Artist Steve Hornung paints a 240 foot mural at Renfrew Station in the fall of 2009. Video link.

An interior mural painted by Vince Dumoulin last week in Gastown. The Building is the former Vancouver Police Stables, now utilized as the offices of a software firm. Thanks for the submission, Vince!

morethis:

Painted QR code shows what vandalized mural should look like.

Originally photographed by me, and syndicated by Wooster Collective!

More about the work from the artist’s website:

AUDREY - approx. 45’ x 14’ - Located on First Avenue at Nanaimo Street, Vancouver, BC - painted October 2005

This mural was sponsored by the City of Vancouver as a deterrent to graffiti and as a means of helping to beautify the neighborhood. The subject of this mural is Audrey, my daughter, and the background is in the Vancouver Art Gallery. I was trying to capture a dreamlike setting while keeping the image simple in order not to distract the passing motorists.

Update: I’ve learned the mural repair was organized by the Coordinator of the Grandview Woodlands Community Policing Centre (GWCPC) on Commercial Drive. This news item from 2008 on their website talks about RestART (restorative justice through art) and the kind of community based programs they’ve supported in the past.

Interior streetscape mural, inside the Union Market in Strathcona, by local artist Shane White (not to be confused with Seattle storyboard artist Shane White)

BC Pageant, a 19 metre long mural painted by Scottish-born Canadian artist Charles F. Comfort, RCA. Charles painted the mural in 1951, assisted by muralist Orville Fisher and two of their art students: Barbara Kathryn Cook (later Barbara Kathryn Cook-Endres) and Gordon Dixon (a Vancouver School of Art student of Fisher at the time).

The mural was commissioned by TD Bank and it was painted onsite at 499 Granville Street in Vancouver. About the mural’s former home, architects McCarter and Nairne built the Granville and Pender branch in 1948-49, a building that exemplified the International style. Later in 1958, McCarter and Nairne was once again hired to build another flagship bank across the street, this time for the Imperial Bank of Commerce (also seen here previously).

Cross-posted with additional text at VancouverIsAwesome.com. I normally don’t like to ramble, but this is one of those exceptions where I just could not stop talking. I hope you appreciate my indulgence; I promise to return to brevity - the Internet demands short and tweet.

Richmond Hilton (oil on canvas 1998) 72” x 120”, a painted commission for the hotel by Dana Irving. A fine artist and musician, Dana was also responsible for the Stanley Lodge mural, featured previously here.

A lost mural of Vancouver, this view of Stanley Park was painted on the side of the Chapel at Stanley Park, at the end of Chilco Street between Alberni and W Georgia. From Luis Curran’s photograph on pbase believed to be taken November 6, 2005:

This mural was originally commissioned by the architect to answer the complaints of those who thought views of Stanley Park would be destroyed by his building on the corner. A new building has since been built right next to it so, inevitably, the mural is now lost!

I’m not certain who the artist was, or even who the architect was for that matter, but surely someone will know! The second image of the site before construction is from the RE/MAX Crest Realty (Westside) site of real estate agents Les Twarog and Sonja Pederson, possibly circa 2001? Any additional info? Comments welcome!

Cross-posted with additional text to VancouverIsAwesome.com

Update! Thanks to a comment at VIAwesome, the artist has been identified as Dana Irving! The work is titled Stanley Lodge and she did the painting in 1995. Thanks for the comment, Mike!

Details from Cristina Peori’s mural at 1175 Union Street, across the street from this mural seen previously on Illustrated Vancouver. Sponsored by Strathcona Business Improvement Association, City of Vancouver Great Beginnings Program, and Out to Lunch Catering, this mural was created in 2009 with assistance from Heather Jones, Cameron Grant, Kayla Deorksen, and Mo Faux.

Through the Eye of the Raven, 2010, preliminary renderings by Richard Tetrault, with contributing artists, seen on the @Vancouver125 bicycle tour held October 1 and 2, 2011. The mural is located on the west-facing wall of the renovated Orwell Hotel on Hastings Street, covers close to 8000 square feet, and is perhaps the largest mural in Western Canada. The team of artists who worked on the project include: Jerry Whitehead, Richard Shorty, Haisla Collins, Sharifa Marsden and Richard Tetrault, with image of ‘Looking Forward Looking back’ (circle image) by Eric Parnell, poetry by Nicola Campbell. The third photo in the series above was taken by RC Helicopter and stitched together.

Further info on the murals from the new website initiative featuring in depth information on the city’s street murals program, vancouvermurals.ca.

The Raven Dancer, dressed in a traditional button robe, holds the ‘Looking Forward, Looking Back’ symbol, signifying the importance of the past when viewing the present, and looking to the future. In ‘Through the Eye of the Raven,’ the light of day is cast upon what, for many on Vancouver’s Eastside, is a dark and forbidding place. Yet the Raven sees past the troubles of this time, alighting upon the sacred canoe of the Coast Salish and reminding us of the rich and powerful heritage that is the birthright of Aboriginal people. Salish serpents and patterned braids frame the mural, while animals walk along the hem of Raven’s blanket. This button blanket enfolds both the terror of the residential school system, as well as the strength and courage of those who stand up and speak for justice. Finally, the hummingbird, a Tutchone symbol of hope, flies above the Vancouver cityscape towards the light.

