One of House Crazy Sarah’s all-time favorite artists is Canadian painter Alex Colville.
This rustic, two-story cabin was designed and built by the painter in 1964
Alex Colville 1920 – 2013
Colville’s paintings were often dark and ominous…
Foreboding… with natural forces menacing the quiet human figures…
Lonely and austere.
So it makes sense that Colville made this weathered, isolated cabin his occasional home.
Austere as his paintings, the tiny cabin measures in at 379 square feet. It was listed for sale recently for $249,900.
Located at 104 Colville Lane, in Northport, Nova Scotia, the cabin sits on a 0.3 hectare lot of forest and ocean frontage.
The few windows were strategically placed to provide views out over the water horizon.
The cabin has been kept very much as the artist had it because the sellers were members of Colville’s family.
The only change to the property over the years was the addition of a separate exterior “wash house” that was built in 1984.
After nine days on the market, the cabin sold for about $15,000 over asking price. Surely that had to do with its famous former owner.
The cabin has a second story sleeping loft:
Alex Colville was born in Toronto but moved to Amherst, Nova Scotia as a boy with his family. He later studied fine arts at Mount Allison University in nearby Sackville, New Brunswick.
Colville then married and settled in 1942 in Wolfville, N.S., and that was his family home for decades.
The rustic cabin on the Northumberland Strait was built by Colville as a getaway camp in 1964.
It’s not hard to picture Colville here, hunched over a painting in progress, with the wind and the waves as his only companions.
The simplicity of the cabin is remarkable. Very few creature comforts here.
Below is the later addition wash house/shed:
It has a toilet, sink, and shower.
The realtor marketed the tiny cabin as: A wonderful opportunity to own a piece of Canadian history.
Indeed, it is located in an area that inspired many of the painter’s most notable works.
Hopefully the new owner understands the cultural value of this rough little hut, and preserves Colville’s cabin for posterity.
Sources:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/alex-colville-cabin-nova-scotia-for-sale-1.6003059
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