Touristy scene from Old Port Montreal

If I was a professional artist I would drop by this location every day and make a painting. You get a good view of the iconic clock tower and Cartier bridge in the distance, with the st Lawrence river whooshing by. In this effort, I included the walkway and curved reflecting pool they fill up in the summer. It connects to the artificial islands off to the left, you can't see them in the painting, but it looks a little like Venice.
To paint this touristy scene, I did the sky first, leaving the shape of the clock tower blank. As it dried I worked up the details of the foreground and quickly applied the water with a few decisive brush strokes. When the sky dried I could overlay the bridge, done quickly and without hesitation, then complete the rest of the scene with greens and darks. You could fuss over a scene like this for hours with pencils and preliminary work, its a hard scene to get right, but on this day I wanted to catch the breezy energy of the scene. Its a good location and I will probably go back there next time I am around. 

Touristy scene old port, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, August  2024