The Artist
"They showed me this wall that went on forever, and I just had to do it! It was the challenge of the wall!"

Alan Wylie trained as a mural artist in his native Scotland, but few experiences have involved him as much as his painting in Chemainus has. "You're not long in this community before you fall in love with it. I keep turning up like a bad penny."

Wylie works throughout Canada and the US as a painter and mural artist, but finds time each summer to return to Chemainus, with the excuse that "World in Motion" isn't quite finished. Melding a number of historic photographs into a cohesive piece of art has been a challenge worthy of Wylie's attention. The resplendence of the mural captures not only the characteristic coastal light, but the joie de vivre, tenacity, and spirit of the people as well.

Alan Wylie has lived in Canada since 1967, and has works in many private and public collections in North America and Europe.

The Art
This painting is a montage of historic buildings and events in the area between 1883 and 1939.

On the left are three buildings known as "the Lewisville hotel, store, saloon and barber shop." Established by former Chemainus teacher Samuel Girdlestone Lewis, this enterprise filled a void when the mill-owned Chemainus Hotel stopped serving liquor. The re-designed 1922 version of the hotel is depicted behind horse-drawn carriages and an early automobile. To the right in the background are two local businesses of 1892 - A. Howe's Meat Market and Rufus Smith's Blacksmith Shop.

Central to the montage is the Horseshoe Bay Inn, which stands today. To the right of it appears a facsimile of a document bearing the signatures of two renowned American millionaires who stayed at the hotel in November, 1900 - J. D. Rockefeller (top left) and Andrew Carnegie (bottom left). Matthew Howe, builder and proprietor of the Horseshoe Bay Inn, is portrayed on the right.

A street scene capturing the festivities of the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Victoria Lumber & Manufacturing Company in 1939 spreads across the right side of the mural.