Back of Kensington St. is a textured oil on masonite painting by Canadian artist John Kasyn (1926–2008), Born in Poland, Kasyn moved with his family to Winnipeg in 1938 and later settled in Toronto in 1940, where he lived and worked for the rest of his life. Kasyn’s formal art education began with Saturday‑morning classes at the Winnipeg Museum, followed by studies in Toronto at both the Ontario College of Art and Central Technical School. After graduation, he spent several years working as an Art Director at a design studio before committing fully to painting.

This artwork highlights the intimate charm of a winter urban backyard. The back of a red‑brick house is dusted with snow; a green extension offers a vivid contrast against the winter tones. The scene is peaceful yet rich with quiet detail: bare trees reach upward, a rustic wooden fence frames the yard, and snow softly settles on rooftops and surfaces. Kasyn’s brushwork gives palpable texture to the bricks and snow, capturing the crisp chill of a Canadian winter and evoking a sense of frost‑touched stillness under soft, diffused light.

Kasyn is celebrated for documenting the older, often overlooked residential neighbourhoods of Toronto and other Canadian cities. His works preserve the architectural character of a changing urban landscape — humble back lanes, modest homes, weathered fences — with realism, warmth, and a sensitive eye for everyday beauty. Back of Kensington St. stands as a small but powerful testament to his devotion to place, memory, and the quiet poetry of ordinary city life.