Langley carvings - The Conductor

This is my favorite of the Pete Ryan carvings I've seen so far. It's called "The Conductor" and is at the corner of 204th Street and Fraser Highway in Langley.

Wood carvings of Langley - The Farmer

Since moving to Langley at the end of August, we've been exploring its streets and alleys. Along the way, we've made some lovely discoveries -- like the wood carvings done by Pete Ryan. So far, we've found six. Over the next few days I'll introduce them.

Today meet The Farmer. He stands at the corner of Glover Road and Duncan Way.

Changing times

Langley, B.C. - McBurney's Plaza

Lumby murals

On our recent October holiday, we passed through the town of Lumby, BC. Besides being a pretty little town with a restaurant open for breakfast (even on a Thanksgiving Monday morning) it had murals!

In addition to the war memorial mural, I also found these beauties.

Taken straight from someone's album? These murals even have photo corners.

Some of the local wildlife.

Hanging out.

Not sure about this one, but it looks like a family tribute, judging from the coat of arms on the left and the formal family posed in the middle.

Overlapping images in the shape of saw blades add interest to this wide mural that celebrates Lumby's colorful gold rush and logging past.

Remembrance Day

"Lest We Forget" mural - Lumby B.C. (click on photo to enlarge).

logging in the old west

Creston (B.C.) murals of how logging was done, once upon a time.

Murals of Duck Lake - 3

Before we leave this little Saskatchewan town, let's take in a few slice-of-pioneer-life murals...

This painting celebrates the coming of the railroad.

This charming mural helps us experience recess at the one-room school.

And which child growing up on a prairie farm hasn't heard threshing tales, complete with descriptions of meals and coffee brought to the field?

Murals of Duck Lake - 2

A few more murals from Duck Lake...

In the decades before the northwest rebellion, the main street of Duck Lake was part of a system of trails and waterways known as the Carlton Trail. It linked Winnipeg in what is now the province of Manitoba with Edmonton in present day Alberta. Below are details from the mural, "Carlton Trail" and below that the entire painting.

(Click on any photo to enlarge)






In the mural below artist Glen Scrimshaw shows a settler crossing the river using a red river cart as a raft.


Inscription at the bottom left:

Imagine... In the early 1800s a young native youth no more than five winters old lying hidden on the river bank catching his first glimpse of the "White Man." His grandfather has told him of these men, their odd way of dressing and the funny looking buffalo that pull their noisy means of transportation. This is so strange! I must ran back to my people's camp and tell the elders and everyone of this strange occurrence.

Murals of Duck Lake - 1

On our recent visit to Saskatchewan we took a side trip to the town of Duck Lake in order to see and photograph its historic murals. Many of them illustrate the way things were before the settlers arrived and changes that European settlers brought. They also allude to the events that occurred in and around Duck Lake during the tense time of the Northwest Rebellion of 1885 and after.

(As described by Wikipedia - "The Northwest Rebellion of 1885 was a brief and unsuccessful attempt by the Metis people of Saskatchewan under Louis Riel to bring to the attention of the Dominion of Canada their concerns for the survival of their people. It resulted in the complete destruction of all Metis and allied Aboriginal forces, the hanging of Louis Riel, and increased tensions between English Canada and French Canada.")

The specific battle that involved Duck Lake was fought near the beginning of that rebellion on March 26, 1885, when Gabriel Dumont (another Metis leader) defeated the Northwest Mounted Police at Duck Lake.

The Battle of Batoche took place a little later, on May 9th. There Canadian forces under Middleton captured Louis Riel while Gabriel Dumont and others on the Metis side fled into Montana.

(Click on photos to enlarge)




The words on the scroll (left-top) in the mural below:

Listen to the winds of time, they echo the words of promises, promises of treaties and a new beginning...

Sign 'Treaty' with the Great White Mother and the following shall come to pass...

'WHAT I OFFER DOES NOT TAKE AWAY YOUR WAY OF LIFE. YOU WILL HAVE THEN AS YOU HAVE IT NOW... IT WILL BE SO FOR AS LONG AS THE SUN SHINES, THE GRASS GROWS AND THE RIVERS FLOW."

