New Skiing Paintings

A Life of Swish – New Skiing Paintings

With the 2026 Olympic Games on the horizon, I have found myself both watching and painting the sport of skiing. It is a world of snow and swish, of movement and stillness, exhilaration and quiet. And, of course, there is the Après. That essential ritual where the body rests and the stories begin.

Saint Kanata, c. 2011 Acrylic 48 x 36 x 1.5 in – Brandy Saturley

Living on Vancouver Island, not far from my studio, we are fortunate to have our own ski hill. Mount Washington, perched on the eastern edge of the Vancouver Island Ranges, is home to the Mount Washington Alpine Resort and a vibrant local ski culture. Beyond the island, British Columbia offers world-class skiing on the mainland, most notably in Whistler. Moving east across the Rocky Mountains of Alberta, places like Lake Louise and countless other alpine destinations continue the story. Together, these landscapes form a vast and distinctly Canadian backdrop for life on skis.

The Kiss, c. 2023 Acrylic On Canvas 36 x 48 x 1.5 in – Private Collection, Edmonton Canada – Brandy Saturley

Over the years, skiing has entered my visual world as a recurring narrative on canvas. From the rush of speed and gravity to the social rituals that follow a day on the mountain, I have returned to skiing as both subject and metaphor. It is a sport that holds joy, effort, solitude, and togetherness in the same breath.

New Skiing Paintings

In these latest paintings, my focus narrows to the swish of skis and the spirit of Après.

In one painting, two downhill skiers in red sweaters crest a snowy rise, moving in quiet unison as their skis carve soft arcs through the powder. Their descent feels instinctive rather than competitive, a shared rhythm shaped by gravity and terrain. Behind them, a mountain slips into shadow, its cool purples anchoring the scene, while a sunlit yellow hill glows in the foreground, warming the composition. The painting captures a fleeting balance between speed and stillness, light and shadow, companionship and solitude on the mountain.

Double the Swish, c. 2026 Acrylic On Canvas 30 x 30 x 1.5 in – Brandy Saturley

In another painting, two hands raise glasses of Aperol Spritz in a quiet toast at the end of a day on the slopes. The vivid orange drinks glow against a sweeping alpine landscape of snow-covered peaks and cool blue shadows. In the distance, a lone skier glides across the white expanse, a final trace of movement before rest fully sets in.

It’s An Apres Life, 2026 Acrylic On Canvas 30 x 30 x 1.5 in – Brandy Saturley

This painting balances exhilaration and stillness. It is a pause after effort, where cold air meets warmth, and shared ritual follows physical exertion. Set within a grand mountain landscape, the scene celebrates connection, reward, and the simple pleasure of marking the end of a day well spent.

See more paintings by Brandy Saturley.

January 28, 2026

New Pond Hockey Paintings

New Paintings

Where It Was Born: New Pond Hockey Paintings

I never grew up skating on ponds. Yes, I am Canadian, but I live on the West Coast, where winter rarely settles in long enough for ice to thicken and hold. Pond hockey belongs to another geography. But if you grew up anywhere east of British Columbia, chances are you did. A frozen pond. A backyard rink. A farmer’s flooded field.

Pond Hockey Days, c. 2021 Acrylic On Canvas 36 x 48 x 1.5 in – Private Collection, Victoria Canada – Brandy Saturley

I have heard those stories countless times, gathered around backyard fire pits where Canadians trade memories of cold fingers, cracked ice, and last light games. I am also quietly obsessed with the Outdoor Hockey Club videos on YouTube. They capture something essential about skating outdoors, not just the game, but the feeling. The openness. The camaraderie. The way winter becomes a shared experience rather than something to endure.

The Prodigy, 2021 Acrylic On Canvas 36 x 48 x 1.5 in – Private Collection, Montreal Canada – Brandy Saturley

Over the years, I have painted more than a few hockey paintings under my #iconiccanuck lens. Early on, my work focused on the NHL and its larger mythology. Eventually, I stepped back to where the passion for hockey is truly born: the outdoor rink. These paintings struck a different chord with Canadians, one rooted less in spectacle and more in memory, emotion, and lived experience.

Glide Away, c. 2023 Acrylic On Canvas 36 x 48 x 1.5 in – Brandy Saturley

In recent years, that exploration has widened to include skating without the stick. A quieter ritual. A pastime that keeps people moving, social, and connected through the long winters of the true north.

