Is it 40 years already? I am so glad that David and Sidsel Bradley started this company back in 1985 and successfully ran it for nearly two decades. I loved working in the business so much that my husband and I bought it in 2003, and it is surreal to acknowledge that we have owned The Paint Spot for 22 years and that I have been here for 31 years, which is the same age as my son Jordan.
This anniversary sparked a little trip down memory lane as I started collecting images. I am very proud to share this scrapbook of events and milestones of The Paint Spot’s unique journey. The timeline is a countdown in reverse order. It is best to scroll down and look at all the images. Then read it from the bottom up.
2025 – 40th Anniversary
2025 – Kick off for ColourJot.
Kim Fjordbotten has launched a new product and system for teaching colour theory.
2024 – Social Media Divas!
Our staff are amazing. They are the stars highlighted in our Instagram and Facebook posts.
Top to Bottom: Allison Crimson, Kim Fjordbotten, Michelle Chapman, Laura Rezko, Shelly Banks, Mico Ortiz, Oksana Zhelisko, Mona Sahi, Chelsea Fjordbotten, Andrew Thorne, Kaylee Ford, and Susan Bailes.
2024 – Room Full of Women and the “Female Gazes Exhibition “
A open call to female artists to create work featuring women. Organized by Kim Shanks, it was a huge success. Many of the artists had never exhibited before and the Naess Gallery was literally full of women artists and art works. Cupcakes were a highlight too.
2023 – Live Drawing at The Zoo
We raised over $4500 for the Edmonton Valley Zoo by teaching drawing classes once a month for seven months. We drew the red pandas, monkeys, takins, a newborn zebra, fox, wolf, and owls.
2023 – Puppies and Buffalo Plaid
“I love dogs and, thanks to my sister Kelly, we adopted a couple of stray dogs: Moma and Loki to hang out with our Eva. Five days later, we had 11 dogs – 8 PUPPIES! To find good homes, we brought the puppies to work for a few visits and featured them on social media. All the pups were adopted by friends and customers. The puppies come back for visits and treats often. The puppy in the picture could have been Cookie, Astra, or Cosmos. Pee Wee, Tank, Tibbs, Lindor, and Dasher were the names of the other pups. Loki, Eva, and Moma are still happy friends and live with Kim and Phil.
See the Puppy Day in the store!
2023 – Staff Painting Retreat! A team that paints together stays together.
Front to back – Mona, Oksana, Laura, Kim, Shelly, Chelsea, Michelle.
2022 – Old Strathcona Mural Tour!
Can you believe that Old Strathcona now has over 80 murals? Many of them were sponsored by The Paint Spot, Rust Magic Festival, or Mural Massive Festival and feature both local and international artists.
Special thanks to Annaliza Toledo and Trevor Peters, who founded Rust Magic and inspired so many young artists.
2022 – The Queen’s Jubilee Award was awarded to Kim Fjordbotten for founding and running The Whyte Avenue Art Walk, Artelier Studios, the Naess Gallery, and being a supporter of murals around the city of Edmonton. (Nominated by Alberta Premier Rachel Notley).
2022 – Kim officially retires from the Whyte Avenue Art Walk, handing the festival over to the non-profit group Animate Arts Alberta, who also run Chiseled ice carving and Sand on Whyte.
2021 – Louvre Mural Project in partnership with Procura Development. 70 artists painted murals in the parkade of the Louvre at Century Park. Over $20,000 in prizes were awarded. See the winners and more.
2021 – Naess Gallery Interviews on YouTube
A unique innovation came when COVID-19 protocols closed our gallery openings. We filmed and archived artist interviews on YouTube. We continue to feature our artists and share their talks in our e-newsletters.
2020 – Christmas and Covid Mandates can’t stop us! You can still tell that we are smiling, even covered by masks.
L-R: Kaylyn, Kim, Mic, and Chelsea.
2019 – Artelier Studios moves one block closer to The Paint Spot and adds ample parking. A bright, air-conditioned classroom, well-stocked and offering classes in everything from embroidery and sculpture to figure drawing and painting. During Covid we rented the space to artist David Shkolny, who lost his studio in a fire.
