Mural commissioned for the Officer’s Mess at HMCS Discovery on Deadman’s Island in Vancouver by Robert Samuel Alexander (August 25 1916 - April 20 1974). Commissioned in 1944 while he was stationed at HMCS Discovery, the mural was completed in 1945.

There is much to study in this mural, though the physique of the sailor at the far left often attracts extra attention. The two sailors at left are caring to the cannons below the deck, and they appear to be holding a tool called a sponge used for cleaning the bore after firing. A ribbon stating “In Which We Serve” scrolls along the bottom of the mural; this phrase also happens to be the title of a 1942 British patriotic war film directed by Noël Coward. The film revolves around the exploits of Captain Lord Louis Mountbatten, commander of the destroyer HMS Kelly when it was sunk during the Battle of Crete. The left half of the mural shows naval technology from the era of Captain Vancouver, while the right half of the mural shows modern day technology, circa WWII. It would appear that Captain Vancouver himself is reaching out to offer a hand to the modern day captain and his crew. 

The panoramic image above has been digitally stitched together from 3 separate images I took last fall, when Sub-Lieutenant Brunton gave me a tour of Vancouver’s Naval Reserve Division. I found it interesting that HMCS Discovery is a building but still referred to as a ship or stone frigate (a naval establishment on land); when you are inside HMCS Discovery, you state you are ‘on board’. From the Navy’s portal:

HMCS DISCOVERY was named in honour of HMS DISCOVERY, which, under the command of Captain George Vancouver, was responsible for surveying much of the northwest coastal area of North America.

The final photo above of a self promotional brochure by the artist is included in Gary Sim’s BRITISH COLUMBIA ARTISTS:

This photograph was taken courtesy of the artist’s daughter, Renee Alexander. The artist is seen at work drawing and painting the mural at HMCS Discovery’s Officers Mess in Vancouver. Art techniques listed in the brochure are fresco, baked enamel, tempera, glass, graffito, and oil on plaster.

Renee Alexander also posted these comments about her father to Mother Tongue Publishing’s website:

He was born 1916 and died 1974. He was a contemporary of Toni Onley, Gordon Smith, Gordon Caruso etc. He was an honours graduate from the Vancouver School of Art and received a scholarship to study at the Art Students’ League in New York. He won many art competitions including two for the Seattle Art Museum. UBC commissioned him to do two portraits, which are both hanging in the main Library. In the early 1960s he received a Canada Council Grant. He also published a couple of books. The Penticton Library and Civic Centre restored a mural he did in the early 60s for the then new Penticton Airport and it now hangs in the Civic Centre. In the book ‘Letters from Nan’ one of his paintings was referenced as the only great painting in the Confederation of Artists show.

For some reason he has not been recognized in the Vancouver scene today like many of his contemporaries though he was viewed as a rising star in the early Vancouver art world. I can only put it down to the fact that he was not an aggressive self-promoter and died at the age of 57.

A number of years ago I did a CD of my father’s work. Copies may also be found at the Vancouver Art Gallery, UBC special collections, the National Gallery of Canada, Emily Carr, Penticton Library and Civic Centre etc.

Surviving murals are a rarity, especially in Vancouver, and to ensure their preservation, public awareness about these murals needs to exist. Fortunately, this mural has been well preserved, and based on its current condition, I expect RS Alexander’s mural will survive for many generations to come.

Cross-posted to VancouverIsAwesome.com.

Update! More interesting anecdotes from Renee: her father also painted some black light murals at the Waldorf, one of the murals in the old Grosvenor Hotel in the Potlatch Room, as well as a mural somewhere in The Ritz hotel at 1040 West Georgia (this is the hotel that took over the St Julien Apartments circa 1929).

Another great bit of Alexander family trivia: this brush script logo for the Woodward’s Store was designed by Renee’s mother, Irene Alexander (Porter), when she was head show card writer at the downtown Woodward’s store in the 1940s. An amazing family legacy!

urbansketcher:

Dominon Building Vancouver

Some vintage commercial artwork by George McLachlan, via his website. The first is a cover from a BCTel brochure cover titled “Communications”, believed to be from 1976. The acrylic painting shows a cluster of downtown skyscrapers, many of which were new modern additions to the city’s skyline.

The next illustration is a vintage pastel rendering of the Hyatt Odyssey Hotel in downtown Vancouver, which is now known as the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

And finally, a brochure for the grand opening of Woodward’s Food Floor at Arbutus Village, which is also flogging the Woodward’s credit card. This post prompted the submission of the last image from none other than Michael Kluckner, who still has his Woodward’s card! Woodward’s Arbutus Village Food Floor opened November 13, 1974; it is now a Safeway store.

