McGill Campus
The main McGill campus just a few blocks north of the exact city center of Montreal. (The main gate is on Ave. Mcgill and Sherbrooke Ouest). I’ve always enjoyed walking through its quiet green spaces surrounded by the ivy covered halls of learning. It’s a great place for sketching – close to all the services downtown, but away from the bustle. (At least in the summer when the students are on break). There are plenty more interesting structures here – so this is just a quick tour – I’ll be back for more!
Not quite Canada Day at St. Joseph’s Oratory
Our actual Canada day (July 1) was grim and grey – which is perhaps suitable to our temperament. So I saved up a painting trip for today instead. I don’t know why everyone says Canadians are so friendly. I find us to be a rather pragmatic lot most of the time. BUT – I digress.
Here’s a watercolor of St Joseph’s Oratory. This white marble edifice is imperiously situated at the top of a steep climb up the north west shoulder of our mountain. After those steps you feel suitably penitent when you arrive for mass. They have a special wooden staircase for those who prefer the traditional method of climbing on hands and knees. I saw at least one visitor availing themselves of this orthodox route.
The huge dome on the cathedral is said to be the third largest in the world. But sadly – the interior is quite restrained, (done in a 1960’s flavor of modernism) and does not grant you an uplifting view of the inside of the lofty dome. It seemed oddly understated compared to the baroque grandeur of some of Montreal’s other cathedrals. Perhaps the place is so large I was actually on the wrong floor? Not sure. But for today, my best view was certainly the magnificent approach to the cathedral. Looking up at it from the entrance, hundreds of yards below – it’s quite an edifice.
Doorways in the Golden Mile
Here’s a couple of doorways I often pass on my morning stroll through the Golden Mile. This posh Montreal neighborhood is situated on the foot of the mountain, overlooking the city center.
It’s full of interesting structures, which Wikipedia describes thusly: “The architecture of the area was an eclectic mix of the Neo-classical, Neo-Gothic, Romanesque, Second Empire, Queen Anne and Art Nouveau – often within the same home.”
Corner of Sherbrooke and Guy
Calgary comes up James Short
Who is James Short and why does he deserve a park?
The internet tells me there used to be a James Short School on this spot. I can only assume the school sunk into the ground leaving the clock-tower projecting out of a tiny bit of lawn. The ‘park’ is a postage stamp green zone in the heart of Cowtown’s glass canyons.
Anyone who debates the cow-towniness of Calgary, I’ll just point out your new city cops with the big black hats and matching stab proof vests. Not that I’m calling you out Calgary – but the only thing I found to draw was a tin roofed shed!
Wandering Eye
Just an old fashioned sketchcrawal. Walking around downtown Montreal with my buddy Jens Claessens, just drawing whatever we happen to run across.
(The Redpath Museum, Place Phillips Square (behind the Hudsons Bay), and the old Ecole Des Beaux Arts on Sherbrooke and St. Urbain).
And then somehow, we ended up on the back side of City Hall, without ever seeing the front entrance. They have been doing some work on city hall – and right now, the roof is a dark reddish brown, instead of the normal green patina. I wonder if they’re going to restore it to the weathered finish? or let nature take it’s course. It doesn’t match the photos on the side of the tour buses anymore!
By the way – I’ll be out of town for about a week – so I’ll try and post while I’m away – but we’ll see what we can get for wireless on the road hey?
~m
Rue Sherbrooke, Museum District
At last! Yes – I’ve been on a long hiatus, (working hard on a book project, that sadly I cannot discuss quite yet). I apologize the drawings haven’t been flowing as fast as you or I would like. But! In the next few weeks we will be back to steady posting. It is getting close to the Urban Sketchers symposium in Lisbon, so I have to be all tuned up and ready to draw!
[Le Chateau – Ballpoint sketch with Watercolor, 14×17″]
This is the rooftop of a towering stone apartment block across Sherbrooke from the Musée de Beaux-arts. Seen from down a side street, peering out from an awning. (It started raining immediately after I had the line art roughed in).
I had always thought it was the Ritz Hotel, (which is nearby; under renovation at the moment). But on investigation I find it’s actually simply apartments. Apartments for people so extravagantly affluent they need to live in a historic castle high above our city! I poked my head in the front door – and there are shockingly few addresses on the directory. It looks like there should be hundreds of apartments – but I have to think it’s quality over quantity up there. I imagine these are the third and fourth homes of the sons of bottled water millionaires and the parchment-skinned ex-wives of mineral rights barons. Only used in ski season, before retiring to the Canary Islands in darker months. Talk like that is not going to get me an invitation to enjoy the view however.