We have a roster of 20 popular instructors, and our studio registers more than 2000 students a year. More Artelier
2018 – Buffy starts the #dogsofpaintspot trend on Instagram. Michelle and Adrianne had keen eyes and quick photo skills to make it happen. Thanks, Ivy Cardinal, for bringing your pup to work. Michelle Chapman’s pups, Wally and Mocha, and Shelly’s pups, Snoopy, Hershey, and lovebird, Zazoo visit too.
2018 – 33 1/3 Anniversary – September
The only wasted art materials are the ones that remain unused. It was amazing, everyone brought lots of gently used art materials, and somehow we all went with lots of different gently used art materials.
2017 – Artelier Studios is founded in a two-story building on 80 Avenue. We had four programmable studios and 5 studios to rent to artists. Luckily, we moved to a smaller location…just before the Covid pandemic hit.
2016 – The Paint Spot nominated again for the Mayor’s Award this time for ‘Sustained Support for the Arts’. Kim was happy to be there to see her University printmaking instructor, Lyndal Osborne win for lifetime achievement.
2016 – The Big Big Portrait Show
This was an open call (non-juried) show for everyone to paint a portrait on a 12″x12″ canvas, and bring it to The Paint Spot. Over 204 paintings were hung in our Naess Gallery. This success inspired us to organize a “Big, Big” show annually.
2016 – Six Murals installed as part of the 20th Anniversary of the Whyte Avenue Art Walk. It was the first of many murals after the graffiti free-wall closed. The church next door was inspired to create a mural mosaic the following year. Read more.
2015 – Varscona Mural by Lacy & Layla
To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Whyte Avenue Art Walk. The Paint Spot mentored students from MacEwan University’s Cultural Management program to create the call for artists, select a jury, and select the artists. It turned out the winners were alumni of Grant MacEwan and a past employee of The Paint Spot. That’s a 9-foot thumb!
2015 – Paint Spot YouTube Channel is Launched with “How to Varnish a Watercolour” showing how to use wax medium to protect a watercolour. Over 132,000 views and growing. Thanks to an error in voice auto-captions, Kim earned a new nickname for her alter ego.
2013 – Cover of Fabulous at 50 Magazine (but Kim was only 47 at the time and not a baby boomer – age is only a number, right).
“It was also weird to see my face over the heading ‘Be Creative in the Kitchen, Bedroom, and the Gym’.“
2013 – Our Annual Staff Art Exhibition.
Since the beginning, there has always been space at The Paint Spot to exhibit art by local artists.
The annual staff show answered the question. “Do artists work here?” A day job should not prevent you from making art. At The Paint Spot, coworkers inspire and mentor each other while creating art for the annual staff show.
“Being able to participate in the staff show every year is such a unique opportunity, and such a great way to motivate me to create. Every year, I feel so lucky to get to participate.” Michelle Chapman, Purchaser.
2013 – Unfinished Painting Challenge
It was a New Year’s resolution challenge to help artists avoid procrastination and make more art for 2013. We thought, let’s help everyone get rid of that one unfinishable piece and take on a different challenge. Here’s how it worked. 1) Bring a painting you don’t want to finish. 2) Pick a different painting to take home and finish. 3) Bring it back within the month, and we’ll hang it.
Wow! Almost 50 artists took up the challenge, and it was amazing to see the transformations.
2012 – YMCA Women of Distinction Award for Arts, Heritage, & Culture awarded to Kim Fjordbotten for service to Arts Education.
2013 – Open Source Street Art Pilot Project. The controversy around the police raiding art from our gallery was a catalyst that motivated many artists like AJ Louden and Jordan Stone to work with the Edmonton Arts Council, Capital City Clean Up, and the City of Edmonton Police to collaborate on creating free wall pilot projects, community consultation, public engagement, and workshops. The Old Strathcona free wall was located in the back alley behind The Paint Spot, and we hosted several spray paint workshops there.
