“My goal is to render a likeness, but also to capture the energy of the relationship between the subjects, if there is more than one. I try to achieve timelessness with my paintings, to separate the subject from time and place and so create a work that will always feel immediate.” Harold Braul was born in 1960 in southern Ontario and currently lives in Toronto. His artistic journey began at the age of six under the private tutelage of local artist Roger Rondue. It was during these early years that Braul became a devoted student of colour, line, and light—elements that continue to shape his work today. He later pursued studies in Industrial Design at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario. While his design training refined his technical eye, Braul has never strayed from the childlike sense of wonder that first drew him to painting. Braul’s scenes are drawn from imagination, filtered through memory. Though his works depict the recognizable rhythms of urban life, each figure and setting emerges from his inner vision of the city. Much like the French Impressionists of the 19th century, Braul finds beauty in the ordinary: a commuter waiting for a bus, the flutter of a coat in the wind, or the glow of city lights after a rainfall. These everyday moments are rendered in bold colour and softened with a luminous, dreamlike quality. His style is characterized by loose strokes, vibrating lines, and diffused light—techniques that evoke movement, emotion, and fleeting narratives. A cyclist rounding a corner, a bird poised for flight, a bustling café—each vignette pulses with energy. Braul begins each canvas with a brush, then transitions to using his fingers as the work progresses, infusing the surface with a tactile, kinetic energy. Nicknamed "Canadian Cool" for his fresh take on modern impressionism, Harold Braul continues to capture the extraordinary within the ordinary—reminding us that beauty lives in the simplest scenes of city life.