[Church of St.Andrew and St.Paul, Ballpoint sketch with Watercolor, 14×17″]
Since the rain wasn’t letting up, this next is from the third floor of the Musée, looking out at the church tower across the street.
There’s a very convenient window with a waist height marble shelf where one can stand and draw. And as a bonus, it’s free admission to this wing, (the permanent collection). So you can get this sketch yourself any time. The rough stone church has been under scaffolding the last few times I visited Montreal – but finally, it seems restored to it’s original antiquity. I really ran out of time on this one, so I’ll be back some day to get a nicer drawing. Don’t even try to make sense of the perspective down below the tower :) HA!
Scarlett James at Dr. Sketchy’s Montreal
This afternoon Dr Sketchy’s Montreal brought us some real star power! Burlesque performer Scarlett James wowed the crowed with sultry stage presence and classic glamour poses.
This was a top-form Sketchy’s style event. Great model, snazzy costumes, and a littel strip-ter-mission between posing sets. You know you’re drawing burlesque when the model’s rocking a 12 foot ostrich feather boa!
[Linkage: ScarlettJamesBurlesque.com, Dr.Sketchy’s Anti-Art School]
Medicine and History and Made-up Stuff
This weekend was the 31st Worldwide Sketchcrawl. I miss the old sketchcrawl gang in San Francisco. It was always a great time meeting up with a group of artists and swarming a neighborhood. The locals were always giving you those fish eye looks. What’s going on? Who are these people scribbling on every street corner? Well, gang or not, I hit the bricks and sketched two more of my favorite Montreal landmarks. Today’s theme is Old Hospitals.
The Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal
This sprawling walled hospital complex dominates the walk down Rue Parc towards the city. While not as architecturally fanciful as the nearby Royal Victoria hospital, the multi-winged stone structure with it’s dome and bell towers certainly make a dignified impression. You can’t help feeling the history of the city as you walk by. Plans for the initial structure are dated to 1688, but I have heard mention of it being destroyed and rebuilt repeatedly between 1695 and 1734.
As an English speaker, the name Hotel-Dieu seems like such a charming euphemism for a hospital. How nice; “Check into our hotel, and let us take care of you!”, “We’ll have your suit pressed, and transplant your kidney while you’re with us!”
In fact, being the oldest hospital in Canada, they do have some world firsts – including the first kidney removal, and spectacularly, the first patient surviving burns across 90% of the body. So that’s some excellent room service.
Irving Ludmer Psychiatric Research Facility
Now, I don’t actually know anything about this place. But if you walk up Ave Des Pins from the Hôtel-Dieu you might notice this imposing stone pile high on top of a hill.
At first you can just see it through a copse of trees, surrounded by a jagged stone wall, which is collapsing in a marvelously scenic way. Trees growing through the wall have knocked out big chunks, making it into something of a ruined fortress.
You’ll come to a decorative iron gate, with huge square pillars – one of which is shattered into pieces – carrying on with the besieged feeling. Due to the steep terrain here on the side of Mont-Royal, you’re put in the position of an out of breath supplicant, staring up at the building looming above you. The large overhanging eaves, and deeply set window casings make this structure seem ominously shadowed, no matter what the weather.
Then, to find out that it is in fact a Psychiatric Research Facility! It couldn’t be better. This is a place that needs to be permanently under a storm cloud. Lightning striking the weather-vanes, screeches of madmen from deep within. I have visions of patients being plunged into ice water baths or electro-shocked into mind-numbing seizures. Whatever passes for “research” in a gothic horror novel.
I’m sure it’s not as exciting as all that :) The people going up to work looked perfectly normal.
But then, they would wouldn’t they….
The Hobbit House on Cote-des-Neiges
There’s this ‘little’ brick house on Rue Guy – (not so little actually, but cute compared to the big mansions all around here). I’ve always enjoyed it’s ‘hobbit house’ feeling. It has these strange tiny entrances — two narrow doors, set at right angles to each other, but with only one set of steps serving both. Very strange. Also odd to have a cocky little minaret – despite the fact it’s only a single story structure. Maybe I’m looking at the back door, and it’s actually quite grand from the other direction.
But in any case, here’s a drawing of my favorite house on Rue Guy. (Correction! – actually at: 3547 Chemin de la Côte-des-Neiges – Guy changes names where it goes uphill at Sherbrooke – thanks Suzanne)
Citizen Sketcher 