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This shows a traditional maple sap gathering scene. A team of horses pulls the sleigh on one of the routes between trees which are hung with sap pails. A child rides along on this exciting activity. In the background the sugar shanty is already showing billows of steam as the man inside stokes the evaporator.

This painting was commissioned by the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival to celebrate their 50th anniversary. I tried to include many aspects of the traditional gathering experience as this piece will continue to be used for their poster.

This is still a familiar sight in Mennonite country. A farmer with his team and wagon accompanied by his dog roll along a rural road. In the background a Mennonite farmhouse altered by each generation to suit its needs provides a colourful backdrop. This is an ideal scene with a small stream through the pasture providing water for the Holstein cows.

This painting was started as a performance piece at Paintertainment, a fundraiser for Drayton Entertainment, at the St. Jacobs Schoolhouse Theatre. In the weeks after the performance I sent updated versions to Drayton Entertainment who in turn passed them on to the people who had attended the show. The painting was won at the event by a woman from Cambridge as the door prize.

Painted partially on the site of this historic farmhouse near Ayr, at a fundraiser for ALS, this painting was a great deal of fun. Over the years I have done many paintings in the public and find that each time I do, I wonder why I don’t do it more frequently.

This painting of the historic Joseph Schneider House on Queen Street in Kitchener is a re-creation of those pioneer times when this area was just getting established. My great-great-great grandfather was a brother of Joseph’s.

Subscribed Reproduction 7″ x 9″

This painting was commissioned for the Plowing Match in Ayr in 1995. The painting, now owned by the Township of North Dumfries, was loaded with details of local history such as the bells on the horses that pull the covered wagons. A portion of this painting also became a popular poster.

The work ethic was ingrained years ago into even the youngest of children. The duty of work was presented as a privilege to young children carrying refreshment to the threshers.

These men are threshing with steam power right in the field rather than processing the crop in the barn. In my thirty-five years of closely observing the traditional Mennonites, I have only once seen this sight. Now even with the most orthodox of Mennonite or Amish groups, the barn is the location for the threshing machine.

The old-fashioned threshing machines, many of almost antique status, are now powered by truck engines mounted on a carriage. See Power by Buick Image #0414 and Sliding Off the Load, Image #1701.

Several years ago I painted a still earlier approach to threshing where horses on a windlass provided power for the separating of wheat and chaff, Horse Sweep Image #1107, so Harvest Heritage, which was partially painted in public at the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto in 1995, provides a somewhat more modern approach to threshing.

A local company, The Waterloo Manufacturing Company, produced a steam tractor, like this, one hundred years ago. It seemed a natural to use it in a painting, part of which would be used for a poster. The poster publicized an event at the Ontario Agricultural Museum in Milton. I was the artist-in-residence at this country-life museum. The painting was then purchased by a local Waterloo insurance company. They have since commissioned another large painting that I painted in public at the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto November 2 – 16, 1996. See New Beginning Image #1971.

See also Steam (Study in) Image # P0090 and Threshing Machine Returns Image #1690.

The Cancer Society benefitted from this painting commissioned by Samsung.

A request by the Shantz committee, preparing to celebrate the 200th Anniversary of their family’s arrival in what has become Waterloo Region, sparked this re-creation. This original farm, located in the east of Kitchener, was founded by Christian R. Shantz. Successive members of his family added buildings and refinements to make the mature farm shown in my painting. I have a special interest in this historic view as I am also a member of the Shantz clan. Reproductions of this painting were used by the committee to defer some of the costs of their reunion.

After viewing photos provided by the Galt Country Club and then walking the course, I put together a number of small acrylic sketches of several areas that I thought most attractive. The committee was unanimous in their choice of selecting Hole #14. This unusual situation features a high rock wall that is most distinctive and tells the viewer of the painting on first glance that this is the Galt Country Club Golf Course. I suppose that one could call this the signature hole.

The terrible tragedy of the burning down of the old grandstand at New Hamburg directed my attention to this symbol of the Canadian Pacing Derby. During the 1940s and 1950s, this venue drew crowds from across the northeast of North America. In this painting, I re-create that time and I hope some of the excitement.

In this unusual situation I commissioned myself to put together this piece from my childhood. Reproductions of this painting were later used to raise funds for Wilmot Township. The original was purchased by a civic-minded couple who donated the painting to the Township.