On A Stay-cation!

My latest 2 Mini pieces are of… Toronto! And my next 2 pieces will also have Toronto images.

What’s going on? These aren’t my usual travel subjects. At my last art fair, I had several travellers from other countries visit my booth and ask if I painted mini works of local sights. They wanted to take home an image of Canada. As one person said to me, “I can see that travel memories are important to you. I think you should paint for travellers like me, too.”

I nodded in agreement, realizing she was right. A sign on the front of my booth says “Art Inspired By Travel”, but it never occurred to me that I had no art inspired by THEIR current travel. Hmmmm. After that show, I looked through my photo catalogue for local images that might make good mini pieces. I socked them away into a new file, so I would be prepared for this show next year.

Then a week later, I found out I was a last-minute entrant into a September 2 – 5 art show in Toronto. In a very popular tourist spot. On the last weekend of summer. Yikes, next year is now!

Opened up the file, selected a few images. And I will be ready with some travel memories of Canada (and my usual Italy, France, USA) for anyone visiting the show.

Here are the first 2!

Like many cities, Toronto’s downtown has an eclectic mix of architectural styles – lots of new glass and steel high-rises but also historical buildings like St. Andrew’s Church (1876) and modernist structures like the sloping, reflective Roy Thomson Hall (1982). This view of all those styles is from King Street West’s David Pecaut Square.

#43 – Toronto Architecture New & Old

2.5″ x 3.5″ ink and watercolour

The second piece is of this next art show’s venue, The Distillery District. Once a thriving rum and whiskey distillery started in the 1800’s, this national historic site of 47 buildings was a rundown ghost town as of 1990. Ten years ago, it was renovated and reinvented as a popular arts, culture and entertainment area – fantastic restaurants and cafes, unique shopping and anecdotally the place I rode my first Segway.