on the funeral home wall

Posted on May 8, 2023 by Mary C

In the Byward Market area of Ottawa, you can find a collection of large mural as you look across a parking lot on Dalhousie Street. They stretch along the wall of a funeral home on St. Patrick Street.

below: The darker end of the murals is signed by three. They are Juan Carlos Noria, The Laporte Brothers (Phil and Dom Laporte) and the Higher Ups.

car parked in front of a large mural on the side of a funeral home, two storey brick building, on left side of mural is man in uniform cap hands to mouth as if calling, over one of the double garage doors are two men's faces side by side, one pink and one black, on far right is the start of another mural with birds

close up view of mural, man with hands by mouth as he is calling, paint peeling on the concrete and wood

below: Apples and currants in the corner

mural on an exterior wall, blue background, two large red apples with two bunches of yellow currants,

below: The other part of the wall is for the birds so to speak. The blackbird (raven?) on the left was painted by DRPN (Drippin’ Soul).

mural on side of beige brick wall, painted by two people, on the left is realistic raven head, on right side is a bird with many feathers in yellows, pinks, and blues,

below: This is a closer look at the head of the bird on the righthand side. It is the work of Mique Michelle, an artist who work often features feathery birds (or other animals)

street art on Dalhousie street in Byward market of Ottawa, on the side of funeral home, a man looking like a train conductor calling out with hand beside mouth, two faces close together, one pink and one black. Also a Drippin' soul black bird head with beak pointing upward, some triangles in the background

Smiths Falls

Posted on May 2, 2023 by Mary C

below: A large mural by Dom Laporte featuring a Locomotive 2037 pulling a long freight train. The history of Smiths Falls was always closely tied to the railways. In February 1859 the first train arrived in town – on the B & O (Brockville & Ottawa) railway, pulled by a wood burning locomotive. In the 1880’s B & O was amalgamated into the CPR (Canadian Pacific Railway)network. a few years later a second rail line, the Canadian Northern, came to town.

a large street art mural by Dom Laporte featuring a large locomotive pulling a train, a train station, a water tower, and many flowers

street art mural, a locomotive, by Dom Laporte

below: Smiths Falls railway station with its distinctive turret – built in 1912 for the Canadian Northern line on their Toronto to Ottawa route. It is now a National Historic site.

mural, train station, old Smiths Falls station now an historic site

below: High above the street on scaffolding, working to “renovate” the lawyer’s office – a twist on the historic mural. Ryan, Knott & Dixon would probably be quite happy with the facelift that Craig Campbell and Chris Addy have given their brick building.

mural showing man painting the front of a two storey brick office building, standing on scaffolding

close up of mural, front door with scaffolding beside it

below: An older mural painted on wood and then attached to the wall. A winter scene on a downtown street.

small mural on the side of a building, an history scene of a street in winter, horse drawn wagon, people in period clothing

under the Hunter Street Bridge

Posted on September 30, 2022 by Mary C

In Peterborough Ontario the Hunter Street bridge crosses the Otonabee River. The west end of the bridge is in downtown while the east ends at James Stevenson Park. It’s in the park that you’ll find the paintings.

Back in 2015 and 2016 two of the arches under the Hunter Street bridge were painted. Nogojiwanong is an Ojibwa word for “place at the end of the rapids” and it was their name for the area that is now Peterborough.

Hunter Street bridge fromJames Stevenson park, grass in front, picnic tables under the arches

Facing the Nogojiwanong mural, and not visible in the above photo, are three animals – deer, beaver, and lion. Now the town is referred to as Electric City. Why? Because on May 24, 1884 Peterborough was the first town in Canada to have electric street lighting on downtown streets. Power was provided by the London Street hydroelectric water plant, also built in 1884.

arch under a bridge, street art painting of jumping deer with magenta antlers, a beaver, a log, and some leaves,

The murals on this arch were painted by Kirsten McCrea, with the help of Vicky Jackson (at least that’s what it looks like in the bottom right of this photo).

a street art painting of a lion with a curly mane and long tail, painted by Kirsten McCrea in yellow and black

from a mural in Peterborough Ontario by Jill Stanton, a picture of bloodroot plant, leaves, flowers, and roots under the ground

Bloodroot is a plant native to the Peterborough area. It gets its name from the fact that it bleeds red when the stems are cut. According to the text in the mural (bottom right, below), bloodroot propagates through a process called myrmecochory which is seed dispersal by ants. The seeds have external “appendages” that are rich in food that ants like. Once this food is consumed, the seed is discarded and can germinate.

