7"X5" Acrylic on board

All artists in the Region are probably familiar with this building on St. Paul Street, St. Catharines. This is almost the only source of art supplies in the whole peninsula. There is now a Michaels, a store which I find deeply depressing and prefer to ignore, and WalMart sells some basic stuff. Even NCH is not a dedicated art-supply store and their selection is limited but it is what we have. The next best thing is a trip to Currys in Hamilton.

What Niagara Central Hobbies does have is one of the best supplies of model train paraphernalia in Southern Ontario. More than Half the store is dedicated to model railroad supplies and there always seem to be at least two elderly male shop assistants for every customer. They are very knowledgeable and sometimes I wonder if they are actually volunteers.

I cheated a little with this picture. There is actually an ugly apartment building behind the store which ruined the composition so I left it out.

11"X14" Oil on canvas

This is another one from the St. Catharines series, again a couple of years old. Anyone local will remember this landmark on Geneva Street, it was such a vibrant shade of emerald green. Unfortunately, last year they covered it in brown vinyl siding.

I was never quite sure that this one was finished, but here it is anyway.

Another of my St Catharines series. Locals will recognize this distinctive building.

They are trying to revitalize the downtown area, much like every other city in North America. It would be a shame to lose buildings like this, so much has gone already.

This one is a couple of years old. I had an ambition at one time to do a series of local landmarks but I ran out of steam. At least I started do "daily paintings' and they sapped all my energy so that I had nothing left for larger pieces.

I think the great appeal of the little paintings is that they are so much less of a commitment. When it is just a 5"X7" and only takes an hour or two I feel that it doesn't matter if the result is uninteresting or second rate. When I have wasted a whole lot of paint and time on an expensive canvas and at the end of it I feel that the subject and composition weren't worth the effort, I get very depressed.

This painting is SOLD

7"X5" Acrylic on board

You can't trust the weather at this time of year. This morning was bright and clear and the sun made such pretty shadows on the fallen leaves. It kept diving back behind the clouds though so I had to snap a picture to try to freeze the moment. That is my only excuse for doing this one from a photo, as it is the view from my living room window at about 8:30 this morning.

10"X8" Oil on board

I have had rather an unproductive week so far so I thought I would dip into the archives again.

Shortly after we moved into this house the only art supply shop in town went into liquidation. Everything was on sale and I bought myself a full supply of oil painting materials. I had never really used oils before, not since paint-by-number days anyway and I loved them. After years struggling with watercolours I found them very liberating and I love the buttery texture and the way that one colour can be worked into another.

This was my first oil painting. My house before repainting the outside. For a glimpse of what it looks like with its new colour you can go here or here

8″X11″ Watercolour on paper

Time to pull one from the archives again. The Salem Chapel or British Methodist Episcopal Church was once headquarters to the Underground Railroad, the network that guided slaves from the United States to freedom in Canada. It was Harriet Tubman’s church. It sits on a shabby run-down section of Geneva Street in St. Catharines right across the street from the Golden Brothers Sports Bar, the subject of an earlier post.

16″X20″ Oil on board

This is another one pulled from the archives, about three years old. The subject is the same area as the St Paul Street triptych that I posted a a few weeks ago. In fact this is just a detail of a couple of the buildings. The title refers to the fact that the strange stilted building on the left has a Remax “For Sale” sign on it, hard to see at this size.

I liked the multiple diagonals made by the fire escapes and stilts as well as the patches of colour in the VW, the doorways and the brilliant sky.

11″X16″ Watercolour on paper

Another one from the archives. This is one of the funkier buildings on St. Paul Street, it has definitely seen better days.