On day 1 of my bike ride to the East point I made several paintings at Parc Honoré-Mercier, then carried on along the Notre Dame bike path to the next park called Hotel de Ville (City Hall Park). The first thing I saw was this incredible blue pine tree with purple cones. In the background colourful buoys were in the St. Lawrence River. The bike path can be seen just behind the tree and before the shore line. Getting the colour and value right was tough, the tree was a smoky blue-green, while the river was a greenish dark blue colour. The purple pine cones were neat, you don't see that colour very often in nature.
Parc hotel de Ville 1, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press June 2021 (No. 2705)
There was a prominent rocky point that descended to a large block of concrete, it seemed to be used for sitting or fishing. Some bicycle cops showed up and they were just taking a rest. I captured the image of one of their bikes at the top left, but added a saddle pack to make it look my bike. Some of the rocks had an iron-oxide colour to them, so I signed in burnt sienna an iron oxide paint.
Parc hotel de Ville 2, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2021 (No. 2706)
The main feature of this park as the name indicates is a Moulin (Mill), although not a rouge one. It looked pretty old (Vieux) but well maintained it is probably a tourist attraction in better times. At least it attracted one tourist enough to make a painting of it. Van Gogh famously painted windmills in Paris when he first arrived. It is a difficult structure to get right, I began with a carbon black outline then filled in the colours. To get the brick effect I made a dilute yellow ochre (PY43) wash, then added grey (PB60+PR101 caput mortum) when it was still wet. Once that dries, the stones went on in groups, including grey, brown and black stones.
Parc de Vieux Moulin, Mill, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2021 (No. 2707)
The next park was completely in shadow when I arrived due to the low sun. This boat was the same one that I saw from a distance in the Parc Honoré-Mercier paintings, and it was still illuminated by the setting sun. The white part of the ship is just the paper showing. To make it glow, I made the rest of the painting various shades of grey, so the white looks radiant by contrast.
Parc Doris Lussier, Ship, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2021 (No. 2708)
Just enough light for one more painting, I found another ship subject in the distance at the next park. A sail boat was moored close to the shore between a narrow island with no name which acted as a breakwater. I made sure to get the sails right because my dad is a real expert on sailboats and could probably guess what kind it was from the painting. This painting concluded my first day of the trip, I headed up the hotel from here. In fact I had made 10 paintings on the first day which is not a bad haul. Glad I got out there safe and sound too.
Parc Neuville-sur-Vanne, Sailboat, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2021 (No. 2709)
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