Acrylic on Canvas
24×36
2011
Private Collection
Winner of the People’s Choice Award 2011 at the Alton Mill Gallery
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From the abandoned and derelict Livingstone/Stephens house. Built by a Scottish immigrant for his bride, Neil Livingstone was rejected by her and never lived in the house. It was sold to the Stephen’s family in 1906 after his death.
A vanishing rainstorm left a brisk, penetrating breeze in its wake. The brick house sat blind with its windows shattered or entirely absent, allowing the wind to wander through its rooms unrestrained. A gust moved a loose door, tapping and knocking on its broken jamb. The walls whispered and wailed as the air pushed through the lathe left exposed like an untended wound. The sharp roughness of peeling paint broke off in my hands and when the wind subsided, the house breathed its musty breath over me.
~ Excerpt from “A Muskoka Once Imagined” © 2017 Michelle Basic Hendry