Vancouver Skyline at Night

by Godfrey J. Ellis – 16×20 oil 1974

This painting is English Bay and the Grouse Mountain Chairlift in Vancouver, Canada, from was a Christmas gift for my parents. In 1974, this is how Vancouver looked; today, the lights of the buildings and up on the mountain have grown exponentially. My mother, who was also an artist, specialized in painting sunny thatched cottages. Part of the reason for choosing this subject was so that I would not be competing with her. For the same reason, I framed it with a black and silver frame, very different from her style. Well, she loved it and put it in the living room with her paintings that she was selling. The next client who came to buy one of her paintings wanted to buy mine, instead. Oops! The next thing we knew, the painting had been moved into the back den, up high and behind a macrome plant hanging. To understand this, read the poem “The Addiction” (also on this website).

Fast forward 20 years to when we moved from Oklahoma to a large home on Green lawn Street in Lacey, Washington. We needed something to go on the walls and I asked Mom if she would consider taking the painting of Vancouver from behind the macrome hanging, saying she had never cared for it all that much. “Oh, no, Dear; I liked that painting but, okay, you can take it.” At the time (1990-ish), decorating in pink was all the rage and we reframed the painting in a slightly larger pink frame with a cream mat. Acrylics are not meant to be matted, but it suited the decor. I was surprised at the change in the painting. The black frame had accented the darks in the painting; the new pink and cream framing brought out the yellows and warm lights. See if you agree (below).