Tourist in my own city

Ramezay museum is located in a former governor's home, just across from city hall in Old Montreal. In the old days, it was a community garden, once used by locals to grow food, and to this day they grow various edibles like the grapes you see in the foreground of the painting. Standing in the shade to get some respite from the heat, I made the painting with backlighting, that is, the sun shining from behind the subject matter. That creates a lot of contrast in the lights and shadows. I also stopped here because there is a clean water spout that I used to fill up my water containers. 

Ramezay Garden, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Looking along Rue st Paul, one of the main tourist drags in Old Montreal, I made this scene of the various rooftops including the historic buildings in the foreground and some of the new green-glass buildings in the background. The tourists were painted into the bottom of the scene to add ambiance. A lot of them stopped to look. 

Old Montreal rooftops, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2025

Seeing the Cirque du Soleil tents on this angle gave a background view of the Montreal skyline. I was standing on the walking path that goes over the river, it connects the ends of two of the old piers. There was full sun on this location but I had my boonie hat for coverage, and was wearing pants and a long sleeved shirt, both breathable, for good measure. Still, I had to pay the 'heat tax' for this one! You can see the bright sun highlights on the shiny rooftops of the tents. It was also tense because if I dropped a brush or the painting flew away, it would have been gone. 

Cirque tents city, watercolour 6 x 7.5" hot press, August 2025