White Corner House, NDG by Jack Beder is an 11 x 14 inch oil painting acquired directly from the estate. Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, (NDG) is a multicultural residential neighbourhood with independent shops and restaurants lining the strips. The park is popular for its winter ice rink. A quote from Beder’s eight-hundred page journal about his process of sketching the neighbourhood;

“Last Sunday, I did my first sketch with snow, in (NDG) Westmount. I had started out late that morning and decided not to venture too far afield. Just as well… I have been able to find material for sketches on other occasions, and I did find something this time, too. And with good results, without being hemmed in by a multitude of parked cars and passing traffic. That is a very redeeming feature of this district, summer or winter, and any time of the year I much prefer the winter, as I favour it in other parts of the city.”

White Corner House displays a house with two points of outlook, overlooking the snowy street across neighbours, and leaf-bare swooping trees with new growth beside it. An emerald green porch to overlook incoming visitors adorns the side of the building. The eye can follow a slant one-point perspective from the car tracks marked on the snow-covered street,to the other side of the neighbourhood where lit windows are detailed with a stroke of his brush. One car sits alone, visiting a resident from the block, taking shelter from the cold. A mauve sky places this piece in the evening, when the neighbourhood is at a standstill, calming down from a day's work or a day at school. The sun is also tuning down, giving the evening purple-blue hue off the snow creating a cool-toned palette beside the red-brown brick stone buildings surrounding the contrasting white house. This painting exudes a quiet, introspective mood of urban solitude, conveyed through the winter setting and the expressive handling of paint.