This mural was painted in 2016 by Jill Stanton with the help of Andrew Ihamaki.

Photos taken September 2022

Annie and her cow

Posted on August 5, 2022 by Mary C

… and rooster … and tractor.. paintings in Napanee Ontario.

L & A Mutual insurance building in Napanee, once the County Depot with silos for storage. silos have been painted with farm scene

Once used for storage, these silos were painted by Shane Goudreau as part of the redevelopment of the site – from County Depot to insurance company. An excellent way to preserve some of the history of the area.

painted silos, farm scene with old tractor, cow, rooster and female farmer called Annie working with a hoe

painted silos, farm scene with old tractor, cow, rooster and female farmer working with a hoe

a yellow tractor on the roof of L & A Mutual insurance in Napanee, beside old storage silos that have been painted with a farm scene

historic scenes, Midland

Posted on August 20, 2019 by Mary C

Midland ontario symbol in bronze with blue water, bronze pine trees and yellow sun

Scattered around downtown Midland Ontario are quite a few murals with scenes of bygone days. Many of these were originally painted by Fred Lenz in 1996 & 1997 and then repainted ten or eleven years later by Terri Milley and Ruth Hurdle.

below: Midland train station and railway yard.

downtown midland ontario, street with reddish brick building, 2 storeys, with a large mural painted on the side

In 1871 the area was the village of Mundy’s Bay. That year, the Midland Railway chose Mundy’s Bay to be the terminus of a new railway line – the railway already ran between Port Hope and Beaverton and they wanted to extend it to Georgian Bay. The small community of Mundy’s Bay was renamed Midland City. By 1879 the railway was completed.

railway mural in Midland Ontario, five panels, train station, two large engines, people,

scene in a mural from Midland train station many years ago, women in long dresses and men in suits

vintage scene, men at railway yard, boy watching

below: Midland is on the shore of Georgian Bay which is part of Lake Huron. Lumber and grain passed through this harbour and the town prospered.

mural of an historic scene in Midland Ontario, people in fashion of the time, standing on dock looking at a boat in the water and a grain elevator

below: Sewing in the window, with a view of the woolen mill across the street. small mural behind a tree on the upper storey above a store, a woman in a long blue dress is sewing at on old fashioned sewing machine

below: European explorers and their First Nations guides canoeing on the lake.

mural in bad shape (peeling paint) of a European explorer standing beside a lake scene, First Nations people and Europeans in canoes

below: A red and white lighthouse with a brilliant blue sky

along the whole side of a building, painted bright sky blue with some puffy white clouds. A large painting of a red and white lighthouse

below: Maybe when the first car came to town?

mural depicting a farm scene from a porch, with old fashioned car driving through. Barn with horse and child, also horse drawn wagon

below: Above an Italian restaurant is this small picture of horses bringing logs to the saw mill to be cut into lumber.

small mural above an Italian restaurant, horses bring a load of logs to the saw mill to be cut

below: HMS Bee, a schooner

a man with a beard stands with his arms crossed looking at a picture of a schooner with 3 sails, the HMS Bee

below: A portrait of James Playfair. A the bottom of the pillar on the left: “A successful Midland lumberman turned to shipping in 1896. In 1901 he formed the Midland Navigation Co. In 1910 he established the Midland Dry Dock Co. renaming it in 1915 the Midland Shipbuilding Co to build ocean ships”. At the bottom of the pillar on the right: “James Playfair’s Company completed in 1917 a large new shipyard on the Midland Waterfront to build Government contracted ocean cargo steamers. The first one launched was the ‘War Fiend’ (1918-1920).”

a portrait of James Playfair in a mural, long with images of some of the boats that his shipyard built