Scenes from Old Port Montreal

Its not the first time I've painted it, amazingly, there is a beach in Old Port Montreal! Nobody was using it today, just a narrow strip of sand and blue awnings next to the marina on st Lawrence river. I deliberately write lower case st by the way, instead of upper case dot, there are a lot of Catholic saints names in Quebec and its not fair in my opinion that so many things are named after them when we have a diverse community and the issue surrounding religion in Quebec with indigenous people. But I digress from the main fun of today which was painting in decent weather without the brutal snow and ice I faced last winter. The boats were all motor boats so I painted them like cars, and mostly in black and white. Cartier bridge is briefly shown in the top of the painting.
 

Beach Blue Umbrellas and boats, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2023 (No. 3470)

Not far from the last scene, here I am looking across the river at ile st Helene with the expo 67 dome, and an old turret they restored recently. Of all my attempts at the st Lawrence in this area, I think this one does the best at interpreting the flow and patterns of the river. It has some rapids here, and you can really feel the energy of the water flowing. I tried to use the water motif almost like an abstract, a palette cleanser painting of sorts.

st Lawrence and Dome, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2023 (No. 3471a)

The colours and textures grabbed my attention here, and the seagulls on the shallow water made for a nice contrast. As I painted, several people stopped and watched me paint, one fellow even took a picture of the painting and then took a picture of me doing the painting. In French he said how much precision was in the painting. Its funny because I painted this one with a deliberately loose and gritty style. I've been meaning to advertise my Instagram (PJDART42) on location especially when downtown. But if you read the blog, there is nothing new on the instagram, I just post the image of the painting there with a few words.

Bridge and gulls, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2023 (No. 3472a)