Lots more to see in his archives, including this map which I had featured before, but was not able to completely attribute to him! Now updated!

From Kitsilano by Frederick H. Varley, a depiction of the home he shared with his wife and kids on Point Grey Road. From Kitsilano Living Magazine in May of 2008:

Varley’s 1932 painting of the view from his now-demolished Point Grey Road house sold for $207,000.

Today, 3857 Point Grey Road is on the site of the Jericho Tennis Club and its tennis bubbles. But in the late 1920s and early 1930s, it was the location of the modest home of Varley. Varley executed a luminous painting of his house, its neighbour, and the surrounding landscape in 1932. From Kitsilano is small but beautiful, a classic Vancouver scene of Kits, English Bay and the North Shore mountains.

Thanks again for the submission Diana!

The evolution of the Buzzer logos, via the Buzzer blog. Translink’s Buzzer editors will be hosting a Google Hangout on Wednesday, March 27 at noon to 1pm Pacific. It’s your chance to chat all about the history of the Buzzer, plus get answers to any transit questions you might have. Check it out!

Vancouver Cityscape, ball point pen on paper, a submission by Diana Lupieri. Thanks, Diana!

Vancouver, circa 1962 from the opening pages of George Kuthan’s book Vancouver: Sights & Insights. This colourized variation is a scan of an electronic reproduction of what could be an aquatint or perhaps a hand coloured drawing. None of the images in the above mentioned books are shown in colour, but this print demonstrates the possibilities. The print came from Robert R. Reid’s studio, via Heavenly Monkey. Robert was a close friend of George Kuthan, and this colour treatment was likely done by Robert in more recent years. From the Heavenly Monkey website:

…The two met at Reid’s printing shop in Vancouver in 1951, shortly after Kuthan’s arrival in Canada. Born in Klatovy, Czechoslovakia in 1916, Kuthan was a medical student at the University of Prague when the Nazis closed it, in 1939. It was at this time that he turned his attention to art, which he studied at Prague’s School of Decorative Arts for the next six years. After the war he went on to study painting and various forms of printmaking in Paris for several years. What few published details of his life exist indicate he enjoyed some success while there, making his decision to emigrate to Canada somewhat puzzling (especially since he first landed in Saskatchewan!). Shortly after arriving in Vancouver, he was introduced to Reid…

More biographical information about George Kuthan can be found here, and a pamphlet from 1964 from the Private Press of Robert R. Reid dedicated to George’s work can be seen here.

Five Trips of Scenic Wonder Around Vancouver, a Home Gas pamphlet recently sold on ebay via seller canadianpacific77. The cover appears to be signed by “RAM”, but given this is a very early brochure, I have no other knowledge of his work. A fine pamphlet of one of Vancouver’s early home grown industries.

A tribute to George Alexander Norris, sculptor 1928-2013. George passed away in Victoria this week.

George created this 95 foot frieze for Vancouver’s Postal Station D at 2300 Pine Street in Vancouver in 1967. Norris is perhaps best known for his iconic sculpture of a crab in the fountain at the Museum of Vancouver (then the Centennial Museum).

Some of his other work was less respected; his 1974 stainless steel pinwheel sculpture at Pacific Centre Plaza was dismantled, given to the City of Surrey, where it remained in storage until it was unceremoniously scrapped.

Another Norris sculpture was situated on the northeast corner of Cambie and Dunsmuir streets in downtown Vancouver, at the west end of the Georgia Viaduct inside what was known as Abutment Park. According to a phone conversation Gary Sim conducted with the artist, the unnamed piece was effectively “a bridge marker” akin to those the Romans once placed at their bridges.

From Gary Sim’s Art & Artists in Exhibition: Vancouver 1890 - 1950, he writes:

The bridge marker, a welded bronze structure, originally had four glass spheres (containing a mix of clear chemicals that would not freeze) mounted in it. These spheres and the welded bronze structure were enclosed in glass panels. The spheres were intended to reflect the lights of cars on the road, as a cat’s eyes would, as the cars went past. Some time later the sculpture began to fall into disrepair. The glass panels leaked and the sculpture filled with water, then the glass panels were all broken or removed. All four glass globes were smashed by vandals. The Editor, while sitting on the Vancouver Public Art Committee in 2000-2001, attempted to start a process that would end in the repair of the sculpture.

In the telephone conversation with the sculptor, Norris indicated that given its damaged state, he would definitely prefer the sculpture be destroyed. Two years later the sculpture remained untended, and in 2004 a large advertising sign was placed in front of it. Shortly afterwards the sculpture was removed and presumably sold for scrap. The concrete foundation remained while longer, but eventually was removed when the entire area was rebuilt for the new condo development.

