diptych # 200 / art reflects # 30 ~ one thing leads to another (maybe)

art reflects ~ Old Montreal, QC., CA • click to embiggen
sunrise / view from bed ~ Auberge Du Vieux-Port / Old Montreal, QC., CA • click to embiggen

Back in the saddle after our 4 day visit to Old Montreal. As is always the case (with one notable exception), the visit was replete with good food, good digs, good friends, good wife and a few other assorted goodies.

Picture making wise, I wasn't really too focused on making pictures. Nevertheless, I did come back with a few keepers to include adding one more picture to my ART ~ conveys / transports / reflects work.

Over the past 10 years the wife and I have traveled to Old Montreal a couple times a year, occasionally more. we always stay at the the same small luxury hotel, Auberge Du Vieux-Port. During most of our visits, we rarely leave the Old Montreal district / neighborhood since there are many restaurants, art galleries, boutiques and variety of other things to do - the waterfront and the Montreal Science Centre to name just two. Our car is whisked away when we check in and returned to us when we check out.

In any event, it has been on walks through the district that my ART ~ conveys / transports / reflects picture making began. In a sense, it's a picturing project that never ends inasmuch as, every time I return to Old Montreal, the art on display in gallery windows constantly changes. This situation creates a nearly endless series of changing referents so I am always on the lookout for interesting opportunities.

Speaking Writing of opportunities, on occasion one opportunity can lead to another. In the case of my ART ~ conveys / transports / reflects work, my opportunistic picturing seems to be leading to another opportunity....

.... the Auberge Du Vieux-Port, like most hotels, has artwork on the walls, in rooms and in common areas. Over the years I have noticed that artwork in Auberge Du Vieux-Port is not Montreal / Old Montreal specific. Rather, the artwork is mostly that of a generic nature and, during this visit, the artwork in our room was of NYC scenes - photographs made to look like paintings, printed on canvas with textured (clear thick acrylic varnish?) brush strokes.

So, I purposely brought along my ART ~ conveys / transports / reflects POD book with the intention of bringing it to the attention of the hotel's management. The Directeur Général was not in over the weekend but I left the book, my card, and a short note which suggested that he might be interested in acquiring prints for use on the premise.

The day after my return I received an email from the Directeur Général in which he wrote that he "is very interested in talking to you". That is interesting enough, but the really interesting thing is that the Auberge Du Vieux-Port is just one of 16 properties - restaurants(8), hotels (6), a spa - all in Old Montreal which are all owned and managed by The Antonopoulus Group. A company - founded by 2 brothers from Greece who arrived in Canada 30 years ago - which has built a portfolio of elegant restaurants and boutique hotels in historic Old Montreal.

At this point, who knows what the possibilities might be but one thing is sure, that's a lot of wall on which to hang stuff.