Untitled, Orville Fisher’s mural from 1957 featuring the figure of Mercury, god of messages and glad tidings, inside the post office building at 349 West Georgia Street, by the Homer Street entrance. Technically, this might not actually be depicting Vancouver, but due to the fact that the artist was a Vancouverite and this mural is one of the city’s great under-appreciated murals, I am including it without any hesitation.

The mural is captioned: “Transporting the Royal Mails by land, sea, and air in British Columbia” and is viewable from the street through a double set of glass doors. Also mentioned in John Steil’s book Public Art in Vancouver: Angels Among Lions: “The mural shows the evolution of mail delivery, from stagecoaches to ships, from biplanes to helicopters (there is a landing pad on the roof!).” Orville Fisher studied at the Vancouver School of Art, painted murals with E J Hughes and Paul Goranson for the Golden Gate International Exposition, as well as a lost series of murals at First United Church in Chinatown. He went on to become a respected WWII documentary artist, and later he taught at the Vancouver School of Art.

British Columbia Beginning, from 1958; the mural at the former CIBC Building, 586 Granville at Dunsmuir Street, designed by BC Binning and completed with the assistance of Professor Santagostino in Venice, Italy. Post now updated with full text from the brochure:

The Mural and the Artist

The magnificent mural, reproduced in natural colour on the inside pages of this folder, is of historic interest. Not only does it depict the basic resources and industries of British Columbia as the pivotal point in the development of the Province, but it is believed that this is the only true mosaic mural in Canada.

The mural was designed by B.C. Binning, the famous Vancouver artist, and completed with the assistance of Professor Santagostino in Venice, Italy. When Mr. Binning began to plan his work he felt that to depict the resources and industries of British Columbia in descriptive and literal terms seemed crass and inadequate to the spirit he had in mind. What he ultimately decided to attempt was to identify the theme, using some sort of readable iconography, or symbolism, and then enrich this language with all the colour, texture, pattern and general aesthetic excitement at his command.

The problem of attaining maximum richness, in keeping with the overall decor, involved the choice of media. Mr. Binning decided that the choice of mosaic as the medium would solve this problem, thus expressing the future, wealth and interest of the Province by the interpretation of the theme rather than by literal description of it, at the same time maintaining harmony with the architectural surroundings. The wisdom of Mr. Binning’s choice of medium can now be realized and admired as the mural in its finished state is a striking example of the artist’s ability, and a lasting tribute to his skill.

B.C. Binning is Associate Professor of Art, and Curator of the Fine Arts Gallery at the University of British Columbia. He won scholarships in earlier years through his artistic ability, is an Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy, and his work has been exhibited in major exhibitions in Canada and other countries. The completion of this mural by Mr. Binning will be  one of British Columbia’s memorable artistic events, not only because it is a masterpiece in the art of mural design, but also because it was unveiled during the centennial year of the Province.

From a brochure seen at the VPL, Special Collections, N.W. 971.133 V22i Pam

Industry, a two-part mural painted for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco. Painted by Paul Goranson, E.J. Hughes, and Orville Fisher, the three “were known as The Three Musketeers of Art’ in reference to the fact that they were artists who had enlisted.” (source) The trio also called themselves the West Coast Brotherhood, echoing the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. (source)

A total of 15 make that 12 murals in this series were painted, part of a project called “Art in Action”, which featured the murals painted on the walls of the exhibition hall. WWII caused the Expo to close early, but smaller versions of the murals survive in the BC Archives in Victoria. (source) These two murals are also seen in the book Free Spirit: Stories of You, Me and BC by Gerald Truscott.

E.J. Hughes, described by Jack Shadbolt as “the most engaging intuitive painter of the BC landscape since Emily Carr”, he is truly an icon of modern day Canadian art. (source)

“Orville Fisher’s paintings of the Second World War constitute one of the most complete records of Canada’s day-to-day role in that conflict. Perhaps his chief claim to fame is that he was the only Allied war artist to land in Normandy on D-Day, 6 June 1944. This achievement is all the more extraordinary given the fact that he almost never made it overseas in the first place.” More

Orville Fisher’s mural featuring the figure of Mercury, god of messages and glad tidings, appears inside the post office building at 349 West Georgia Street, by the Homer Street entrance. He also assisted with the 1951 mural “B.C. Pageant” with Charles Comfort and 2 students.

“After the war, Goranson remained for two years with the RCAF in Ottawa, working up his pencil, charcoal and watercolour sketches into canvases. Then, finding no work in Toronto, he went to New York” (source) where “he became a display designer and then a scenic artist, joining the Metropolitan Opera in 1965. Here he worked under artists and designers such as Franco Zefferelli, Sir Cecil Beaton, and Marc Chagall. But he remained a Canadian citizen and, upon retirement in 1986 at the age of 75, returned to Vancouver.” (source)

Goranson is, without a doubt, one of my all time favourites.

Low resolution images PDP02285 and PDP02286 shown here are courtesy of the Royal BC Museum, BC Archives. Cross-posted to Vancouver Is Awesome.

Strathcona mural at 1209 Adanac Street and Vernon Drive, by artist Cristina Peori, from October 2006, and sponsored by McGregor Thompson & Hardware (simulated panoramic image stitched together from multiple images) seen via flickr. I love the three tiered nature of the mural!

Take note: Cristina is a Culture Crawl artist, and she will be exhibiting at the Havana Restaurant August 21 - September 3, 2011.

Street mural by Kris Friesen, City of Vancouver street mural created July 2003, located a couple blocks from Commercial Drive at Woodland & Venables.