May the work of George Norris be remembered and respected henceforth and forevermore. For an even more thorough record of his work, see this post over at the excellent blog DesignKultur.

Union Steamships The Fjords Of British Columbia, a 1930’s brochure of the Steamship Catala, sister ship to the SS Cardena. This item was recently sold on ebay by seller canadianpacific77. The cover appears to be signed by H.E. White, but I’m sadly not familiar with their work.

The Catala had a long and storied history on the west coast. From sunshinecoastmuseum.ca

One of the best known steamers that plied the Sunshine Coast was the S.S. Catala. The 218-foot ship was launched in 1925 in Montrose, Scotland, and carried coastal freight and passengers from Vancouver to southeast Alaska. The name Catala derives from the Roman Catholic missionary Father Magin Catala who came to Santa Cruz de Nootka on Vancouver Island in 1793.

After the collapse of the Union Steamship Company, the Catala was sold in 1958 and used as a fish buying boat, as well as a hotel for the Seattle World’s Fair in 1962. Apparently, it was one of three such ships used at the World’s Fair, but the only one to make a profit. By this point, the engines had been removed to make room for a theatre, so it lived out its retirement tied up on shores of Washington. According to the Seattle Times, there were some wild times for the ship ahead:

After the fair it was brought to Ocean Shores, where it was tied up at a causeway and used by charter fishermen. Something else fishy was going on, too.

There was gambling and “there were ladies of the evening available, so it was quite a deal,” said Beers.

In 1965, a storm caused the ship to list 30 degrees on the sand, and it could not be righted. Looted, abandoned, and set on fire, it was left to decay on the beach, until a curious explorer fell inside the ship and hurt her back. The State of Washington was sued, and as a result, the bulk of the ship was ordered to be cut up for scrap, with the remainder of the vessel buried in the sand.

Years later, the sands began to reveal the ship, and a curious passerby discovered oil inside the wreck. This resulted in a full scale environmental cleanup, with 131,000 litres of heavy fuel oil removed and recycled, along with more than 10 times that amount of oily water collected. The total project cost for removing the oil and restoring the beach was $6.5 million, and the cost of removing the remainder of the ship’s hull was $0.5 million. From the Washington State Department’s fact sheet:

Ecology funded the cleanup using the state’s Oil Spill Response Account, which comes from a tax on oil that passes through Washington marine terminals. The fund will only pay for cleaning up oil and contaminated sand and for ensuring the old hull is clean. Ecology will seek reimbursement from the federal government for part or all of the costs. The Legislature provided the Department of Natural Resources with funds to remove the hull.

Celtic Shipyards by Ronald Threlkeld Jackson, estimated to be painted sometime between the mid 1950s to the early 1960s; Ronald Jackson passed away in 1992. This painting is up for auction this month at Westbridge Fine Art Auction House, starting with a modest $800 first bid. Ron was particularly great at capturing the romance of the BC coast, so much so that he was often the artist of choice when it came to marketing our local tourism trade. In contrast to the grandeur of steamship travel, this painting showcases the humble side of Vancouver’s shipping history. From Southlands.info:

[In] 1902…B.C. Packers bought Deering Island, until 1985 known commonly as Mud Island, and Celtic Island to form the Celtic Shipyards. The cannery was closed and converted to net storage. Subsequent developments included a marine slipway to service larger vessels. Eventually, the shipyard came to be the largest on the coast for servicing wooden boats and it handled all of the B.C. Packers fleet.

Today Celtic Shipyards slowly continues to disappear into history, with only a few remnants left to remind visitors of the type of work that once transpired here. Update! The painting sold for $1,100.

Vancouver Art Gallery by Dino Pai. I love the expressive energy in his drawings, I just had to show a few more!

Vancouver sheet music, via @HeritageVan & @ubclibrary. I think I Want to Live in Old Vancouver is my theme song.

EastVanLove Volume 8: Journey to Now. Just shy of one month away now, I am excited to announce that I will be one of the speakers at this tweetup slated for April 11, 2013 at SFU Woodwards. The complete lineup is available here; tickets are priced at $5 for the month of March with proceeds going to charity, so be sure to reserve your seat soon (price goes to $10 in April). It’s a huge honour to be included among such great company; I hope to see you there!

Update! Identity and promo collateral for #EastVanLove #EVL8 designed by #KONGcreative - more on the full project here.

edwardjuan:

Vancouver, British Columbia  

“By Sea, Land, and Air We Prosper”

A city map of Canada’s Pacific Northwest city. Neighborhoods from Gastown to Mount Pleasant, and local landmarks from Granville Island to the Jimmy Hendrix house. All connected with bike trails and greenways.

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