The Empire Theatre (oil on canvas 5 x 7 in.) SOLD!

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8 May finds us enjoying poutine in the cafe of the Empire Theatre in Cochrane, Ontario.  This is an old fashioned big screen theatre built in the 1950s and still in operation.  Owned and managed by our friends the Brissons, who have expanded its service to include a cafe with a full menu and a movie library, the Empire now draws its clientele from as far afield as Smooth Rock Falls, Matheson, Iroquois Falls, and Kapuskasing.   While all other theatres in the region have closed down except in the large city of Timmins, the Empire thrives as a diversified family business in the little town of Cochrane.

The scene I have chosen is Cochrane's main downtown street, 6th Avenue, looking south toward the railway tracks.  The wide thoroughfare with its wide sidewalks gives me the impression of a wide, flat prairie town - but beyond the tracks rises the boreal forest, and behind the theatre one residential block slopes dramatically down to Commando Lake, where Loons dive for fish in front of the band shell, Mallards dip and preen at the edge of the mowed park lawn, and Fred discovers that there are still Mink Frogs.

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