Blue Hour

 

                     Blue Hour: Abandoned Fish Plant, Rose Blanche, oil on canvas, 32" x 52", Steven Rhude



I took the southwest shore road from Port aux Basque, past Isle aux Morts, Burnt Islands, and Diamond Cove, and then on to Rose Blanche... the end of the line. I noticed a wharf road and parked well away from it's crumbling structure. Looming is an industrial cathedral, now abandoned and in a state of decay. A place that was once a community monument to coastal prosperity and collectivity. I stood there for a while realizing I've had similar experiences like this, back in Sicily, or England, and closer to home where on the way to Halifax, the Windsor textile plant always brings on a feeling of melancholia.
The Blue Hour constitutes twilight... that slippage between day and night that is briefly suspended. The sky spills over with ultramarine, cobalt, sapphire, even turquoise before merging with the warmth of the horizon. That's when the coyotes come out and you realize what a lethal place a ruin can be.

Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS

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