mural 34

8.1M x 2.8M (27.1’ x 9.3’) Willow and Mill Street, Canada Post Building

letters from the front

Painted in 2002 by David Goatley,
Victoria, BC

The Artist

David Goatley was born and trained in London, England. Since 1992 he has made his home in Victoria, BC. He is widely recognized as one of Canada’s foremost portrait painters with official portraits of former Prime Minister Kim Campbell and Speaker, Gilbert Parent, hanging in the House of Commons in Ottawa. His portraits of leading figures from the arts and business communities, as well as the many children and families he has painted, hang in almost 200 collections across this country and the United States.

Though he has painted several very large indoor pieces for private collections and the Church, ours was his first outdoor mural.

He is represented by Portrait Brokers of America, The Portrait Group, Portraits North in the US and Fine Art Commissions Limited in England. He represents himself here in Canada and is always delighted to discuss future commissions.

The Art

“This was a commission I was thrilled to win, for several reasons. First, the subject was very close to my heart - I have read many books on the First World War and spent hours in London’s Imperial War Museum imagining the horror of it, as well as listening to my grandfather’s memories of his years in the trenches. Secondly, I had wanted to do a Chemainus mural ever since I discovered the town when I arrived from England - and here was one I could really get my teeth into!

Painting it was exhausting but fun, being alternately encouraged and delayed by the huge crowds that came by every day with their cameras and questions.

The painting features Lieutenant General Arthur Currie, commander at Vimy Ridge, as well as a portrait of Edmund J. Palmer, the local postmaster and mill manager, in addition to figures that illustrate the ordinary men and women who suffered through those years at home and on the front, and linked by the mail.” Next Mural >