The Artist
"Design and fabrication of outrageous things is what I do. Murals are just a part of that now, albeit a big part."

Dan Sawatzky first painted a mural in Chemainus as a visiting artist in 1983. Mural painting has become a way of life for not only Dan, but his entire family. More than forty murals later, all family members are involved, and all help in the family business - called "Satawzky's Imagination Corporation".

Sawatzky's artistic roots working in pen and ink still show in some of the detail of his larger projects. Murals have become so much a part of Sawatzky's life that he is now one of a handful of artists in North America presently making a living as a full-time mural painter. He works at a fever pace, and attacks any project with an energy akin to a white tornado. In 1991, he painted fourteen murals in North America and Japan.

As his still and style evolve, Sawatzky's paintings grow more evocative, using more colour and light, rather than intricate detail to suggest mood and locale. His reputation is now taking him into three-dimensional work, and he is involved in theme parts in BC and elsewhere in North America.

The Art
A huge, foreshortened iron horse steams and belches darm smoke as it leaps out of its frame and almost off the wall of artist Dan Sawatzky's home and studio. The subject, a working engine operating in the Chemainus area early this century, is of particular interest to the artist, who has always been fascinated by trains.

Engineer Sam Alexander operated the No. 3 Climax Engine as it hauled logs along the rails of the Chemainus Valley. The E&N Railway was completed in 1886, although working trains had been a familiar sight in the community for some years already. The larger engines plied the rails through the hills and valleys of the E&N land belt, from which the Victoria Lumber and Manufacturing Company drew a great deal of its timber. Smaller, more compact engines worked nearer to and at the mill, shunting timber and finished products to where they were needed.