City people

The images that I’m working with span several decades of Toronto’s history, and the ones that I ended up choosing as my source material were all appealing to me because of the humanity that was candidly captured in the photographs. These are real people, going about their daily life in the city, usually unaware that someone is taking a photo. The photographs, and hopefully the resulting paintings, give a glimpse into what life might have been for the people of Toronto in various time periods and locations throughout the city.

The four paintings I’ve completed are based on photographs from the following:

Bay and Adelaide, 194-

Bloor Street West, 1958

Yonge and Eglinton, 1963

Yonge and Dundas, 1979

Above is a collage of detailed pictures focusing on people found in these four paintings. Just for fun, see if you can guess which people belong to which decade! Or don’t, I’m not the boss of you.