USK:MTL Sketching on Mount Royal

I was up on Mount Royal last weekend, sketching with USK:MTL. Our Fourth Sunday Sketching event seems to be catching on. Shari says she counted 30 sketchers – certainly our largest turn out so far.

First thing I sketched was the view from the Chalet du Mont Royal. Great view of the river and the mountains beyond. Someone looking at it later rattled off the mountains names, so I guess I got the little bumps right. I was mainly interested in how blue it was off in the distance. In the middle of the sketch a huge turkey vulture started slowly circling. Perhaps he is wondering who is this fool standing under the hot sun for hours scribbling in his notebook.

As the day heated up, I joined Shari under some shade. We did our usual back-to-back conversation, so we can hang out, but not be drawing the same thing.

In the afternoon some of us headed to the other side of the mountain to sketch in the Mont Royal Cemetery. Always a favorite place to draw. I don’t know what got into me – there was a weepy angel just to the right of my composition, and I left her out! It’s so unlike me not to paint a gothic statue given the opportunity. But today was sort of a landscape compositions day and she just didn’t fit in. I was too interested in these stone sepulchers half buried in the side of the mountain.

I will mention, we were talking that morning with Les Amis de la Montagne about the possibility of a sketching exhibition at the Maison Smith. So there are some plans in the works, but it won’t be this year. Naturally they have things already on the schedule for their gallery this summer. But that’s ok, it gives us the time to do more sketching on-and-around the mountain. If anyone out there has some sketches from the top of our island, drop me a line, we can keep in touch about this Mount Royal themed show.

More photos from the day: