Home > Site Map > Artwork Main > Driving Artwork > Canada - As Seen From a Via Rail Train (2009)
Throughout December 2008, I took a passenger train across Canada. Beginning at the Pacific Ocean in Vancouver, British Columbia, I traveled for two weeks until I arrived at the Atlantic Ocean, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I spent the entire trip drawing the landscape as it sped by, usually while seated in the observation car/caboose of the train. Several weeks later, while doing a two month residency at the Banff Center in Alberta, Canada, I transformed the drawings into a half dozen oil paintings. The finished paintings were on view at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, California from June 28-August 30, 2009. (Video camera: Anna C. Robin and Michael Markowsky. Still Photography by Anna C. Robin) |
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Below are some of the paintings inspired by the drawings I made on the train and airplane.
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Halifax as seen from a Via Rail train, 2009, oil on canvas, 31 1/2" x 31 1/2" (80 x 80 cm) . |
Midnight in Moncton, as seen from a Via Rail train, 2009, oil on canvas, 20 1/8" x 20 1/8" (51.1 x 51.1 cm) |
Mountain Pass as seen from a Via Rail train, 2009, oil on canvas, 20 1/8" x 20 1/8" (51.1 x 51.1 cm) |
Rocky Mountains, as seen from an airplane, 2009, oil on canvas, 20 1/8" x 20 1/8" (51.1 x 51.1 cm) |
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The Dynamic Landscape, Exhibition at the Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, California (June-August 2009). |
Untiled, 2009, oil on canvas, 12 1/8" x 16 5/8" (30.8 x 42.2 cm) . |
Approaching Montreal on a Via Rail train, 2009, oil on canvas, 12 1/8" x 16 5/8" (30.8 x 42.2 cm) |