The Painting: This depicts the old Bartels Brewery through Bill’s classic fish eye lens. Many of his paintings, including this one, were done with oil on canvas.
The Artist: William LaMirande was a nightwatchman for General Electric and lived on Lydell Street in “Skunk City.” LaMirande is known for his street paintings of the city’s landmark buildings. Sadly, his work was not discovered until after he died – Bill passed away 19 years ago yesterday. He had a unique style, reminiscent of a long ago era. His colors are often bright and cheerful and he even created his own frames.
How it got to OHA: After the Post-Standard’s Dick Case wrote an article featuring LaMirande in December of 1992, OHA’s curator of collections, Thomas Hunter, contacted the artist. This is the painting Bill sent in to add to our collection.
Here’s the letter Tom sent to Bill in April of 1993:
