Peering through his window inspires artist's works

When Stephen L. Waisberg needs artistic inspiration, he need not tread any further than his living room's picture window.

"To me, this view itself is a painting and it changes every second," said the Etobicoke artist and oil painter, 65, adding that much of his work is inspired by the view from his east-facing, 23rd-floor condo at Islington Avenue and Bloor Street West. "So I get umpteen ideas out of it, and this view of Bloor Street shows up in many of my paintings."

Waisberg is holding an exhibition and sale of 23 such oil-on-canvas works from Oct. 23 to 29 at Laurier Gallery - a fitting site, given that it was in just such a gallery that Waisberg got his start in the world of art.

Just 10 years old when his pharmacist father presented him with his first box set of oil paints, Waisberg took to painting on the bits of cardboard that his dad's shirts would come back from the cleaners folded up in. Then he'd tuck his cardboard paintings under his arm, and drop by the old Hubbard's Gallery at Yonge and Eglinton whilst making deliveries for his father's drug store.

"They used to be custom framers and they had such wonderful art in there. Mr. and Mrs. Hubbard would talk to me and look at my stuff, and I remember them saying to me 'don't take lessons. You can come here and we'll discuss whatever art we have,' and that was my introduction to art," he said.

"It was from them that I got a sense of how you analyze and break down a piece of work. That was my first education in art."

A barrister by training and trade, Waisberg is a self-described impressionist/expressionist painter who said he never wanted to make art his livelihood, because, in his mind, there are too many extremely talented artists out there compromising their art by worrying about what sells.

Still, he notes the parallels between his art and the 'theatre without a script' that is the courtroom.

"It's artistic - no matter how much you're prepared, when you walk into a courtroom, it's show time...and when you're in a court of law, you're the advocate for your client. You're trying to present their case with impact," he explained. "It's the same idea with painting - you're trying to see whether or not an observer finds it compelling."

While Waisberg also dabbles in virtual painting on Microsoft Paint, oils are his medium of choice, while his west-end neighbourhood is his choice subject.

Through his cityscapes and landscapes, Waisberg captures his impressions of Etobicoke - from Evening, Bloor Street (an impressionist take on the view from his window at night), to Next Street Over (an expressionist painting featuring three white gabled roofs just viewable amongst a sea of trees north of Waisberg's condo), to City to the East (an imagined airplane's view of his window view), to Riverbank (capturing the close-up 'feel' of nearby Mimico Creek).