SMILIN' BUDDHA CABARET  - Vancouver | 24" x 48" | Oil on canvas | 2019

🔴 SOLD by the Kurbatoff Gallery, Vancouver ‘
SMILIN BUDDHA CABARET (Night Version)
Oil on canvas
24” X 48”
Private Collection - Vancouver

Rockers give famed club sign to museum
Smilin' Buddha prime example of neon heyday 

John Mackie , Vancouver Sun

October 19, 2007
(excerpt)

Vancouver rockers 54-40 drew their name from a historical slogan, "54-40 or fight." Now they're making a bit of history themselves by donating one of Vancouver's landmark neon signs to the Vancouver Museum.

The sign is for the Smilin' Buddha Cabaret, a legendary dive on East Hastings where Jimi Hendrix played in the 1960s and 54-40 played their first gig on Dec. 31, 1980.

The sign was a civic icon for several decades, featuring a big, fat neon Buddha with a rippling belly reclining atop Smilin' Buddha (in script) and Cabaret (in oriental lettering). In a city that was once full of playful, imaginative commercial neon signs, it was one of the best.

The Buddha closed in 1987, and 54-40 purchased the sign a few years later from a guy who had bought it and stored it in a warehouse. They then used it as the title for an album, and took it on tour.

The band lent it to the Vancouver Museum for a neon show a couple of years ago, but the sign has mostly been in storage. So the band decided to donate it.

"We essentially consider ourselves stewards of the sign, never really owners," says bassist Brad Merritt, who will appear with 54-40 tonight and Saturday at the Commodore Ballroom.

"We happened to buy it and fix it up and get a case for it and all that stuff, but we were struck by the fact that it's a historical landmark. It meant a lot to me, personally. I heard my parents talk about the place, taking their little brown bags of booze [when it was a speakeasy bottle club] and sticking them in a little spot in the table as the cops go by . . . it was just an amazing place, part of Vancouver's lore."

The sign is now at the Vancouver Museum..

CARDERO GROCERY  - Vancouver | 24" x 24" | Oil on canvas | 2019

CARDERO GROCERY
Oil on canvas
24” X 24”
Available at the Kurbatoff Gallery - Vancouver 

At Your Convenience is a weekly ode to our indie convenience stores. The ones we frequent everyday and the hidden gems nestled in the heart of each neighbourhood. An old-school throwback in our modern world.
One of the best parts of taking on this series has been the personal stories about peoples favorites independent convenience stores. Often it’s the owner that makes the experience unique. Here’s a great story about growing up in the West End.
“Here’s a heads up on a particularly odd “corner store” here in the West End that you might want to use:
Besides being a visually pretty store to shoot, CARDERO GROCERY on Cadreo street between Comox st. and Pendrell st. has one other attribute.  Above the store sign you will notice two quotation marks- between these quotations is something that has been painted over.
As a kid in the late 70s and 80s, my friends and I equally bought and stole candy from this grocery store.  The owner,  one Len Lui (real name? no one knows for sure) never EVER smiled.  His lack of enthusiasm may have had something to do with the fact that West End kids in this particular part of the neighbourhood (we were almost all poor immigrants) had little or no money, but an equal appetite for candy as our more moneyed counterparts.
Although I never saw Mr.Lui do this, it has always been understood that Mr.Lui meticulously painted over the words “SERVICE WITH  A SMILE” keeping in line with the Trades Description Act and never deviating away from what can only be described as a promise made to himself and to all the sticky fingered unwashed children that robbed his shop daily.
So get down here and shoot this joint.  Mr.Lui doesn’t work there any more BUT if you look up into the back windows of the building, you can see Mr.Lui sitting eating his dinner or petting his cat.  Sometimes i like to believe that I can actually see him smile.” Article Courtesy of “Vancouver is Awesome”, by Jason Statler - July 10, 2013

LE PETIT DEP  - Montréal | 30" x 30" | Oil on canvas | 2018

LE PETIT DEP
179 Saint-Paul Street O, Montréal, Quebec 
30” X 30”
Oil on canvas
Available at The Kurbatoff Gallery
2435 Granville Street
Vancouver

HO HO CHOP SUEY | 48" X 24" | Oil on canvas | 2019

HO-HO CHOP SUEY
36” X 36”
Oil on canvas
Available at The Kurbatoff Gallery
2435 Granville Street
Vancouver 

