2007 - "After the Final Bell "

Image Size: 12-1/4" x 18"    

The classrooms of Queen Victoria Public School resonate their founding history from 1913. Today…the classes have ended for the day….the school has emptied and the hallways have given up to the sounds of silence.  Under the critical eye and the caring hand of the school’s custodian, the school will be gleaming before the next day classes resume.  The love he has for his eight year career is heightened through his interactions with the teaching staff, parents and especially the children…

 His night is about to begin as he moves into the first classroom and sits down on a desk near the teacher’s corner….he scans the room…carefully assessing its condition ….a single water bottle remains left behind by a student….and he is drawn to its blue light cast by the rays of the setting sun. He feels the warmth of this reflective moment, turning the bottle to watch the dancing blue colors of light play across the desk… pausing to shift his thoughts to his family at home….and with this picture in his mind…In the empty corridors of the school…he will never be alone.

Now his work is about to begin…. just like everyday… after the final bell.  

This painting is in the collection of  Mr. Brian Hineman, Belleville, Ontario.