Murals of Midland - Downtown Midland Ontario Merchants - BIA

Fred Lenz 1931 to 2001

The body of work an artist leaves behind is usually his legacy. But what if the artist canvas is a building and his display space is open to all of nature's elements? This is the artistic legacy of Midland's most productive muralist Fred Lenz. The majority of work around his community will not likely survive for more than a generation. But the legacy of Fred Lenz is much deeper than his art. His legacy will live on in each of us who knew him and in those lives he touched, if only for a few minutes, he chatted with them about his life and his work. Fred created 34 murals for the Downtown Midland BIA in 10 years. If private murals are included about 50 in Midland alone.

Fred Lenz was born in Mannheim Germany in 1931; He started painting and drawing at the age of 5. Lenz immigrated to Canada at the age of 20 and began painting with oils and watercolors. His favorite subjects were faces. In the 1960’s and 70’s he became well known for painting large pictorial paintings on buildings and on trucks. Lenz painted the majority of the murals in Midland and all the murals in Penetanguishene. He used his craft to carve a career as a commercial artist with leading advertising agencies. When Fred arrived in Midland in 1991, Ruth Cartier, told him the town was looking for a mural artist and submitted a commercial art portfolio of over 40 years of work.

Robert Lenz

The eldest son of Fred Lenz is Robert. He was born in Uxbridge, Ontario. Robert got interested in art at a young age and enjoys doing portraits. He has always enjoyed art and once won the Remembrance Day poster contest in public school. He has been working with his father since about 1991, where he learned about painting murals. Robert takes time to put in great detail on his work, giving them a great realism. Robert started out on the Mega Mural by patching holes in the wall and along with Stephen, finished applying the grey undercoat using a roller. Originally only a portion of the elevators was sprayed with the grey. This year he has become a master of creating aged roof shingles and created many of the posts that make up the fence around the village. During the summer of 2001, Robert spent most nights in the camper parked at the elevators so that he could get an early start each morning. He has plans to touch up some of the existing murals that his father created and if possible create some of his own using the techniques taught to him by his father.

Dan Swasky

Dan Sawatzky, a Chemainus, British Columbia, artist and theme park designer, calls himself an "Imagineer," and rightly so, as his work knows no bounds when it comes to creativity. He painted a mural in Chemainus in the early 1980s and stayed in the community, adding to its character with the art gallery and home he and his wife Janis built there. He also helped create the multi-million dollar dinner theater in the village's downtown. The Sawatzky family was later commissioned to create the theme amusement park in the world's largest indoor shopping mall in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The latest Sawatzky creation is a theme miniature golf park in Cultus Lake, B.C., called "Giggle Ridge" which is owned and run by the family. Dan Sawatzky is commissioned to do murals throughout the United States and Canada, and his creations are always a family event--wife Janis, daughter Rebecca, and son Peter all work with him.

Michelle Van Maurik
Michele is the daughter of a renowned Dutch painter and is a Toronto-based artist, muralist and sign painter.  She was hired after Fred's passing to help in completing his dream along with his sons Stephen and Robert.  While working on the mural, she lived at the family cottage on Orr Lake, south of Midland.She began to establish her career as a muralist/sign painter when she got a position with Canada's largest outdoor mural advertising company Mural Communications, in 1987.  She has painted numerous mural ads throughout downtown Toronto for such clients as CBC, Q107, TTC, Molson's, Carling Black Label and the Art Gallery of Ontario. She also worked on some of the "moose" that were seen throughout Toronto in the summer of 2000.  Michele has her own business doing portraits of pets and animals.  Michele said that she was inspired by Fred's work and after she met him in 1995, she was encouraged to pursue a career in fine arts as well as historical murals.

Ruth Hurdle

Ruth Hurdle is a freelance fine artist who loves to paint landscapes in oil, acrylic, watercolour and pastels.  Ruth also loves to draw and paint photo-realistic portraits of people and animals Ruth is also a mural artist and interior decorative painter.  Ruth welcomes commissions for paintings, portraits and mural work.  Ruth's art can be viewed at the Quest Art School and Gallery in Penetanguishene and Artistic Dimensions in Midland. Art has always been a part of Ruth's life since she was a child but it is only in the last few years that she has begun to devote herself more completely to her love of creating.  Ruth is mostly self-taught but has studied with a number of professional artists. Ruth has had several pieces of art accepted into Juried Art Shows including the Wye Marsh Amature Art Festival, Quest Art School and Gallery, Blue Mountain Foundation for the Arts and the Orillia Museum of Art and History.  Ruth's paintings are in private collections throughout North America and Europe.

Ruth is also very involved in the Quest Art School and Gallery and has sat on their Board of Directors for 4 years. Ruth's most recent endeavours include restoring the historial murals of Downtown Midland created in the 1990s by the late Fred Lenz.

Terry-Lee Milley

Sonja Rathke

Cindy Scaife