Montreal West: On the Water

 

Just past Pine Beach Park is Valois Bay Park, part of an area I am not familiar with called Valois. The park was heavily landscaped and manicured as you can see from the painting where every shrub and flower was tastefully located. As I painted, a team of worker guys showed up in two trucks and a backhoe, there must have been five of them, and their task was to move the port-o-let toilette about 3 meters to the left. It took a bit of extra concentration to finish this one, but I am pleased with how it turned out, the birch bark really shines. I made the texture of the water similar to the birch bark just to add some flow to the scene.

Valois Bay Park, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2021 (No. 2728)

 

Sailboats were a plenty on the St. Lawrence, these boats perhaps belong to a sailing club, I thought it was Point Claire Yacht club but looking on the map it seems to be further up river. The colourful boats were zigging and zagging (tacking) around the river, which was an interesting shade of pea-soup and turquoise. I used cobalt blue (PB28) to get the blue reflections on the water. 

Point Claire Sailing Boats, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2021 (No. 2729a)

 

It started to get overcast when I found this fancy old estate building turned cultural center and art gallery in Point Claire. It was closed for business, but the port-o-let was a popular destination (not in the painting!). I liked the way the covered veranda framed the blue-green mountains in the distance.  To capture the shadows in the cloud I used indo blue (PB60) and caput mortum (PR101) which is a neutral purplish looking brown. When the clouds were more stormy, I increased the amount of indo blue. If they were closer to the sun, I added a touch of burnt sienna. It may not look like it, but cloud shadows contain the whole spectrum of colours albeit grey versions.

Stewart Hall Cultural Building, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, June 2021 (No. 2921)

 

Finally I made it to Baie D'Urfe, the location of the hotel was just north at the Highway. The town hall had a lot of good subject matter like river-views and a water lily pond, but the sun was going to be down soon. That was one thing I hadn't thought about before the trips, that the sun sets on the other side of the island of Montreal, putting the south shore in shadow. This row of trees provided a nice composition. I started by doing the background water and distant shore line, then over-painting it with the trees. The grass was textured with green-and-beige grass and plants.

Baie D'Urfe Town Hall Park, Row of Trees, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2021 (No. 2730)

 

As I unpacked my stuff in the hotel room and took stock of the day's paintings, I realized I had done 9 paintings. To do just one more I attached the shoulder strap to my bike pack, and walked out to the front of the hotel which had a wonderful view of highway 40 and its off ramps. There were very few cars on the off ramps and I had a wide sidewalk to stand on. The main highway you see on the other side. A thicket of trees was letting in long beams of sunlight as the sunset. I had to paint fast because it would be twilight soon. I managed to get the car and truck headlights, it was reminiscent of the Decarie underpass painting from this March. The asphalt is actually two different colours, the shadow is dark blue-grey (PB60+PR101+PBk6) , while the shadow is a neutral orange (PY110+PBk6).

Highway 40, Sunset west, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2021 (No. 2731)

With the ride out west complete, I rested up for the next day, which would take me up to Cap Saint-Jacques Nature Park and around to Saint-Anne de Bellevue. The rest of the paintings were fantastic, I will post a few new blogs on them.