“I took photos as the wall changed every week with surprising new work”. Kim
See some highlights of the art here.
2012 – Police Raid and Graffiti Crackdown
It was a sad day in June when 6 police officers (in bulletproof vests) confiscated all the art in our gallery. It was to be used as forensic evidence to help charge the artist with several counts of graffiti. Gig City broke the story online, within the hour, because a writer happened to be shopping in the store at the time. The same afternoon, young street artists started bringing their art to the gallery to hang in protest. A media frenzy took place for several weeks. It sparked a huge debate about free art vs vandalism and led to the Open Source Street Art Pilot Project.
2012 – A garden in the Garage District of East Whyte. A façade improvement grant from the City of Edmonton helped us dig up the asphalt, plant a garden, and become a catalyst for other gardens and patios in the area.
2011 – Naess Gallery is a bright space on the main floor at the front of the new store. For a short time, we also had a few handmade items displayed for sale on the white shelves. We called this little space the Artisan Nook.
2011 – 2016 Art Classes start at The Paint Spot. Our in-store demonstrations at the old location were popular, and we wanted to run a more robust program and hire more artists to teach for us. We reserved 900 square feet for a studio workshop space at the back of the store. It was also booked for Fringe Festival shows.
2011 – The Paint Spot moved into the 10032 81 Avenue location in January. We grew from 1000 sq ft to nearly 5000 sq ft and only closed for 2 1/2 days to accomplish the move. We were featured front page in the business section of the Edmonton Journal. This image is from the grand opening on our 25th Anniversary in May of 2011.
View some before and after images here.
2010 – Kim and Phil purchased the old Vienna Bakery building and renovated it to create a new permanent home for The Paint Spot. In the application for rezoning from industrial to commercial, Shirley Low, the executive director of the Old Strathcona Business Association, called us a catalyst for change in the community of East Whyte or West Ritchie, which back then was “on the wrong side of the tracks”. Viva Clayworks and Alhambra Books were already there, so we felt at home with other Arts businesses. Backbeat School of Rock and Grindstone Theatre soon moved to our block too.
2006 – 2013 NAMTA International Art Material Trade Association Charlotte, NC, Kim Fjordbotten was an executive board member (President 2011-12).
2006 – The Paint Spot opened a second location on 124 St but closed after two years because the rent at the home store in Old Strathcona was set to go up 45%. We made plans to move to a bigger location that we could buy instead of running two small rental locations.
2005 – Paintspot.ca
A website was born shortly after Kim and Phil purchased the store. It was not e-commerce but a very good online catalogue. Orders could be emailed, and we would email back with an amount, and then customers would call in with their credit cards. It was very hands-on and personal.
2005 – 20th Anniversary
So many wonderful artists have lent their talent and collaboration to make The Paint Spot interesting, fun, and resourceful. Every picture, I think, Wow, this is the best team ever! Thanks to this crew who helped me make the transition from manager to owner.
Top: Todd, Christine, Robin, Annie
Bottom: Chris, Robin, Beth, and Kim
2003 – Kim and Phil purchased The Paint Spot from David and Sidsel. The minor renovations downsized the office, so Kim moved her desk out to the sales for to be more available to customers. This is still her preference, and she says, “In small local businesses, the owners are the face of their company and the main contact with the community.”
2002 – Mayor’s Award for Innovative Support for the Arts by a Business is awarded to The Paint Spot and the Naess Gallery. When Sidsel went up to accept the award. The mayor reached to remove her name tag for the photos, and she thought he was reaching for her breast and swatted his hand away, but it caught her necklace, and beads flew everywhere across the stage. I was supposed to just hold the award while she spoke, but we all got so flustered, so I popped up and mumbled some thanks into the microphone instead.
Did you know, The Paint Spot is a legacy winner: voted 21 times as the Best Art Supply Shop in Edmonton by readers of See Magazine and Vue Weekly.
1996 – 2006 Over 300 TV appearances to promote art events like the Whyte Avenue Art Walk and DIY art projects. Bridget Ryan, host of Big Breakfast on A Channel and City TV, was a big champion of local arts and local businesses. The Paint Spot staff were invited to present weekly segments on the early morning TV show for several years!
On the morning of 9/11, Global TV host Lorraine Mansbridge was broadcasting segments from The Paint Spot when the horrible news cut in. We did not go back on the air. Instead, we all watched the news unfold live from the media van’s monitors.
1995 Our 10th Anniversary! We celebrated with a full-page celebratory ad in the Edmonton Journal. Here is the lovely shot that captures Kim, David, Sidsel and our most popular employee Gus the dachshund.
1992 – Fringe Gallery in the basement of the old The Paint Spot.
Even in the first two smaller locations, Sidsel made space to feature local artists. In the new location, the gallery was in the basement. It was quite unmanned, but nothing was ever stolen in 18 years. There was one time the gallery was voted as ‘Best Place to smoke weed undetected in Edmonton’ in See Magazine readers’ poll. I don’t think anyone ever did, but it was very funny to be selected.
1995 – The Whyte Avenue Art Walk starts. Kim Fjordbotten continues as the executive producer until 2022.
It started with just 35 artists and grew to 75 the next year. In 2025, there will be nearly 500 participating artists over 10 blocks. It attracts 70,000 visitors annually.
1998 – The Paint Spot starts in-store demonstrations and hosts many visiting working artists in the basement of The Paint Spot. Here is artist Rheni Tauchid from Tri-Art acrylics. A popular addition was the “Try it for Yourself” demos for beginners for only $5.
1998 – Product Testing Zones can still be found at our current shop.
Sidsel and David shared so much product knowledge about art materials. We were always testing new materials for ourselves, including running our own lightfast tests and sharing best practices for brush repair.
1995 – Window Displays Often Won Awards
Fiona Yardley-Jones, Matthew Brett, and Cornelia always had great and well-illustrated ideas. One time, we won a 5 lb. chocolate bar from Carol’s Sweats for an Old Strathcona Window contest.
1995 – Phil Bentson and Kim Fjordbotten get married. Phil is the silent partner but amazing support. One time, I introduced him as the chief contractor of all my dreams. He was mad at me for a week, because he misheard and thought I said ‘cheap contractor’. It has been a standing term of endearment ever since.
1996 – 2003 Manager of The Paint Spot. “Sidsel and David adopted me right away. They were wonderful mentors, and I was given a lot of room to grow and try new things. From designing school catalogues and inventory control to learning spreadsheets and helping to build a POS database. I even had a lot of say about our first website attempts, too.” – Kim
“We still phoned or faxed in orders. We debated whether to get Interac machines. And Google would not be until 1998.
David would stay late after work and make cold calls to artists he read about in a magazine or the newspaper. We did not have a catalogue, but we packed brochures and pricelists into care packages to mail to artists based on David’s notes. Many of those customers are still loyal to us because of that personal attention”.
1994 – Kim Fjordbotten (28 years old) starts at The Paint Spot even though her son was only two months old. They needed a Purchaser.
Here’s a great team: David, Tom, Christine, Cornelia, Jill, and Kim.
We had lots of black and white photos from this time because they were easier to photocopy in our Spotlight newsletters.
1994 – Jordan Bentson born, son of Kim and Phil. “At five, he already knew the qualities of good paint. I would lay out Prang watercolour sets for him, but he quickly say “No Mom – that stuff” and point to Golden acrylics. Of course, I shared because I knew he was doing better work than I was at the time, says Kim
1992 – David and Sidsel purchased the two-story building at 10516 82 Avenue. The previous location was a small space in the Commercial Hotel.
1992-1994 – Kim Fjordbotten works for Burlington Art & Drafting.
1985 – 1989 – Kim Fjordbotten completes a BFA at the U of A.
1985 (May) – The Paint Spot opens. Founded by David Bradley and Sidsel Naess Bradley
- The Works Festival starts
- Kim Fjordbotten meets Phil Bentson
- Michelle Chapman and Michael Ortiz are born.
