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The light house... It's really a... I built this in the 70's as a base for my studio.
I had a studio on top.
It was a small building which was 15x15 feet, and a spiral staircase inside, which I made.
I would sit there and I would paint there.
I had a phenomenal view to the lake here. I could see the lake.
I could see Kelso and skiing... night skiing from the light that was supplied.
I had music there and lights that would go on and off with the music.
So it was a lot of fun. I built it so it could rotate around a centre core... a steel pole.
It would rotate with an electric motor, I had an electrical motor underneath it and
it would slowly rotate so when I'm painting it would keep the sun behind me, otherwise
it would blind me.
So one day I had a fire. Somebody knocked on the door and said "Your building is on
fire!" and it was. I looked out the door and it really went up and the studio burnt.
The fire department came and we did not have a uh... now theres a fire plot there, but there
was no fire plot.
So they came with a tanker and they doused the fire and I just finished it off with the
little cupola now.
I don't use it for anything now except the flag, the Canadian flag.
So you actually rebuilt it again? The whole thing burnt down and you rebuilt it?
Well the studio was burnt... on top.
How long have you lived here?
Oh, I would say 1971.
Did you built the house yourself?
Partially, it was a small cottage when I bought it. And I expanded on it.
I built the studio in the front and in the back there's another room, a big room.
These houses obviously weren't here before, were they?
No.
So what was over here before?
I recall it was fields.
Fields? Cornfields?
Yeah. With some bush here and there.
I also make all my own frames.
So for the oil paintings, this was the first generations of frames, but then I decided
it should be better framing you know.
But all of corse it was enormous jump and work. You have to learn different skills.
For these paintings, the water colours you know, you have to learn how to cut mat board
right.
I have a neighbour woman and she's very nice. But for my female models, I have no model.
So I asked her, I said "Would you like to sit for me as a model, an artist model?" and
she said, "I'm not gunna take my clothes off for you!"
*Laughs*
Yeah, it was amazing.
So I said, "Okay, alright, okay!"
This is the one I made for my neighbour next-door anyway.
I'm always at work, everyday I'm open till uh 9:30 but I start at 6:30.
Often I start... this morning also, I have been working with these frames.
In the heyday, I had all the paintings up on the wall here and in other parts of the
house.
We uh... and I had people, I had art shows here were I had hundreds of people.
The place was packed, full of people.
I had orchestras... bands, singers, classical singers were here and I had a lady with a
harp.
So it was an arts place you see, where people could congregate. Thats what we did.
This is actually in Australia when I went on vista to Australia.
I have family living in Australia so I was going to visit them and I painted their paintings.
Uh, I had a show in their front yard, the way I have it here.
I asked him and my brother said "Would you mind before I leave here, we have an art show
here?" "Well people don't like paintings."
You know, it's a general idea that people have about other people because they don't
buy paintings.
And I said to him "We'll see, we'll see. So I framed them and I hanged them from the trees
and I distributed early in the morning, brochures all around the neighbourhood, thousands of
them.
And uh, and people came! A number of them actually were Canadians and they moved to
Australia for some reason but I showed similar painting that had a Canadian influence.
"Oh yeah, we're so homesick for Canada"
I have many requests, "How much do they cost?"
And well eventually I will sell them, not now I like them, and what I told you about
changing, I can't do that once they have been sold.
They're on somebody else's wall.
And um, I would miss them then.
I like em' here. When I see them, I like em'.
And I don't really need a lot of money, it's far nicer to see the paintings then have the
money.
I don't want to have to uh... I don't want to have to sell paintings, I'll feel sorry
I've sold them.
Sure it is exhilarating to receive a lot of money for a painting but...
You take pleasure in your work.
Well I take pleasure in my work!
You know something like this that comes out of your mind and out of your hands, it is
as if you wright and essay and you know when you do good work and how hard you work on
You don't want to give that up because it's wonderful.
You don't want to give that up, you want to hold onto it because you never know if you're
going to do it again.
I love it, sometimes I go to the store and I come back and I see the paintings of the...
And they look good, that is nice, that is nice.
And this pleasure you don't get from anything else, you see.
So, you see guys I have commissions, I have commissions of people that want me to paint
their faces and I do, and I do my best and they don't like it.
And then they say "We'd like it for you to make us look better then this"
And I say "That is the best I can do"
Because what you think is better is not in my idea of better.
And so we... well this is what we do.
Which ones your favourite, your painting?
My favourite painting now?
Yeah, yeah that you've painted.
Well now, at the moment it's uh, its the painting there that sits outside.
It's with her also.
Uh, could you tell us why it's your favourite?
Well I just like the way uh... I have my legs like this and with my arm around the dog.
Because she really is my best freind.
And she's with me the whole... well you see how she is with me.