Welcome to Dylan Swan’s Art

I paint the places we pass through — cafés, corners, quiet moments.
My work is about finding beauty in the ordinary, and meaning in the familiar.

If you're looking to buy a print or an original, the fine folks at

The Crown & Press Gallery

handle all that with grace and caffeine.

This site is currently being renovated,

please excuse the mess.

Urban Landscapes

I used to think cities were all noise and chaos—until I started painting them. Turns out, there's a strange charm in crooked alleyways, tilted parking meters, and buildings that have seen better decades. This series captures the quieter, often unnoticed corners of urban life—the spots you'd walk past unless you were lost, nosy, or an artist with a sketchbook and too much time. Think of these as love letters to the scruffy beauty of city living.

2022 acrylic on canvas 36”x60” $3,600.

Canadian Beauty

A lone figure walks into the hush of a winter city — dark coat, head down, that classic “this was absolutely my idea” walk. The snow’s doing its best to erase the background, but the figure holds the scene together like punctuation in a pale sentence. This isn’t postcard Canada. It’s Canadian beauty: quiet, grey, and somehow perfect in spite of your frozen eyelashes.

They have all kinds of print options at the Crown and Press Gallery.

The original is there too.

2021 Acrylic on Canvas 18”x24” Sold

Westbound Charlton

Charlton was doing its usual thing

—standing there, being a street—

when the sunlight showed up like,

“Let’s make this gorgeous.”

No warning, no permission,

just full glow-up.

I figured the least I could do was paint it.

“Underbridge”

(or “Bridging Desjardins”)

2020 acrylic on canvas 48”x48” original Sold.

This familiar bend along the Hamilton Harbour trail is a favourite for walkers, cyclists, and dreamers alike. Nestled beneath layers of iron and concrete, it offers a moment of calm and shifting light — a brief stillness between shadows and water. It’s one of those places that locals know by feel, where the city breathes a little slower.

You can order prints of this from the

Crown and Press Gallery

“Buttersky” 2020 32inch x 72inch acrylic on canvas SOLD — Buttersky

2020 acrylic on canvas 32”x72” Sold

“University Club” 2020 60inch x 24inch acrylic on canvas SOLD — “University Club” 2020 60inch x 24inch
acrylic on canvas SOLD

Cafe Moments

This series began, oddly enough, just as the world was shutting down. One day I was sketching in a crowded café, basking in the simple joy of coffee and muffins. The next, those cozy rituals were sealed behind plexiglass and caution tape. These paintings are my way of processing that shift—part nostalgia, part tribute, and maybe a little bit of coping mechanism. From weary baristas to makeshift café tents, each piece is a snapshot of connection in strange times.

For the full story, check out my blog.

“Cafe Memories” 2021 44inch x 28inch
acrylic on canvas $2,200.

Café Memories
This piece began as a casual sketch in a local café, drawn in February 2020—just before everything changed. At the time, there were only distant murmurs of lockdowns in China. It wasn’t until those everyday scenes were suddenly off-limits that the sketch took on a new kind of weight.
Café Memories became the first in what turned into a series: paintings that hold onto the warmth, stillness, and quiet rituals of public life. It captures something small but lasting—a glance, a nearness, a kind of care we maybe didn’t realize we were losing.

Please contact the “Crown and Press Gallery” for print options or to inquire about the original.

“Cafe Takeout” 2021 70inch x 40inch acrylic on canvas $4,600. — “Cafe Takeout” 2021 70inch x 40inch
acrylic on canvas $4,600.

Café Takeout
Inspired by Manet’s Bar at the Folies-Bergère, this piece reimagines that quiet ambiguity in a modern café, mid-pandemic. Plexiglass separates the barista from the customer, but it’s the expression—somewhere between focus and quiet fatigue—that lingers. Painted during a time when café culture felt fragile, Café Takeout captures a fleeting, reflective moment we all lived through.
Part of a small series, this work stands out for its stillness and subtle emotional weight—one of those pieces people come back to.

Please contact the “Crown and Press Gallery” for print options or to inquire about the original.

Bandito

Outside the Paisley Café in Westdale Village, a man sits alone with his coffee and bicycle.

The sign for “Burrito Bandito” sneaks into the background—part of the scene, and now part of the title.

Painted during the era of social distancing, this moment captures a familiar kind of solitude—one that settled into our daily rituals. There's warmth in the light, but a quiet distance in the space between people. The figure becomes a sort of urban cowboy—still part of the city, but slightly removed.

One of several pieces painted at this same café,

Bandito reflects on how even the most casual corners of life were reshaped by the pandemic.

Please contact the “Crown and Press Gallery” for print options or to inquire about theoriginal.

“Dakery” 2022 24inch x 30inch
acrylic on canvas $900.

For print options or original purchase, please contact the “Crown and Press Gallery”

“Cafe Parking” 2021 32inch x 72inch acrylic on canvas SOLD — “Cafe Parking” 2021 32inch x 72inch
acrylic on canvas SOLD

“Durand Cafe” 2022 36inch x 36inch
acrylic on canvas $2,600.

Please contact me for purchase options.

Decisions

One of my first paintings completed after moving out east, Decisions explores the quiet weight of choice. Painted with a dropper technique—playful, unpredictable, and painstakingly slow—it marks a shift toward a looser, more intuitive style. The image is softened and suggestive, yet rooted in a moment that many viewers found familiar. I’ll return to this technique from time to time, but sparingly—its pace demands patience. For now, my focus remains on work with a more familiar rhythm.

New Roots:

East Coast Paintings

In 2022, my wife and I moved to Nova Scotia in search of something quieter — fewer sirens, more trees. We landed in Bridgewater, and I started painting again.

The light here is softer. The pace, slower. It suits the kind of work I do — grounded, local, occasionally painted between lumber runs.

While we build a house in the woods,

I’m painting the places that make this new life feel like ours.

Please be patient, I’ll be adding the East Coast works soon.

Thank you for your interest.

Art Around The Bay

The Historic Around The Bay Race: 30 Kilometres, 31 Paintings

In a moment of questionable judgment, I took up long-distance running—not out of any great love for the sport, but as a way to connect with my dad, a lifelong marathoner. Training led me to Around the Bay, a storied 30K race in Hamilton. I ran it once and then, with great relief, retired from the sport.

But somewhere along that ambitious route, I noticed something remarkable: people. Lining sidewalks and front porches, waving signs, ringing cowbells, offering orange slices, and cheering for strangers. Not because they had to—because they wanted to.

So I came back. Not to run, but to sketch. One painting for each kilometre marker—plus the start line, for symmetry. Thirty-one glimpses into the quietly heroic, often hilarious, and deeply human tradition of showing up for each other.

The full series was eventually exhibited at the Art Gallery of Hamilton, which was lovely—and only slightly less surprising than the fact that I finished the race.