Paintings from Old Port

The Old Port is a touristy part of Montreal that has brick roads and plenty of fancy architecture, not to mention t shirt stores. It is not too busy yet with tourists due to the cool weather and the ongoing effects of the pandemic. Local shop and artisans have struggled in the past few years, even the pigeons have less to eat! In the painting you see the Bonsecours market dome at the end of the curve, and of course parked cars and pigeons. I think with a bit more practice I can tighten up the drawing elements and make a decent painting from this vantage point. 

View down St. Paul Street, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, April 2022 (No. 3007)

 

Molson is in the midst of moving their brewery to the south shore, in the painting you see their original factory near the Cartier bridge. Under the bridge is a portion of a giant roller coaster at park la Ronde, the Quebec equivalent of Canada's Wonderland. When I counted the letters in the word Molson there were five, but as I finally went to spell it out there were most definitely six letters! To be fair I also lopped off a letter from my initials.

Molso Factory, with Cartier Bridge, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, April 2022 (No. 3092a)

Here is a typical scene from the Place Jacques Cartier where the vendors, performers and tourists mingle. After I finished the painting I checked out the art on that stand and found one I liked. It turns out that these are photographs the artist took and developed in a dark room with silver bromide technique. He mentioned that he had been doing it for over 50 years and it showed in the quality of the work. Apparently my purchase was the first he sold this season, and I said to him that I hope it picks up with the tourist season.

Silver Photos, Old Port, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, April 2022 (No. 3093)

 

Finally I stopped for one more on the way back to do this scene of Habitat 67 and the nose of ship in port, which coincidentally was named PJD 22. Actually it was called Jeanna or something like that. To paint the weird structure of Habitat 67 I used almost pure Umber (PBr7 from PWC Shin Han), followed by raw umber (PBr7) plus perylene green (PBk31) shadows, and then carbon black/umber for the deep shadows. I knew from the other day that the water would look grey, so I amped up the indo blue (PB60) using it almost pure, and after drying it looked bang on. Habitat 67 is actually a livable, private condo complex after having served as a pavilion during Expo 67.  Today I stopped off at Deserres and picked up a fresh tube of perylene green (Daniel Smith company) and more of the excellent 5 x 7" cold press paper blocks by Fabriano.

Habitat 67 with ship, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, April 2022 (No.3008b)