As you might know, Montreal built a beach downtown on the riverbank near the end of the old pier where the clock tower is located. I've painted there before many times... the contrast between the cool water colours and warm sand colours is neat, with the blue-green umbrellas and chairs in the foreground. The Cartier bridge is just out of the picture, it would be a little higher than the sky shown at the top. One of its pillars is visible in the top left.
Beach on river, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2025
Presumably to ward off those pesky invaders from overseas whoever they were, there are two cannons looming over the beach. Of course, they are no longer functional, other than serving the function of being a subject for tourists to take pictures and selfies. I've seen them before but never thought to paint them, but today I liked the fact that the underside of the barrel was reflecting the warm sand tone, while the top of the barrel reflected the sky.
Cannon over beach, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2025
This scene wont make it onto the tourist brochures or Montreal's tourism website, but I got a real kick out of it. Towards the corner of the beach a group of seagulls set up shop and were lounging on the sand and on top of the umbrellas. As seagulls do, they had crapped all over the tops of the umbrellas. There were no people on the beach today, presumably somebody has to clean it up otherwise its raining seagull poop. Maybe they should fire up the cannons and scare them off.
Gulls on beach, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2025
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