When I was a kid there were Norman Rockwell illustrations on the corn flakes boxes.  I'm not sure if that's why I was interested in drawing and painting; maybe trying to draw like Rockwell was just too hard but I kept trying.  Later at architecture school I discovered that being able to draw was a bit of a bonus.  Architects at the time even learned a bit about watercolour illustration.

 

I have made my living for about forty years as an architectural designer and illustrator.  Along the way I have tried to keep up my own independent creative illustration along with the commissioned work. As a native Calgarian this has meant revisiting a lot of my favorite old buildings, sometimes trying to record things before they disappeared; sometimes just trying to make a bigger deal of something that I thought was underappreciated.  Calgary is not famous for protecting its nice old buildings; sometimes you have to paint quickly to keep ahead of the change.

 

And then there's all those old grocery store with the Coca Cola signs or the used car lot with the tacky banners or the giant rotating neon sign.  These wont make the cut as meritorious architecture but they sure make my cut as watercolours that I need to do just to acknowledge that Calgary is a much better city because of these notable places.  The places in these illustrations have a landmark quality not because they were all designed by architects but I think they are all iconic bits of Calgary's urbanscape which warrant attention and preservation.

 

These paintings are my little "thumbs up" to whoever is responsible for contributing these places to our streetscapes. There are many more corner stores and ball diamonds in this town that I hope to get to soon.