King’s Square – an architectural gem in Uptown Saint John captured in a stunning painting by local artist Lydia Paterson

Today’s blog is about something different than houses – King’s Square. Some of the beautiful things in Saint John are the lovely squares that dot the city. I go to the farmer’s market at Queen Square on Sundays for eggs and cheese and other local goods, and I live near Victoria Square in the old north end – see pic below.

I love squares. Like cemeteries, buying beside one kind of guarantees no one is going to obscure the view in front of you, and they provide an opportunity to share space and people watch.

In Saint John we have a spectacular square Uptown (not called downtown here – that can be for local historians to explain) called King’s Square. The centre is a pavilion and there are many cool historical monuments and the City plants stunning flowers throughout the year. This is a crappy pic I took of the beauty over Christmas – not doing her justice with my lackluster photography skills.

This site provides a pretty good overview of King’s Square and the great historical points of interest within.

Personally, I hate malls and enjoy my Saturday morning shopping where I check out local stores on and near the square, like Hats on the Square, then soak up the Uptown beauty and head home. After doing my Saturday morning errands, I stopped by the Saint John Art Club to check out the local talent. Saint John is blessed with both inspiration and talented people with great skill.

I had no intention of buying anything, except maybe a card or two, until I fell in love with this painting.

The volunteer kindly came over to give me some feedback. Apparently artists Herzl Kashetsky and Dr. David Meek (who I met while purchasing the painting) both commented on the quality of this work. It was then that I realized the artist was Lydia Paterson.

We had previously commissioned Lydia, whose parents are family friends, to do a small bit of work in our kitchen by etching my husband’s family crest quite subtly into teak around our faucet. Lydia is clearly talented.

What I love about this painting is the architectural details it captures but also the use of light and dark. The phrase chiaroscuro from my art history classes in university kind of popped back in my mind.

This is my favourite part of the piece. I wonder if it is a man leaning up against one of the posts. And I can never get enough of a finial and a dome.

In getting the piece home I realized it was not signed. I had flashbacks to drinking champagne within the UNESCO headquarters in Paris beside a wall painted by Picasso that he never signed. I cannot let this happen.

I immediately called Lydia to let her the story of falling in love with her piece and to let her know I need my investment signed. In the meantime, it is such a beautiful piece of art celebrating a beautiful part of Saint John and so worth sharing.