The Ho Ho Restaurant, formerly at 100 East Pender Street, Vancouver, opened in 1954, was owned and operated by the Quon family; since the late 1990s it has operated under different ownership. The eatery represented one of the numerous restaurants and curio shops that opened in Chinatown after World War II to cater to non-Chinese curiosity and tastes. It indicates an important warming in attitudes towards the city's Chinese, as well as a new phase in Chinatown's commercial development. Upstairs, the Sun Ah Hotel's 48 rooms were typical of the small, crowded, lodgings available to working-class Chinese men. Perhaps it was some of these men who were - on repeated occasions - sanctioned for gambling on the premises in 1915-18.
Sign installed in 1954 by Wallace Neon.
Source: City of Vancouver Heritage Conservation Program

JANTZEN | 36" X 36" | Oil on canvas | 2019

JANTZEN
36” X 36”
Oil on canvas
Available at The Kurbatoff Gallery
2435 Granville Street
Vancouver
 
The Jantzen swimwear factory formerly at 188 Kingsway Avenue, Vancouver was built for the Universal Knitting Co, whose machines knitted Jantzen swimming costumes for the Canadian market under licence from the parent company, it was built in 1928.
Jantzen continued to produce garments there until the 1990’s.

KURBATOFF GALLERY - VANCOUVER

SYLVIA HOTEL | 25" X 25" | Oil on canvas | 2019

I am happy to announce I am now being represented by the established and respected
Kurbatoff Gallery on gallery row in Vancouver.
New works arriving soon.
SYLVIA HOTEL
Oil on canvas
25" X 25"
2019

Kurbatoff Gallery
2435 Granville Street
Vancouver, B.C.

CHIEFTAIN HOTEL

CHIEFTAIN HOTEL | 48" X 30" | Oil on canvas | 2019

Available at: KURBATOFF GALLERY, Vancouver
CHIEFTAIN HOTEL
Squamish, B.C.
48" X 30"
Oil on Canvas  
2019 

During the railway boom in the early 1900s, Squamish was a bustling and promising place. In fact, two grand hotels were built in those days, the King George Hotel (built in 1910) and the Newport Hotel (built in 1912), which is today the Chieftain Hotel. In the early days, the Newport Hotel was a popular hangout with the loggers, because owner Bob Carson allowed them to wear their caulk boots into the building. During prohibition years, Carson legally served a 2.5% alcoholic beer called “near beer”. The Newport Hotel burned down in 1956 and on the night of the fire, the whole town came out to watch. The hotel’s furniture and contents lined the street, while onlookers could hear the kegs of beer exploding inside. Mark Armstrong’s grandmother, Moonie Hartnell said: “It does my heart good to hear all those barrels of beer blowing up”. The hotel’s regulars didn’t necessarily agree with her sentiment. The Chieftain Hotel was built on the ashes of the Newport Hotel in 1958, its neon sign was made famous by numerous movies and TV series filmed on its location such as TV series ‘Men in Trees”, “Supernatural Season 4”, “Horns ”in 2013, TV series “The Returned” in 2014, “Insomnia” and many other productions.

ASTORIA HOTEL

ASTORIA HOTEL | 36" X 24" | Oil on canvas | 2019

Available at: KURBATOFF GALLERY - Vancouver 
ASTORIA HOTEL 
769 E Hastings Street, Vancouver 
 36” x 24” 
Oil on Canvas 
2019 

The Astoria started life as an apartment building – initially named for its developer, R A Wallace, and simultaneously as the Toronto House Apartments. The Astoria name was attached to a building on Hastings Street from the 1920s until 1949. Vancouver's most beloved dive bar, located in the heart of Strathcona.

HOTEL EMPRESS

HOTEL EMPRESS | 36" X 24" | Oil on canvas | 2019

SOLD by KIMOTO GALLERY - Vancouver 
HOTEL EMPRESS
36 x 24 
Oil on Canvas 
2019

The Hotel Empress lies in its position in the streetscape of East Hastings Street. Although the seven buildings on the north side of this block - all built between 1901 and 1913 - range in height from one to eight storeys, were designed by seven different architects, and constructed of different materials, they share several features. Together they illustrate the changing use of this area of East Hastings Street from residential to business use and place the district as a shopping and commercial centre for the emerging city of Vancouver in the early twentieth century. The architectural styles speak to the changing public taste from the ornate decoration of the late Victorian era to the more refined ornamentation of the Edwardian age. Built in 1912-1913 for owner L. L. Mills by architect F.N. Bender, the Hotel Empress is significant because of its considerable height and the narrowness of the East Hastings Street facade. It was purported to be the "world’s narrowest tallest hotel" when built, and is still the only building of significant height in the immediate area.

