Nocturnes - the City

Contemporary Canadian life is concentrated in urban centres. The landscape that many see is man-made and built-up, experienced 24 hours a day—a world away from the uninhabited wilderness and pastoral scenery of traditional Canadian landscape painting. This series of paintings pays a testament to the vibrancy of the city at night: traffic lights, shop windows and neon signs are reflected and enhanced on rainy streets. Gleaming reflections exaggerate the contrasts between deep darks and artificial lights. It is the same world as during the day, but stripped of its blandness.

Colours explode, revealing the vitality of the urban surroundings and a society that is always on the go. In these nocturnes I seek the drama, the exaggerated and the surprising in seemingly random objects and places. The darkness masks the worn-down features of a round-the-clock society. What remains is a real, and at the same time surreal, landscape. The wide vistas and big skies of traditional landscapes are often associated with escape or recreation. Foregrounded in nature, these idealized sites are positioned to revitalize the human body and soul. By contrast, the urban landscape is generally viewed as mundane and gritty: a place that wears you out and brings you down. Nocturnes reveals another perspective—glowing, luminous and filled with a mystery and vitality all its own.

A fast car speeds along Queen Street, Toronto, leaving a red trail of light. The lights of City Hall across Nathan Phillips Square shine green through the trees. — EZE123

A girl with a white umbrella jaywalks Charlotte street in golden and red illumination during a rainy night in Peterborough, Ontario. — Charlotte and George

John Street, Toronto, on a dark wet night. City lights colour the pavement in a magical way, while a SUV waits for a lady to cross the street; or is it the opposite? — Crossing

Yonge Street pedestrians waiting at Aa crosswalk at Richmond; a manhole cover in a puddle of white light draws the attention. Red, yellow, purple, pink — Metro Glow

A convenience store pours out light on a shiny Queen Street West during a rainy night, while streetcar tracks draw parallel lines through the vibrant city light reflections. — 24market

It's the end of a rain storm, a deep ultramarine sky hangs over Aylmer Street, Peterboroug, Ontario. Street lights, traffic lights and lit-up buildings cast their lights on the shiny streets, creating viv=brant reflections in blue, purple, orange, yellow and red. We are looking south, with Art Space on the left, the former Baskin & Robbins ice cream plant on the right, and Peterborough Towers, the library and a former law office, and the Greyhound bus stationin the centre. A public transit bus is seen deadcentre crossing from Simcoe Street. — Electric Blue

Late on a rainy night in Lindsay, Ontario. They are waiting at the Shell station and Comfort Zone, their shadows cast amidst the yellow and red light reflections on the wavy wet asphalt. — Comfort Zone

Traffic lights turned red at the intersection of Richmond Street and Victoria Street, Toronto. An electronic sign further down the street creates an ultramarine puddle, while streetcar tracks join, heading north. — Neon Convergence

Traffic lights give a green at the intersection of Richmond Street and Victoria Street, Toronto. An electronic sign further down the street creates an ultramarine puddle, while streetcar tracks split ways. — Neon Divergence

A rainy night in Toronto. In parallels lines the streetcar tracks on Queen Street slice through the pavement full of the colourful light reflections from Dundas Square: blues, oranges, greens and reds. — Neon Delight

Street scene in Peterbrough (corner of Aylmer and Hunter Street) just after a rain storm with clourful refelections on the asphalt; blues, purple, yellow, orange and red — Transition

Richmond Street, Toronto: the street sign casts a red, blue and white reflection on a puddle. A large commercial sign reflects yellow and orange on the streetcar tracks and beyond, while a sunken manhole cover seems to show us the centre of the universe. — Neon Quasar

Queen Street, Toronto, looking toward the Eaton Centre with the pedestrian overpass to the Bay. The wet street reflects street lights and commercial signs: green, red, orange, yellow and white. — Neon Centric

deep purple silhouettes of pedestrians (one with umbrella) on side-walk of Yonge Street under a purple sky, high rises on each side; a woman is walking towards the viewer; orange and red light on the left reflecting on store windows on the right; the street is all orange, red and yellow — Done for the Day

A rainy night on John Street, Toronto. City lights colour the pavement in streams of hues. — River of Dreams

The lights over the entrance to the Nathan Phillips Square parking bathe the wet surface of Queen Street red and green. — No Entry

Streetcar tracks running parallel and diverging in different directions lay down a pattern in colourful pavement in rainy night Toronto. — Neon Tracks

Red traffic lights reflecting on a crosswalk on a rainy night create an abstract piece of art — Cross Balance

Neon lights on a rainy night create an abstract piece of art in red, yellow, teal and black, with straight streetcar tracks and curvy trails left by cars in the water on the pavement. — Razzle Dazzle

Neon lights on a rainy night create an abstract piece of art of a street curb in red, pink, yellow, purple and blue — Sweet Sweep

Neons on a rainy night create an abstract piece of art in red, green and orange; streetcar tracks create a festive pattern — Neon Circus

Study of a rainy night in a rural town in Ontario: green, yellow and red light reflections of a Shell station shine on the wavy wet road — Light Waves (study)

Prices listed are for unframed works, and in Canadian dollars, unless stated otherwise; shipping costs are not included. Please email me at if interested. For the pieces available at Studio22 Fine Art please contact the gallery.

Selection of works sold