#0256 "Aurora - A Going Concern"

This is the Aurora Train Station on the 1990 Easter weekend - Thursday April 12th at around 6:30pm. There had been a few flurries - the remains of snows qualls off Georgian Bay - during the day. It was quite windy and cold with the strong northwest winds. We were on our way to visit family in Kingston and Brockville with the car pushed along by those tail winds. The edge of one of those lingering snow squalls provides a perfect compositional line in the painting. The cloud was really there.

This beautiful train station dates from a long ago time when Aurora was more of a village than a city. The title came to me as I painted and alludes to that lament. In the 1990's Aurora was developing the same hustle and bustle of Toronto and was a real going concern. My concern was that the rack of daily newspapers and the nostalgic old train station were also on their way out. Times change and nothing stays the same except for the oils on the canvas.

Best of Show in Category, SOYRA 1990.

Looking back along my artistic journey it is clear that different styles have appeared and evolved in my art over the years. I enjoy them all but especially the loose, plein air style - especially the last few years. Realism tends to pull me away from artistic expression into pure representational art - a good way to learn but not nearly as much fun. I can still do it and that is what people seem to react to. I need to wear my glasses now though.