I wanted to create an historical neighbourhood themed Christmas painting. What can be more Canadian than shovelling snow. Including the little guys on the porch added to the idea of the community joyfully working together.

This painting for December was the final painting for the series that I created for KidsAbility. Using as a starting point a photo from The Record archives, I tried to develop a neighbourhood feeling. Adding the little dog was the final step.

This historic steam engine stands at the Waterloo Region Museum in Kitchener. I created a story line with the mother and kids to take away from just a stark rendering of a train. This painting is part of a group of paintings created for the television series, My View, which was developed by Rogers Cable 20 in Kitchener.

A girl works at the grill in a Waterloo landmark, Harmony Lunch, cooking hamburgers and fried onions. This lunch counter is unchanged from my childhood and will stay pretty much in this interior style as this family owns it. This piece is part of the series, My View, painted for T.V. on Rogers Cable 20.

My childhood home was only a block away from this lunch counter and so is most familiar to me. We included this subject in an attempt to deal with a wide variety of subjects in Waterloo Region.

Skipping is a spring activity. In this piece Grandpa has been recruited to turn the rope along with the girl with the leg brace who is waiting for her turn to shine. The setting for this 1950s painting is an amalgamation of two Waterloo neighbourhoods. In most of the pieces for KidsAbility, I also like to include a car from the era.

The grandpa shown in this painting is one of my friends from The Duke of Wellington, my local pub. I always try in these historic creations to develop the feeling that this could be in any old-time neighbourhood.

An Historic Re-creation at Doon Heritage Village, Waterloo Region Museum

See also Image # E0319 Original Schneider Butcher Shop

See also Image #0870 Ploughing with Oxen

An historic re-creation at Doon Heritage Village, Waterloo Region Museum

Doon Heritage Village at the Waterloo Region Museum

See also Image # E0343 Pioneer Village

The family farm, Sportsman Hill, near Blair, ON

This painting is based on a photo from the Archives of Alberta.