The Only Sea Foods

THE ONLY SEA FOODS | 24" X 30" | Oil on canvas | 2019

SOLD by KIMOTO GALLERY - VANCOUVER 
THE ONLY SEA FOODS (NIGHT VERSION) 
24" X 30"
Oil on canvas  
2019

The Only Sea Foods sign is a Vancouver icon, one of the most beloved neon signs in Canada.
The neon sea horse leaping above whitecapped waves is a superb example of the playful, imaginative signs that used to line the city's streets in neon's golden age in the 1940s and '50s.
The sign has been a fixture at 20 East Hastings St. since 1951, one of the last remnants of Hastings' commercial glory days.
No more. Last week a for sale sign went up on the building, and the neon sea horse was taken down with a crane and hauled off on a flatbed to a warehouse.
The Only closed in June 2009, amid allegations of drug trafficking by the proprietors. The sign has sat unlit for almost a year.
Many old neon signs on Hastings that were left on buildings like this slowly deteriorated, to the point where most of them went to the scrapyard. The lucky ones went to the Vancouver Museum's neon collection, the new home of the Blue Eagle restaurant neon.
But The Only sea horse isn't destined for the scrapyard, or a museum. It is being stored by the Portland Hotel Society, which wants to restore it and reopen The Only, perhaps in a new location.
The Only name is owned by Tyke and Peter Thodos, whose father Nick started the restaurant with their uncle, Gus. They took it back when the last operators had their business licence revoked, and have leased it to the Portland for 15 years.
"It's a historic name in this city," said Constantine (Tyke) Thodos, 83. "Let's keep it going, if we can."
Thodos ran The Only from 1950 until "after Expo," and commissioned the sign, which was built by Neon Products, now Pattison Signs.
It's a combination of painted sheet metal and neon tubes. In the daytime, the sea horse is green with blue eyes, "Only" is in white on an amber background and "Sea Foods" is in amber atop blue waves. At night, it's an orange neon sea horse with red neon eyes, and green neon "Only" and "Sea Foods."
In case you don't get the message that it only served seafood, "Fish," "Oysters" and "Clams" are advertised across the bottom. Ironically, one thing that wasn't on the menu was sea horse.
"I've never seen one, to be honest with you," Thodos chuckles. "They just put it up there. My brother says the unique thing about it is the sea horse tail is the wrong way."
The Only was a classic old-style cafe, with 17 stools arranged around curved counters and two booths. It had pressed tin ceilings, an open kitchen where you could watch the cook, and was so cramped they stored the fish on ice in the front window.
"On one side you packed the fish, on the other side you prepared the fish," Thodos said. "I made a deal with the Fisherman's Co-op, so they brought me fresh fish every day. We never had any fish that was older than 24 hours."
This was the secret of The Only's legendary clam chowder.
"To make a good clam chowder you had to have fresh clams," Thodos said.
"Of course in those days we could get it. Today clams are out of sight, $5 a pound or some stupid thing. In the '80s it was 20, 30 cents a pound. It was cheap. There is no way I could produce the clam chowder we did then and charge the prices we did."
Another specialty, cooking fish in lemon butter, came from the Thodos family's Greek heritage. Oddly, though, Thodos thinks the key to The Only's long-term success was its bread and coffee.
"I had a bakery on Robson Street, Golf's; they made the bread the way we wanted it done," he recounts.
"I used to give [customers] lots of bread and lots of butter; that was the key to the whole thing. I had the best coffee you could buy, and good bread. People like good bread; let's not kid ourselves."
After Thodos started leasing the name in the late 1980s, the restaurant fell on hard times, much like the surrounding neighbourhood. But the Portland Hotel's Dan Small thinks it's important to get The Only up and running again, as an enduring (and endearing) symbol of the Downtown Eastside.
"Ideally we'd like to see it as a social enterprise that employs local people," Small said. "You could rebuild some of the community esteem by having tourists come from cruise ships and Gastown to see this historic fish-and-chip place."
Small said the Portland has made an offer to buy the two-storey building where The Only has been located since about 1917. Realtor Norman Fung said the asking price is $2.188 million.
The sale is complicated by the fact that the building's owner, Nissim (Max) Ezerzer, died in August 2008, and the building is being sold by his estate.
The two-storey brick building was built around 1912 and once had another historic business, Don't Argue tobacconists.
Operated by Con Jones, Don't Argue had an amazing logo, a guy in a bowler hat shoving another guy in the face.
Neon expert John Atkin would love to see The Only come back to life in the same location. Something would seem amiss if the neon sea horse went up a block or two away.
"You drive down the street, you see a sea horse and you know where you are," he said.
"They don't serve sea horses at the restaurant, but it's a great icon on the street.
"It has a great familiarity for most Vancouverites. It's like the Woodward's W or the Ovaltine [neon], it symbolizes Hastings Street in the city."

