A St. Albert artist is using his professional expertise and artistic talent to bring new perspective to the University of Alberta Hospital.
Bruce Allen, an architect by day, has recently completed six paintings of historic houses for the Friends of University Hospitals in Edmonton.
The six paintings, titled University Streets–Edmonton, will be unveiled in a gala ceremony at the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute at the U of A hospital next week, where they find their permanent home.
Allen said he’d been told the Friends selected him for the job because his style suited the goal of bringing more atmosphere to the university hospital.
“Hopefully, my pictures are kind of friendly, peaceful and soft and kind of the opposite of that hard, sanitized look,” said Allen.
Allen’s career as an architect and his success as an artist go hand in hand. Exploring neighbourhoods in St. Albert, Edmonton and elsewhere inspired him to record communities on canvas.
Allen moved to Alberta in 1976 from Malton, Ont. with a desire to work as a professional architect, states the biography supplied by the Friends. Allen has had the opportunity to work with several professional architecture firms as well as with the public works and most currently with Municipal Affairs, Alberta since 1981.
His projects include the design and drawings for the renovations and additions to Edmonton’s Northern Jubilee Auditorium, the Brooks Wild Life Center, and the Guinness Building in Calgary. Allen has also been responsible for developing the fire and building codes and standards for commercial and residential properties.
These experiences exposed Allen to the wide variety of neighbourhoods throughout the city and influenced his desire to document their unique characteristics and tell the story in painting.
Allen started painting as a hobby in the early ’60s and over the last three decades has developed the “urban landscape” style for which he’s become known. His painting became serious in the early 1990s and he added professional painter to his career.
Allen said that, when he looked at the neighbourhood where the paintings would hang, the university area, he decided to take a novel approach to source material.
“I walked around quite a bit,” he said, naming the 109 to 112 Street and 80 Avenue area.
After selecting several model scenes, Allen painted the scenes to actually mimic a street once the paintings were hung.
The St. Albert artist earned his place on the hospital walls after proposing a series of paintings illustrating impressive and historic houses in the university neighbourhood and then emerging as the winner of a jury process, said Allison Argy-Burgess of the Friends of University Hospitals.
“They’re just absolutely stunning,” said Argy-Burgess. “They have just transformed the space completely.”
Allen’s work will be unveiled April 23 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute at the U of A Hospital in the McMullen Gallery. There is no admission charge and a reception will also be held. The public is welcome.
Allen maintains his studio at Visual Arts Studio Association studios in the Hemingway Centre at 25 Sir Winston Churchill Ave.
