heading down to the restaurant, I enjoyed my hard earned chicken madras with rice ...  

Eating with the Swiss army knife and fork given to me by Fritz and Cileni last year...I thought I was eating alone.. or was I?