Riding east today was a literal breeze, that is, a strong west wind pushed me the whole way. Passing Concordia's downtown campus I reached a point on de Maisonneuve with a good view of the different coloured buildings. Its a claustrophobic scene, the thin sliver of blue sky being sandwiched between towering sky scrapers. I was testing some home made convenience mixes today. To use up some paint I combined a french yellow ochre (PY43) from Daniel Smith with a raw umber (PBr7) from M Graham...one dries too hard, the other dries too soft but when I mix them they dry just right! It produced a warm beige that is perfect for Montreal scenes.
View east along Maisonneuve Spring, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024
During the
68 Stations of the Montreal Metro series, McGill Station was totally covered in construction barriers. They are finally nearly finished and I could approach one of the facades. The views were still pretty bland and I could not find any natural elements to include in the scene which is usually a prerequisite element even in the urban scenery. The only natural element I could spy was me! It gives you the sense of how I paint too... bike in front, hunched over the paper brush going a mile a minute. This is a close to a self portrait as it comes.
Reflection McGill Metro Station, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024
It was such a sunny warm day, I stopped in square Victoria to enjoy the sun and cool breeze. It seemed daunting to take on this scene again so I made a closeup of the entrance to show how the metro doors appear at the bottom of the stairs. If I pulled up the central part of the composition about an inch I think this would have been perfect. Anyways, a lot of tourists were here already taking pictures and going up and down the stairs as I painted.
Square Victoria Metropolitan, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2024
Finally, to close our March, I headed down to the large platform in Old Port where the Cirque du Soleil usually sets up their massive tents each summer. I could ride my bike around at full speed in great circles which was quite liberating. Deciding to take on the fateful ferris wheel again (it rarely works out), I went for a close up this time and tried to create an action painting. I like how the curve of the ferris wheel augments the skyline, you see Bonsecours market in the background. The blue paint splashed for some reason, it can happen when painting on windy days like this.
Ferris Wheel Cars, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, March 2024
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