This stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway cuts through the Bonshaws region of Prince Edward Island, near Strathgartney Provincial Park. It’s an unincorporated area located in Lot 30 of Queens County, part of Hillsborough Parish. It’s in the central part of P.E.I, roughly midway between the settlements of Bonshaw to the west and New Haven to the east. The view in the painting predates a controversial realignment of the roadway between Bonshaw Bridge and New Haven completed in 2013. The area includes the Strathgartney Homestead National Historic Site of Canada. It’s a 32-acre (12.9 ha) remnant of the 500-acre (202.3 ha) estate of Robert Bruce Stewart, a 19th-century landowner. Stewart constructed the estate in the early 1860s and it was run by his family until 1876 when they left in response to the 1875 Land Purchase Act. The objective of the statute was to force landlords to sell their estates to the provincial government, which would in turn sell the land at lower prices to local farmers. Strathgartney was named after a valley in Perthshire, Scotland.

L.W. “Ken” Brammer (1920-2007) was born in Uxbridge, Greater London, England. He trained as a house painter and decorator. During WWII, Brammer served in the Royal Air Force. At the end of the war, Ken moved to Prince Edward Island where he secured a series of provincial government jobs. They included Deputy Minister of Labour, the C.E.O. of the Labour Relations Board, and Chairman of the Arbitration Board. Following his retirement in 1984, Brammer took up painting. Mainly self-taught, Ken worked in oils often painting summertime island landscapes, and, occasionally, prominent P.E.I. buildings, such as Fanningbank. He painted only during the winter months, preferring to spend his summers golfing and fishing. Brammer held his first one-man art exhibition in Charlottetown in 1994. Although considered a primitive or outsider artist, Ken’s work was appreciated by a wide range of collectors, including professional artists. His works can be found - not only in Prince Edward Island collections, but overseas as well. Many of Brammer’s original works were reproduced during his lifetime as P.E.I. Tourism posters, and also on souvenir postcards. Ken died in Charlottetown at the age of 86.