On the so-called south shore, which means on the south shore of the st Lawrence river, there is a community called Brossard, it is just east of the Kahnawake Mohawk territory. To get there by bike, I took a long ride from NDG through Verdun, Nun's island, and onto the Champlain bridge bike path which is on the east side of the bridge completely separate from the traffic. The bridge span is about 3 or 4 km, with a significant up and down, but the traffic and smog were the unpleasant aspect of the ride. Not to mention my chain fell off but I got it back on, then it skipped intermittently the whole time. Complaining aside, it was an otherwise great day for the bike ride with a cool breeze and mostly sunny day. This scene shows the place where people rent kayaks and other water craft like paddle boards to enjoy the st Jacques river. Of course, I found a way to tastefully add a garbage bin in the foreground!
Park Radisson rentals, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, July 2025 (No. 4564a)
This was the first painting I did early in the morning upon arrival to park Radisson, it helped me get dialed in to the colours. In preparation for the trip today, I dropped by the art store on Friday and got some new Arches cold press watercolour paper. Some of today's paintings were on the new paper. You can see the colours in the river, most of it was a tea colour, like caramel, with tints of blue-violet from the sky and various shades of green and dark yellow from the algae near the shore.
st Jacques river colours, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, July 2025 (No. 4565)
Further downstream, there was a short tributary with a floating wharf for launching boats. I managed to set up my bike here and make a painting, although a lady and her friend insisted on trying to take photos of the same scene which caused the wharf to rock more than I would have liked. Luckily nobody went into the drink. This area kind of reminded me of Amsterdam where there were canals over over town.
st Jacques river view from wharf, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, July 2025 (No. 4566)
Most of the view of the river was obscured by tall grass and reeds. In this opening, you can see the other side of the river lined with reeds, and all the interesting colours of the river. I used a lot of bismuth vanadate yellow (PY184) today to get the sensational yellows and greens. The sky was strangely tinted amber, likely from the lingering forest-fire smoke from western parts of Canada.
st Jacques river tall reeds, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, July 2025 (No. 4567)
The idea to paint this river began with my search for rivers on the island of Montreal. While there are still a few, the only one near where we live is next to the Lachine canal, covered in a meter of concrete! Brossard appears to have gone to lengths to preserve this river and the surrounding wetlands. Going past the river and there were acres of grass and trees with a few bike paths. I suppose in the old days, people thought there was so much wilderness it could never disappear, but now conservation is a bigger part of the conversation. The locals seemed to love this river, there were families going for a paddle, kids looking for frogs, and at least one artist making watercolours next to his bike!
st Jacques river trees, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, July 2025 (No. 4568)
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