Jeff Maltby - Public Works Mural

Here is the final Maltby mural in the little retrospective we've been having. This one is on the side of a building in the City of Victoria's Public Works yard, only a stone's throw from the recycling mural viewed yesterday. It's another of Maltby's time travel murals with the older scene on our right and the modern view on the left. The title is "Public Works Through the Years". When I look at these paintings as a body of work, what comes to mind is Diego Rivera's many murals in Mexico City. Although Maltby's murals lack that revolutionary fervor, in their own quiet way they too tell some of the story of this place. Would that there were more of them.

Jeff Maltby - Chinatown Murals 3

Above is a detail from Jeff Maltby's third Chinatown mural just a few steps away from the two previously posted. I like this detail because these kids just look so nice, especially the one on the right looking right out of the picture at us. Below we can see the whole mural - a tour de force trompe l'oeil.

Take few steps back to see this amazing mural in context. Some parts of it, like the sign for the restaurant on the upper right are actually real.

I think it's a tribute to this artist that although these paintings are right at street level and you can walk right up to them and touch them they (and the other Maltby murals) remain free of graffiti or other gratuitous damage and these are nine years old.

Jeff Maltby - Chinatown Murals 2

Just around the corner from the painting I posted yesterday, in the passageway leading from Pioneer Square to Fisgard Street is this interesting mural. It takes us on a little voyage through time with the three children running towards the Chinese Public School, the distinctive steps of which can be seen in the background. The picture fades from black and white to color from left to right as history progesses with the first little boy wearing what may have been a school uniform of 1909, the year the Chinese Public School was opened. The little girl is dressed in '50s style - look at those saddle shoes. And the little boy on the right with his skateboard and crash helmet is definitely from the modern era. The way the painting is hung, the children are running towards the Chinese Public School on the opposite side of Fisgard Street as they may well have done through this passageway years ago.

Jeff Maltby - Chinatown Murals 1

On Fisgard Street, Victoria's Chinatown's main street, there are three Maltby murals. The one pictured above may be found opposite the Chinese Public School. It is a group portrait of the Lee Mong Kow family of Chinese immigrants in 1905. Maltby always manages to bring his characters to life with thoughtful, friendly expressions.

Jeff Maltby 4

Here is the triptych featured in the last three days' posts in its entirety. On the left is a photo of the artist, Jeff Maltby, taken in 2012 by Globe and Mail photographer, Chad Hipolito. We'll have a look at Mr. Maltby's other murals over the next week or so.

Jeff Maltby 3

Here is the third panel of the mural triptych on the corner of Fort and Langley Streets downtown. I would have found this less accessible than the other two panels were it not for an article in the Globe & Mail that describes it as, "...three people shouting from a window, an homage to a scene from the movie It’s a Wonderful Life." Click the link to read the article - it has some good background information on Mr. Maltby and his murals.

Jeff Maltby 2

Here is the center panel/window in the Jeff Maltby triptych on the corner of Fort and Langley Streets downtown. Among the many features I love about these Maltby murals are the details. For instance, you have already glanced at this photo but did you notice the hummingbird feeder? And the hummingbirds? Click the photo to make it larger to pick up on the details. There are also some bubbles in the air - look at the mural photo I posted yesterday and you will see the kids are blowing bubbles.

Jeff Maltby - Victoria's Muralist

When I was downtown on the weekend I chanced to park near this Jeff Maltby mural, one of three on the side of a nearby building. I was struck again by the remarkable skill of this artist and our great good fortune to have such talent displayed freely on our downtown streets. Mr. Maltby has been commissioned several times to create murals in different parts of the city. Most of them have been featured in this blog over the years and I plan to do a little retrospective over the next week.

Chemainus Murals

Last week we made some posts about our recent day trip to Chemainus. One of the main reasons for that trip was to see the "World Famous Murals". Fern posted one picture of a mural and here are a few more. They really are very striking and the town boasts nearly 40 of these immense paintings. Most deal with the early history of the area and focus on logging. Others, such as the one above pay tribute the the earliest residents of the area, the Chemainus First Nation. I also enjoyed the way that murals have become a part of even the fast food purveyors storefronts such as Subway.

Chemainus 2

This is a rather impressive statue of H.R. MacMillan (1885-1967) overlooking the waterfront area of Chemainus. The logging industry is a huge part of BC's history and this man was instrumental in the building of that industry. There is also a large mural with a nice portrait of him (on the right) with J.A. Hummingbird. There were so many fantastic murals, in so many styles, that it really was fascinating. - Fern