Teacher paints a striking 6,000-square-foot mural with students on the CN Rail underpass in Thornhill

Markham artist and high school art teacher James Ruddle has created his first piece of public art work — a 6,000-square-foot, Group of Seven–inspired mural — on the rusty CN Rail Bridge at Henderson Avenue and Glen Cameron Road in Thornhill. And it took six, 12-hour days and 300 cans of spray paint to get the city-commissioned project done. 

Ruddle completed the painting, which is located under the bridge and its walls on the side, with the help of eight local students and alumni. Participating Markham high schools included Thornhill Secondary School, Unionville High School, Richmond Green Secondary School and Bill Crothers Secondary School (where he has painted 23 murals, including one of Wayne Gretzky, with students since he joined the art department in 2011). 

“My goal was to start a dialogue about how we can incorporate our natural landscape into urban development,” says the 34-year-old blowtorch performance artist, who has always been inspired by the Group of Seven’s Lawren Harris.

Aptly named Shifting Landscapes, the mural shows Thornhill’s transition from the natural to the urban, with an urban landscape on the north face of the bridge embankment and a Group of Seven–esque painting on the other. 

“It is a pretty and bold expression of local, youth engagement,” says councillor Valerie Burke, who started to receive complaints from residents about the unpainted bridge a few years ago. 

The city approached Ruddle in late 2014 with the idea of creating a mural and developing a proposal for it as a response to the community’s desire to beautify the intersection.

“Arts and culture represent the soul of a community, and they tell the world who we are: a colourful, vibrant, culturally diverse, inclusive, welcoming and multi-faceted city,” Markham mayor Frank Scarpitti wrote in an email to Post City.

He added that studies have shown that public art attracts tourism and acts as a catalyst for economic development. 

The mural, which was supported by both local ratepayers’ associations and residents, is part of a series of public artworks that the city has planned. Five have been completed to date and one more is planned for this year. Next up is an installation at Toogood Pond.

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