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There was quite a turnout this past Thursday night, at the Vernissage for the "Bloom" art show of the historic Women's Art Society of Montreal (WASM; now open to all, not only women).
The weather was unseasonably warm, so the Old Montréal or Vieux-Montréal area of the city was teeming with visitors - tourists and locals alike.
The gallery is on a main thoroughfare leading to the activities in the Old Port sector (concerts, ferris wheel, zip lines, and much more), as well as between the popular Place Jacques-Cartier square - packed with restaurants and cafés - and the most iconic building of our historic district; the dome-roofed Marché Bonsecours Market.
As it's a high-traffic area for pedestrians, we had a good number of international visitors throughout the show - in addition to local art lovers. This photo shows only the back portion of the gallery, at the start of the Vernissage; I wasn't able to get a shot of the entire space, as most visitors were gathered towards to front where we had a professional musician playing the piano.

This was a juried exhibition, so I was pleased to have both my paintings accepted; the maximum number of artworks per artist for this event.
Each was a floral watercolour, to honour the "Bloom" theme of the show, but painted in rather different styles (I'm standing to the left of my 'stacked' paintings).

The Women's Art Society of Montreal (WASM) was founded in 1894 by two local women, Mrs. James Peck (née Mary Alice Skelton) and Mary Martha ("May") Phillips. Their goal was to integrate women into the art world, at a time when art societies accepted only men and women had very few rights.
For example, married women were referred to by adding "Mrs." before their husband's given and family names; so "Mary Alice Skelton" was erased by marriage, when she became "Mrs. James Peck".
In the same spirit of inclusivity in place at its inception, the WASM accepts all genders and gender-identifications; we've retained our original name to honour our 130 year history, and as a reminder that women remain excluded from public life - and the arts - in many parts of the world.