(Excerpt from The Vancouver Sun, 4/8/10)

 jmackie@vancouversun.com

Paradise Revisited - Vancouver, Wish You Were Here

2400 KINGSWAY  - Vancouver | 30 x 30 | Oil on canvas | 2018

LE PETIT DEP 179 Rue Saint-Paul O, Montréal

LE PETIT DEP  - Montréal | 30 x 30 | Oil on canvas | 2018

CECIL HOTEL - Vancouver | 45 x 30 | Oil on canvas | 2018

No. 5 ORANGE - Vancouver | 30 x 30 | Oil on canvas | 2018

No. 5 ORANGE
🔴 SOLD by KIMOTO GALLERY - VANCOUVER 
Oil on Canvas 
30 x 30 inches 
2018

Sai Woo Chop Suey II - Vancouver | Will RAFUSE | 36 x 36 | Oil on canvas | 2018

VANCOUVER ART WALK
SOUTH GRANVILLE
Saturday, June 16, 2018 from 10am - 5pm.

SAI WOO CHOP SUEY II 
AVAILABLE at KIMOTO GALLERY - VANCOUVER 
Oil on Canvas 
36 x 36 inches 
2018 

Vancouver's Sai Woo's neon rooster sign crows over Chinatown once again

Sai Woo Chop Suey - Vancouver | Will Rafuse | 36 x 36 | Oil on canvas | 2018

 

 

The replica of the original neon sign hanging outside Sai Woo.

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SAI WOO CHOP SUEY
🔴 SOLD by KIMOTO GALLERY - VANCOUVER 
Oil on Canvas 
36 x 36 inches 
2018 


By: Cheryl Chan - VANCOUVER SUN
Published on: August 4, 2017 | Last Updated: August 4, 2017 8:00 AM PDT

For the first time in almost 60 years, the distinctive green-and-yellow neon rooster once again reigns over Sai Woo in Vancouver’s Chinatown.
The only image restaurant owner Salli Pateman had of the original sign that used to grace the original Sai Woo on 158 East Pender St. was a brief clip on a YouTube video that her friend sent her of a Chinatown parade in 1958.
“We rebuilt this sign literally from a one-and-a-half to two-second frame,” said Pateman, with a laugh.

Troy Hibbs and Salli Pateman with the new sign, which measures six feet wide and eight feet tall.

Resurrecting the sign was important to Pateman, who saw it as a way to pay homage to the building and neighbourhood. It would also be a memento of the past, mixed with the new, which is mirrored in the 6,000-square-foot modern Chinese eatery she opened in 2015 and named Sai Woo after the original chop-suey house that occupied the same location from 1925-1959.
Pateman tried to find the sign, launching a public appeal with a $500 reward earlier this year. She got tips and stories, but no solid leads. She turned to Kickstarter to raise the $18,000 it would cost to create a replica of the sign, offering $1 restaurant credit for every $1 donated.
On the last day of the all-or-nothing campaign, she was short $522. That final donation came from Stephen Wong, whose father, Chinatown legend Bill Wong of Modernize Tailors, used to eat at the original Sai Woo. The younger Wong said he wanted to donate the remaining funds in honour of his dad, who died in April at age 97.
“We were both so emotional that we were able to make it happen,” recalled Pateman. “It’s special that the last bit we needed came from within the community.”
Troy Hibbs of TDH Experiential Fabricators said the most challenging part of making the 6×8-foot sign was the lack of detail in the grainy screenshot image.
His team researched the area, its history and how signs were made in that era. They hand-painted the letters, used air-brushing techniques and put the sign through an aging process in order to mimic the vintage quality of the sign.

The sign in progress at TDH Experiential Fabricators.

“In LED, it would look very different than what you see now. You won’t have that wow factor to it,” said Hibbs.
Decades after LED technology killed off the neon-sign industry, there are signs that neon is coming back into vogue.
TDH made the Time is Precious neon sign on the Kit and Ace building in Gastown, and the neon signs outside Chinatown restaurants Bao Bei and Juniper. It also recently retrofitted an old Midas sign on a Lululemon store in Kitsilano.
Another historic neon sign is also set to be reborn down the street on East Pender: When Chinatown landmark Foo’s Ho Ho opens next year it’ll be lit up by a three-storey neon sign on the side of the building.
Since the Sai Woo sign was installed Saturday evening, it has lit up Pender Street like a beacon. The restaurant’s entrance is small and could easily be missed by passersby, said Pateman. Now people stop constantly and take photos and admire the sign.
“Hopefully, this is the catalyst for that neon era to come back to this street,” she said.
chchan@postmedia.com
twitter.com/cherylchan


Courtesy of: © Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

The Heart Of Davie Village

Should Heart Of Davie Village sign be a permanent feature in West End?

