One of Debbie Lively's paintings in the Old Courthouse Art Gallery. (Image: CFJC Today / Anthony Corea)

By Dylana Kneeshaw

'A NEIGHBOURHOOD REMEMBERED'

Final days of exhibition featuring commissioned paintings of downtown homes in Old Courthouse Art Gallery

Jun 25, 2025 | 6:40 AM

KAMLOOPS — Kamloops residents have a few days left to take in a new art show out of the old Courthouse building, featuring paintings of iconic downtown homes.

‘A Neighbourhood Remembered’ is an exhibition of the two-dozen portraits Debbie Lively was commissioned to paint of the houses that used to line the 400 and 500 blocks of Nicola Street and Battle Street.

The homes were taken down for the Kelson Group’s City Gardens Development to be constructed. Before they were demolished, however, the Fawcett family paid Lively to memorialize the homes.

“Ron and Rae Fawcett took me on a little stroll around the block before they were taken down and hired me to paint all of them and of course spruce them up a little bit. So as a memory and these paintings will be hanging in the City Garden’s towers on every elevator floor,” Lively explained.

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Before she began painting, Lively says she took more than 1,300 photos of the neighbourhood. Many of the two dozen homes were in a dilapidated state, but using pictures and memories from former residents, Lively was able to bring the houses back to life on canvas.

“I got emails from different people when they heard I was doing this,” Lively, noted. “I’d get an email or a phone call from someone who used to live in it, or their grandfather built it, and they were pretty excited. And I’d sometimes even get emails or pictures sent to me of them sitting on the front steps or sharing their joy of living in that area.”

The exhibition will come down on Friday (June 27), and after that the paintings will go on display within the completed City Gardens Development.