Bhat Boy unveils giant NCC-commissioned work to his students
2424 Bhat in his dining room where he worked on the painting
Photo: Louise Rachlis
2553 At Bhat Boy’s Salon des Bananes vernissage and tea party
Photo: Louise Rachlis
Bhat Boy unveils giant NCC-commissioned work to his students
By Louise Rachlis
Last spring, the National Capital Commission (NCC) asked popular artist Bhat Boy for a proposal to create an art installation in the lobby of the new NCC headquarters at the site of the old British High Commission on Elgin Street.
This fall, when the artist was ready to unveil the giant work he’d just completed, the first people he invited to view the painting in his Glebe home were his art students.
“My students are special to me,” said Bhat, “and they deserve to be first. They are the first seed in my grapevine in an industry where word of mouth is gold. The art was intended to highlight ‘assets’ of the NCC with a particular interest in how they are used by the public. The idea was very big, but not specific.”
The NCC had asked him to represent the four seasons, which, he explained “is a bit of an anathema for artists – it creates a very complex and confusing colour palette which can be difficult to harmonize and balance in a single composition.”
He came back five weeks later with a one-tenth scale proposal featuring just two seasons, autumn and winter. “I divided the seasons diagonally with a flock of Canada Geese in flight. The geese give the painting depth, but also create a focal subject in what could otherwise be a busy and confusing cityscape. The placement of the geese makes the change from autumn to winter almost unnoticeable.”
He set up his paints and supplies for the nine-foot-by-nine-foot painting on birch wood in his dining room last June. “That’s because it was too big for my studio, and I still needed the studio for other work.”
There wasn’t a firm timeline for completing the project but four months later, it was ready. “The painting is meant to celebrate 125 years of the NCC, which is 2025, but the building where it will be installed at 80 Elgin will not be ready until sometime next year.”
Keeping such a big painting “visually organized” can be very difficult, he said, “dividing the painting into different coloured seasons. There is a complicated structure, and the foreground of the painting, Gatineau Park, although still autumn, is a different palette again.”
It’s not the biggest he’s ever done – he painted a complicated cityscape in the 1990s – but it took more time than any other.
Bhat hosted a sold-out artist showcase vernissage and tea party featuring the giant artwork on November 14 and 15 at the Salon des Bananes on Carling Avenue. Located in a former tire shop, Salon des Bananes is the art studio of Rich Loen, a retired Ottawa tech entrepreneur and now artist. The 7,000-square-foot space includes an art gallery and a workshop with machines for woodworking and metal work.
Bhat’s work has now been put into storage until the new NCC building is ready sometime in 2026.
Louise Rachlis is one of Bhat Boy’s many long-time art students at the Glebe Community Centre.