Guess it’s apt in Cariboo cowboy country to have a mural of a horse and rider decorating an art gallery, but setting them into an impressionistic background of fields, forest and sky has to be a novel approach. All it needs is a hitching rail and café table to complete the scene.
This building was a backdrop for a photo which I entered in one of Cee’s Photography photo challenges. It was for a construction theme in black and white so a backhoe, stanchions and people partly obscured the view plus of course it was colour challenged. Since there was a request for the colourized version, I went back and waited for the traffic to clear and pedestrians to get out of the way to click off a couple of pics. Didn’t realize until I uploaded the photo that it was another mural by Elizabeth Hollick. For a previous post I photographed her work on a sidewall of the White Rock playhouse.
Took me almost 4 months to snap a photo of this mural – not that I hang out there 24/7 – but because as a parking area, there are almost always cars blocking the view. My initial idea was to run over at sunup, however I usually forgot and besides coffee time takes precedence. Couple of months ago I almost snagged it. Camera was at the ready. And then a vehicle pulled in and parked dead centre. Two or three days ago as I was about to walk by, taillights suddenly switched on, the lone parked car backed out and turned into the street, so I finally got my chance.
Until I read their webpage, I thought Blue Frog was only a recording studio and didn’t realize they were also a small concert venue for a maximum audience of one hundred. So we’ll probably be taking a look at upcoming entertainers and head out to a concert one evening.
Since we had to go into town yesterday (Vancouver), it gave me the opportunity to get another neon sign picture for my personal one a day photo challenge for February. Despite the drift away from the old time large installations, there are still quite a few small neons (not counting the ubiquitous ‘Open’ ones) hanging in retail windows. This restaurant has been on the corner of Broadway and Cambie for quite a few years, but I never have partaken of the food. Not sure why not. Maybe because you have to run back and forth to have your meal cooked at a central grill which makes me think I have to do all the work and still pay out money – a concept I can’t grasp. I usually take shots of any murals I run across, so this was a double hit and rather unusual having the combination. Nice to have the mural along with the neon and not to have to deal with storefront glass reflections.
Waiting for an oil change at a dealership – a lesson in how to turn a 15 minute job into an hour of boredom – I decided to go for a walk. After wandering aimlessly for over 45 minutes I spotted this mural, about 60′ x 18′, painted on the side of a body shop which faces a back alley more or less. Not being able to back up far enough due to another wall behind me, I was unable to capture the entire scene so I settled for the best parts according to me. The mural may have been more visible before the auto mall was built, but now even driving down the lane it is not easy to see. Too bad it has become hidden away.
Another large piece of mural art I can remember watching as the work progressed. At the time, I knew Wyland had painted previous walls and this one was the fourth; however, until I researched for this photo I did not realize he had the ambition to complete 100 murals about whales. The final work was completed in 2008 at Chaoyang Park in Beijing, China.
Brand new mural on the White Rock Playhouse Theatre (commercially known as the Coast Capital Playhouse) just painted this year by Elizabeth Hollick. Rather whimsical and colourful. Hard enough to paint a 2′ x 2′ canvas, never mind a 50′ x 30′ wall, plus every time you want to check out how your work is progressing you have to climb off the scaffold and run back 100’ to get a proper view. Combining artistry with physical exercise benefits both the mind and the body.
Simply Photos 