Sketching Notre-Dame-de-Grâce

Winter is coming! It’s cold out there sketching in 7c. The first thing I discover, the light is totally different these days. It’s a study in close neutrals. Or some might say, pretty darn grey.

But I really enjoyed it. You don’t have to worry about the light changing for one thing. There’s no directional shadow at all. It kind of made the drawing more subtle. Like a calming effect on my normal desire to go for maximum contrast.

I was on the west side of Montreal, in an area they call NDG – short for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. Which is both the name of the town, a street in the town, and the church on the street in the town. They’re all NDG. Three times over.

And to top it off, the church is at the intersection of Rue NDG and Ave. Prud’homme. M. Prud’homme was no doubt an interesting guy. Besides owning the land at the center of NDG, he was the town’s Justice of the Peace, the Captain of the Militia, and eventually the Mayor.

Nearby the titular NDG is another fascinating structure. The confusingly named River’s Edge Church. (I could not see a river nearby). A little research tells me it was originally L’église St-Augustine de Canterbury. There are some large shamrocks prominently carved above the bell tower – so is it stereotyping to think that it must be part of Montreal’s Irish Catholic heritage?

In any case I really enjoyed it’s fanciful tower – and will be back for a more detailed drawing some day!

(By the way, I’ve made the NDG sketch available as an 8×12″ archival print on watercolor paper, over on my Etsy shop). There’s a fair bit of work up there now, I’d love it if you stopped by 🙂