Colour Over the City Streets

Now that the warm summer weather is here, the National Capital Commission in Ottawa has been fixing up the city streets to make them more attractive for the thousands of tourists who come here every year. One of the things they do is put up banners to celebrate Canada's provinces and territories. I like these banners because they feature works by artists of the province or territory. This banner has a painting by an artist of Canada's newest territory, Nunavut.

This is the banner for the province of Quebec. It looks like an abstract painting, but I am not sure which artist. Whoever it is, I love the colour.

This is the banner for Ontario and is definitely from a Group of Seven painting.

This is the banner for Manitoba. The red is so vivid.

In addition to the banners with art works from the provinces and territories, there are also banners that feature winning entries from a contest for young Canadians. They submit entries on issues that concern them. Some of these banners are quite happy, but some of them are also sad. This one seems very positive and upbeat.

This banner is amazing, with all sorts of things going on. I can see why it was a winner in the contest.

I think this is one of my favourites. Not sure what it represents, but it is very compelling. I will have to go back and look at these again. I am just very glad that the NCC realizes the importance of putting art and colour over the streets.