Distillery Smokestack I
JANUARY 2009 | Acrylic on Canvas | 8″ x 10″
This is the first in a series of two smokestacks in the Distillery District of Toronto. Now fully converted into a tourist, artist and condominium destination, the idle smokestacks still rise above the Victorian buildings to remind us of their former industrial purpose. This smokestack is located beside the Gristmill Building as you enter the main part of the district from the west [map].
Posted February 27th, 2009 at 8:43pm | Permalink | Comment »
501 Streetcar Eastbound
JANUARY 2009 | Acrylic on Canvas | 10″ x 10″
This is a view from the back of an eastbound 501 TTC streetcar along Queen St approaching Yonge. Everyone is bundled in their official winter-in-Toronto uniforms of bulky coats and slushy shoes. [map].
Posted February 4th, 2009 at 8:12pm | Permalink | 2 comments »
Percy Street
December 2008 | Acryclic on Canvas | 11″ x 14″
This is Percy Street in the Corktown neighbourhood of Toronto, looking south from King Street East. This street contains a small remnant of many Victorian row houses that were occupied by the original workers at the Distillery and other industrial factories located nearby along the waterfront of the eastern part of the city. Today it is one of the few privately maintained streets in the city, and is a bit of an anachronism as gentrification creeps ever closer [map].
This painting was my attempt at a looser and more “painterly” style, and while I like some parts of it, I’m not convinced that it is a success overall.
Posted January 7th, 2009 at 7:37pm | Permalink | Comment »
King and George Streets
September 2008 | Acrylic & Ink on Canvas | 11″ x 14″
This was my first painting in about 7 years, and it took me a while to get rolling again. The initial image has no real focal point, and I feel that the final painting is overworked.
The scene is King Street East at George Street, about a block northeast of the St. Lawrence Market. Both buildings are historic buildings. The one in front is now a Starbucks, but in the late 1800s it housed a business that imported goods from India when that country was still an exotic British colony [map].
Posted September 3rd, 2008 at 5:46am | Permalink | 1 comment »
