Imagined Train Stations – Part 1

The work I’m doing is related more to train stations rather than trains. I’ve always had a fascination with trains from an early age, as my father had a model railroad setup in our basement. As a teenager I travelled to Europe and loved train travel there and in particular the train stations. For me the macrocosm of a station defines what some of our lives encompass, the daily routines, the surprises, a space where people are travelling to and from events, greeting loved ones or saying goodbye. They are also places of great joy and sadness, of loss and waiting and those synchronistic connections between strangers.

European Train Station

Artists who inspire me are Turner, Whistler, Monet, and First Nations artists – Susan Point, Marianne Nicholson and John Marsden, as well as poets Leonard Cohen and Walt Whitman. The first 3 for their painting style and the First Nations artists for their connection to their spiritual and mythological histories and the very moving execution of the work they do. Cohen and Whitman have an innate ability to describe the indescribable, the essence of being.

Morning at a train station in the midwest

Train Station in Paris over the holidays.

Station X – People moving to get on the train

Image Credits

All Images Are © Heather Keenan

Heather Keenan Artist Bio

I trained as an art designer in Edmonton, AB and have been exhibiting my artwork for over 25 years throughout Victoria, Canada and the United States. I received an award from the BC Arts Council and have won firsts at North American and British Columbia art contests. My artwork is on the covers of books, publications, and academic journals. The medium I use is oil pigment sticks, which I use as a painting and drawing tool, manipulating this with rags, scrapers, and graphite pencils.

Blog / Website: Heather Keenan

Recent Guest Artist Articles:

• Golden Memories
• Orca in Transit by Trial Island Lighthouse
• "Listen, I Have Something To Tell You"
• All The Art I Will Never Make
• From My Sketchbook