This is a scene of the prairie before the settlers came and divided up the land into square parcels...

...and a detail of the above.

prairie life

As we drove up and down the streets of the various towns and hamlets on our recent trip back 'home' to the prairies, I was, as usual, attracted to the murals. They are all over!

The Saskatchewan town where my husband grew up, Blaine Lake, has some that weren't there the last time we visited.

These first ones are downtown. They illustrate scenes typical of the prairies and the activities of the people. My favorite is the outdoor skating scene, which brings back memories of skating on the dugout.





This painting of Jesus the Good Shepherd is on the Blaine Lake Gospel Chapel.


This striking depiction of Blaine Lake in its grain elevator era is painted on the back of the arena. When I was taking the photo, being careful not to stray off the sidewalk, the lady who lived in the house directly behind me popped her head out her front door and in typical prairie-town fashion invited me to come onto her property to take a better picture. I did - and this is the result (thanks again!).

mosaic murals

This gorgeous mural titled "Trust" was put together by Lewis Lavoie and is a mosaic. It is made up of one-foot-square tiles, each of which is by a different artist and a picture on its own. It was unveiled at the Cochrane Ranche House, Cochrane Alberta, last week.

Check out the mural's web page. There you can view the individual pictures by clicking on the mosaic squares. Mr. Lavoie lets us in on some of the secrets of creating such a mural here.

The site links to other mosaic murals as well. Mr. Lavoie is presently working on a new mural called "King of Kings" and is posting his additions to it weekly.

Finally, here's a You-Tube of Mr. Lavoie, creating "The Creation of Adam" (about 2.5 min.).



Thanks to Joyce, who gave me the heads-up on these amazing works of art!

Blue and surreal

This rather surrealistic mural is on the back of the rink and recreation center in the Whalley section of Surrey.

I first noticed it from the chair in my dentist's office several years ago. Thus when I went to the dentist a few weeks ago, I made sure I had my camera with me just in case the mural was still there.

It is. Perhaps a little the worse for graffiti - but the athletes are still laboring, the pretty girls still beaming down on passersby in all their blue glory. (The building walls are straight, not curved, as the last panorama, stitched together out of three shots, would suggest.)

I don't know who the artist is.

Beach creature

This fanciful dragon mural decorates the wall of one of the washroom buildings along the promenade on the White Rock beach. It was painted by Elizabeth Hollick, a local artist and mural painter.

Other murals by Hollick include these two on Commercial Drive in Vancouver. They are part of the Graffiti Management Program initiative.






Take the Graffiti Management Program Virtual Mural Tour to see over 100 more murals from all over Vancouver.

Fort Langley historicals

Time to catch up on some murals I've photographed in the past few weeks.

You'll find these colorful paintings, that focus on the native heritage of the area and the coming of European settlers, tucked away in Gasoline Alley just off Fort Langley's main street. They were painted by Brandon Gabriel, a graduate of the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, and a member of the Kwantlen First Nation in Fort Langley B.C.

McBurney's Coffee and Tea House

If you read my other blog, you will know we're moving to the city of Langley in less than a month. This is a place we're not unfamiliar with, but neither do we know it well. It's where our church is so we've made multi trips through town but never spent much time in it. Our new home is walking distance from church and is a few minutes' drive from Langley's downtown.

Langley has more of a small town feeling to it than Surrey (the sprawling city we live in now, which really doesn't have one downtown, but four or five business centers -- like Cloverdale, Ocean Park, Guildford and Newton -- which used to be the centers of small towns or settlements )

We really noticed the change in ambience when we drove out to Langley in early July to show some friends the property we had bought. After that we went downtown to where there is still angle parking on some of the streets. We browsed in a few shops, then went for a coffee at McBurney's Coffee and Tea House. (In the virtual tour - link above - McBurney's Coffee House is right of the McBurney Lane sign.) Apparently they have regular live music evenings there - like jazz and such. Judging from the mural on the wall (photo above), one should expect a good time!