Scott Brown - VANCOUVER SUN

Published on: December 29, 2017

The Heart of Davie Village - Vancouver | 36 x 36 | Oil on canvas | 2018

The Heart of Davie Village is a 4×4-foot heart-shaped neon sign that was unveiled earlier this month as part of the Lumiere Vancouver winter light festival.
Artist Jim Balakshin, the sign’s designer, described the Heart of Dave Village as “a recognition of the historical geography of the Davie Village and the contributions of the community towards the political advancements of LGBTQ2+ rights across Canada.”

The art piece, installed at Davie Street near Burrard, is only scheduled to be up until the third week of February but there is an active campaign to keep the sign there forever.
More than 500 people have signed an online petition at Change.org to make the sign permanent.
“The community just loves this new sign, but it’s not permanent yet.  There are some hurdles to overcome, such as insurance and the fact it sits on private property.  Show your support to make this a permanent sign in Davie Village by signing our petition.  This petition will be shared with the West End BIA, and it is hoped that the #heartofdavievillage sign will become permanent,” the petition reads.

DANCELAND Manitou Beach, Saskatchewan

DANCELAND by Will RAFUSE 
after David Thauberger 1979, Dana Clayton 2010 and Kevin Boyle 2015

DANCELAND ~ Manitou Beach, Saskatchewan | 24 x 36 | Oil on Canvas | 2017

LESLIE LEVY FINE ART

Signs of Yesterday by Will RAFUSE
Leslie Levy Fine Art ~ Scottsdale, Arizona

CANTER'S DELI & BAKERY ~ LOS ANGELES | 36 x 36 | Oil on canvas | 2017

FELIX CHEVROLET ~ LOS ANGELES | 36 x 36 | Oil on canvas | 2017

STAR DRUG STORE - DRINK COCA COLA ~ GALVESTON, TEXAS | 36 x 36 | 2017

Marietta Cobb Museum of Art to feature Coca-Cola Company and Mason Fine Art Collections

Executive Director Sally Macaulay and Curator Kelsey Moran

100 Years of the Coca-Cola Bottle | 40 x 40 | Oil on canvas | 2015

Star Drug Store  Drink Coca-Cola | 40 x 46 | Oil on canvas | 2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marietta Cobb Museum of Art to feature Coca-Cola Company and Mason Fine Art Collections

Sally Litchfield  Apr 10, 2016

The Marietta Cobb Museum of Art will present a new exhibit “Catch the Wave: The Coca-Cola Company and Mason Fine Art Collections,” opening April 16 through June 26.The exhibit will feature original works by artists such as Norman Rockwell, Haddon Sundblom and Andy Warhol, along with contemporary artists such as Steve Penley, Kate Brinkworth and Todd Ford.
“Throughout history, The Coca-Cola Company has linked its flavors with the most popular designs and lifestyles of the era through the art of advertisement,” said Kennesaw resident Kelsey Moran, MCMA Curator.
MCMA will feature traditional and contemporary art. “The fact that we are showcasing a Coca-Cola exhibit implies that we are featuring the art of advertisement. Indeed we are, with the timeless and original paintings of Rockwell and his studies for advertisement used by The Coca-Cola Company, interpretations of Coke by Andy Warhol, and, of course, Sundblom’s Santa Clause,” she said.
The exhibit is a unique chance for the community.
“This is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity. Coca-Cola is everywhere, it is such an integral part of culture, and it is a rare opportunity to be able to stand in front of the artwork that started it all and continues to propel the company,” Moran said.
As part of the exhibit, MCMA will unveil a community display made with 20-ounce Coca-Cola products. “The community and local schools have worked hard to decorate these bottles in order for this public art display to be unique to Marietta Square,” she said.
“This exhibition will surely provide the community with a nostalgic glimpse of the ‘good old times,’ providing a refreshing pause from the chaos of today’s world and a moment to be wowed by the contemporary works from the Coca-Cola Archives and Mason Fine Art Gallery; Otto Lange, Kim Karelson, James Zamora, Sally Tharp, Will Rafuse, and Cason Adams,” Moran said.

“The Marietta/Cobb Museum of Art is honored to exhibit work of such caliber, and would like to thank The Coca-Cola Company and Mason Fine Art for making this possible,” Moran said.
The opening reception is April 16, from 6 to 8 p.m. The exhibit is free for Members, $10 for guests. Carriage House Catering has prepared a special menu with Coca-Cola as the featured ingredient.
Visit www.mariettacobbartmuseum.org