Inspired by The Beach – A West Coast Painting

Just a few weeks ago, we packed up our lives and moved to a charming seaside city called Parksville. With that came the task of dismantling my Victoria studio and setting up anew. While moving is rarely easy, my experiences with artist residencies over the years have prepared me well for transitions like this. When you spend a month creating in an unfamiliar place, you quickly learn how to adapt – how to set up your tools, find your rhythm, and create as though you’ve always been there.

This time, my new environment has brought me closer to the sea, and it didn’t take long before that influence found its way onto the canvas. My first painting created here feels distinctly West Coast and rooted in the rhythms, textures, and moods of the shoreline.

Studio moves can be disruptive, but I’ve come to see disruption as a gift. Shifting environments keeps me alert, curious, and responsive. Routine can make an artist complacent, while change stirs creativity. It’s why travel and residencies have been such an essential part of my practice, from coast to coast to coast across Canada, and even further afield, like my month spent painting at the Royal College of Art in London, England. Each new place challenges my eye and my adaptability.

One of my favourite artists, Georgia O’Keeffe, was deeply influenced by her travels. She painted across more than forty-nine countries in her lifetime. I share her belief that travel not only shapes an artist’s work but also helps reveal one’s fullest potential as a human being.

Though the transition to Parksville took a few weeks, I continued painting while setting up the new studio. My daily walks along the beach have become a source of constant inspiration, where the air smells of salt and seaweed, where herons, crows, and gulls punctuate the quiet, and where driftwood sculptures rise like monuments to impermanence. The landscape of sand and tide shifts daily, and with it, so does my perception.

This brings me to my first painting completed here, in this still-settling space. When I Go To SEE is a visual story of my daily walks to the shore. It captures that moment when the senses awaken when observation turns into immersion, and I become not just a viewer of nature, but a part of it.

When I Go To SEE marks the beginning of a new chapter in my West Coast story, painted by the sea, inspired by daily encounters with light, tide, and transformation. Rendered in my signature pop modernism style and with a vivid palette. This new work is now available to view and collect through my website. For those who have followed my visual journey across Canada, this painting represents a fresh horizon and a deepening connection to place, one that invites you to see, feel, and breathe the Pacific.