Artists eager to learn which murals need fixing this year
After a long winter, artist Grant McLaughlin hopes that he and the murals advisory committee can soon get outside and determine which paintings should be prioritized for repair and touchups. McLaughlin has more than 30 years of experience as a professional artist and has painted more than 11 murals during the last three decades, such as A Tribute to Gary Hyland, the Centennial Mural, Winter Carnival, Living with the Land, and First Watch. He has also been associated with the committee and its activities since it started in 1990. He now advises the committee, which is composed of two new members and a city councillor. It will probably be no earlier than late spring before the committee and McLaughlin can tour the downtown and assess the murals. He will help the members understand more about the murals, while they will decide which ones should be repaired this year. With 42 murals in Moose Jaw, attempting to keep them in good shape can be challenging due to time and limited funding.
McLaughlin pointed out that a few paintings, such as the Opening Day Parade baseball mural, need a protective clear coat to defend them from vandalism and UV rays. Meanwhile, some need minor touch-ups — like the Crescent Park amphitheatre mural — while the colours have dimmed on others like the Sunday School mural at 60 Hochelaga Street West. “I know (Sunday School is) really faded. It’s over 20 years old … ,” he said. “It looks OK from a distance, but when you get close to the brick, a lot of the paint has lifted, and the rest is really faded. It would be nice to get it done and maybe (have) another 20 years out of it.” McLaughlin has maintained many of the murals over the years and is caught up on most of them. Last year he repainted the Opening Day Parade mural that the late Gus Froese created in 1990. This required repainting the mural on panels since the Crushed Can nightclub’s brick wall is 107 years old. He also touched up a mural of a trolley near the TD Bank.
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One favourite mural that McLaughlin painted is the Aboriginal-themed Living on the Land since it has big shapes and colours. Another favourite one is the firefighter-themed First Watch since it has many shapes and is a collage. He has also appreciated all the history-related murals he has painted since they allowed him to learn about those topics. McLaughlin became interested in drawing as a child, as he doodled in his books and helped create backdrops for school plays. “It was one of the things I naturally had a good eye for,” he said, noting his father was also a selftaught naturalist who drew nature and animals. Art school beckoned after high school, and by the time McLaughlin was finished, he had a family, so he became a teacher and used his skills to train others. Being an educator was something he found rewarding. Members of the murals committee have not indicated whether they want McLaughlin to paint a new mural for the community. However, he is working on a personal mural collage that depicts his hometown of Lewvan, Sask. He has wanted to do this for a while, especially for people connected to the ghost town. McLaughlin said that, if he could, he would paint a mural depicting Moose Jaw’s hockey history. He noted that the Canucks were a big part of the community decades ago.
