Bike Fixed, Paintings before Sundown

My bike developed a loud creaking noise and I could tell that the bottom bracket/crank was in major distress. Luckily it help up for the last week of riding, but finally it was time for a repair. I went to the Davelo shop in ville st Henri, expecting to drop off my bike and get it back by the weekend at least, but the repair person said that they could fix it in half an hour, which they did. I started this painting outside the bike shop, looking west along the new highway structure, when the phone rang and the bike was fixed. So I went and paid, then wheeled the bike out to the same spot to finish the painting. I was worried the shadowed grass would dry light, but it dried perfectly, as a mid-valued yellow/green. 

Field between Bike Shop and Highway, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2023 (No. 3476a)

Happy to have my bike fixed, I rode down to the Lachine canal and made a quick painting as the sun was going down and the shadows were getting long. The building in the background is a converted factory, now condos, and the footbridge is the way you go to ride or walk to Verdun, and leads to the Atwater market, then eventually downtown if you follow it. Its a nice painting but too bad the building was crooked, it looked straight when I painted it, but sometimes the paper moves around and things go awry.

Canal bike path with shadow, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2023 (No. 3476b)

Before the Lachine Canal there was a large lake that may have been called Lac St. Pierre or perhaps Petit Lac St. Pierre according to the Wikipedia page. I have often wondered where it was relative to NDG, on the old map it was between Verdun and what would become NDG. Then it occurred to me, based on the size of the lake, that it must have started at the NDG escarpment which would have been water's edge, and stretched across to the steep hill that goes up towards Lasalle and Verdun. This painting was done at the new highway overpass which has a bike path, looking southeast towards downtown. There is is a wide flat area of gravel that is used to store construction materials, which was likely close to the bottom of the old lake. So the highway and Lachine canal essentially cut across the lake bottom. In the foreground, there were two interesting shrubs, one dark yellow and one dark red. They both had white flowers last week when I rode by, but the flowers were pink/red this time around.

Yellow Shrub next to Dark Red Shrubs, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2023 (No. 3477a)