A West Coast Painting

Visited a West Coast Beach? You’ve Seen a Beach House

When I was young, I spent countless hours roaming the beaches of Canada’s West Coast on Vancouver Island, searching for treasures. We would beachcomb in wind, rain, and even sweltering summer heat, nothing could stop us from the thrill of discovery. Shells, driftwood, smooth stones, and strands of kelp filled our buckets and pockets. We built makeshift structures in the sand and decorated our little dwellings with every shiny or unusual object we found.

If you’ve ever visited the West Coast – whether the beaches of Vancouver Island or the rugged shorelines of Washington, Oregon, or California – you’ve likely encountered the iconic “beach house.”

These driftwood structures dot the coastline in all shapes and sizes. Built by leaning and stacking logs into teepee-like forms, they are part sculpture, part shelter, part childhood dream. Some are small and humble; others are substantial enough to withstand years of storms and tides. Many of the logs glow with the warm tones of yellow cedar, slowly weathering to soft silvers and greys as salt air and sun sculpt their surfaces.

These beach houses offer sun-seekers a place to rest in the shade, and give children the perfect canvas to build their own dream home from nature’s materials. Since my recent move to Parksville, a true beach town on mid-Vancouver Island, I’ve felt a renewed connection to these familiar coastal forms. Here, the beach houses feel almost like local landmarks, each one telling a different story of tide, time, and community creativity.

My new painting celebrates these driftwood beach houses and the enduring presence they hold on West Coast shores. They are temporary, handmade, and shaped by both nature and imagination – just like so many of the stories that define life by the sea.