The Artist
With over 40 murals to his credit, David Maclagan is no stranger to mural art. One of his larger undertakings is a historical tableau which measures 120 feet in length, at the Yukon Territorial Legislative Buildings in Whitehorse.

Maclagan is from Ontario, where he graduated from the Ontario College of Art. He has been a professional artist, designed, and instructor since 1957, and is currently a teacher at Capilano College in North Vancouver.

The gentle, warm tones of Maclagan's panorama are rendered more powerful by the bold strokes of his broad brush. He has created a composite painting based on a number of sepia tone photographs from 1891, showing both the labour and the leisure of early residents.

David Maclagan's paintings hang in many collections in Canada, the United States, and Japan.

The Art
The mural shows the original town of Chemainus, then known as Horseshoe Bay. Passenger cars of the famous Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway (E&N) steam their way across this scene of the settlement at Horseshoe Bay in 1891.

The large white house on the far left was the mill manager's residence; the area is now Waterwheel Park. The predominant centre road is present-day Mill Street, with Saint Michael and All Angels Anglican Church, erected in 1891 by Rev. David Holmes, situated on the mid-right.