A New Series of Toronto Paintings.

The last year or so I have been painting Toronto Streetcars.   I do think that I will always paint streetcars however I am more interested now in painting bars and cafes of Toronto.  My favorite thing to do is grab a glass of wine or cup of coffee at a bar or a cafe and sit and write about random things I think about or people that I meet.     Before I had my son I was a waitress (yeah yeah… i should be saying server or waiter) at The Park Hyatt Roof Lounge for 7 years.  It was the perfect place for me to work.   I love the whole culture.  The wine or martini glasses, observing people, talking to people, the constant bustle.  The Park Hyatt (formerly, the Park Plaza) had every walk of life come in there.   From  the travelers, the  extremely rich to people pretending to be rich, marriage proposals,  anniversaries, celebrities,  eccentirics, nutcases, regulars, at it’s peak-for the area-the film festival.   I got a lot of flack for being a waitress, it was surprising how much flack really, I have no idea why people would not think it a valued position granted you did the job well.  I would have withered in an office or a school.  Here I was always moving, there were always funny stories and my coworkers became really close friends.   I painted part-time,  but wasn’t a good enough artist at the time to fully commit.  Or maybe I just wasn’t ready to commit to doing one thing.  I think if you are going to be an artist professionally you really have to give it everything and it wasn’t until the last year or so that I decided that that was exactly what I was going to do.     Up until now I have focused on streetcars because I was able to get great photographs while taking care of my son, who also loved to ride them.   However now that he is old enough I can now go out and take photographs in a few bars and cafes.   I would like to do a group of paintings just on the Rooftop because of my connection to it and it’s history.  I have just begun my first painting of a cafe in Toronto which I don’t think I want to sell, I already feel very attached to it.   I do think until I get sick of it, this is my calling.   I am afraid I might not want to sell any of them.   Oh well, either way I am very excited about this new chapter.