Last One Out, c. 2024 Acrylic On Canvas 24 x 30 x 1.5 in – Brandy Saturley

New Pond Hockey Paintings

Fast-forward to two new paintings I have just completed. Both are set on outdoor ponds in Ontario, where winter hockey feels expansive and uncontained. One painting features a solitary figure kicking a puck across unmanicured ice, with downtown Toronto and the CN Tower standing in the distance, a meeting of wilderness and city.

Toronto Winter, c. 2026 Acrylic On Canvas 30 x 30 x 1.5 in – Brandy Saturley

The second painting shows a group of men on an ODR, dressed in plaid shirts and jogging pants, skate laces tied around pant legs. It is unpolished, unscripted, and full of joy, the kind of winter afternoon that exists outside of time.

Pushing the Puck, c. 2026 Acrylic On Canvas 30 x 30 x 1.5 in – Brandy Saturley

These new works extend my ongoing visual stories about pond hockey, a tradition woven deeply into the fabric of Canada, where the game was never just played, but lived.

See more ice hockey paintings here.

January 28, 2026

Canada Goose Painting

New Paintings

A Messenger From The North – A Painting About a Canada Goose

When I look back at the paintings I’ve made over the past two decades, a few things rise to the surface like landmarks on a familiar map. I return again and again to the stories of my Canadian experience as seen through the eyes of a woman travelling, observing, and painting her way across the country. I’m drawn to figurative landscapes where people anchor the land and the land shapes them in return. And woven through this long journey is one recurring companion: the Canada Goose.

The goose has appeared in many of my narratives about Canada. Sometimes it stands at the centre, a full-bodied protagonist. Other times it moves along the edges, framing the story with its quiet authority. No matter its position, it carries its own weight of meaning.

To many, the Canada Goose is more than a bird. Its steadfast flight speaks of loyalty, cooperation, communication, and endurance. Its V-formation is a testament to shared leadership. Its lifelong bonds echo the resilience of relationships built through weather and time. Across Indigenous cultures, the goose is a sacred seasonal marker, a signal of change and continuity. In folklore, it can move between worlds, a guide or a wandering soul. It is a creature stitched deeply into the cycles of nature and into our collective sense of the North.

In this new painting, a woman stands in the open hush of a snow-covered landscape, her gaze steady beneath the warm shelter of a fur hat. Behind her, the sky burns in a late-day flare of orange, as if the sun has cracked the horizon and spilled its final breath of light across a ridge of deep blue mountains.

Northern Messenger – 18×36 inches, acrylic on canvas, 2025 – Brandy Saturley

A Canada Goose cuts across her face in full flight, its wing sweeping through the scene like a living brushstroke. It becomes an envoy, sliding the wild world directly into her line of sight, binding her to the land and to the long migratory stories carried on beating wings. Her embroidered coat glows with reds and blues, a pulse of northern life against the winter quiet.

The painting settles into something part portrait and part vision: a moment where human presence and the instinctive rhythm of nature align in brief, luminous agreement. The goose becomes the messenger, the woman the witness, and the landscape a silent accomplice to their shared moment of connection.

Inside Brandy Saturley Studio – Parksville, Canada

December 12, 2025

The Cutting Room Floor

New Paintings

The Business of Editing Art – When It Ends Up on the Cutting Room Floor

You’ve likely heard the phrase “the cutting room floor.” It comes from the early days of filmmaking, when footage was physically shot on film and editors would literally cut unwanted frames from the reel. Those discarded snippets, sometimes entire scenes, would fall to the floor beneath the editing table, later swept into a bin at the end of the day. While rooted in film history, the phrase has grown to describe anything removed from a final product, and the thoughtful, sometimes difficult, process of deciding what stays and what goes.

In painting, editing takes on its own form. After creating a series of works, or even within the development of a single commissioned piece, there comes a moment of selection. It’s the quiet but essential task of choosing the strongest pieces, the ones that create a cohesive story, a sense of flow, or a clear direction for an exhibition. With commissions, it becomes the process of exploring and refining ideas, then presenting the options that best align with a client’s vision.

Inside Brandy Saturley studio

Recently, I was commissioned by The Tragically Hip to create a winter-themed image for their Strictly Limited poster series. The brief was to produce an original painting that would later be photographed and reproduced as prints. With a few concepts swirling in my mind, I decided to paint two different versions and let the band choose the one they felt resonated most with the project.

Inside Brandy Saturley studio

Now that the prints are complete and the commission wrapped, I’m left with the painting that wasn’t selected. And as often happens in the creative process, what doesn’t make the final cut still has its own story, and sometimes its own moment to shine. With its warm, festive mood, I chose to give this painting a new purpose as the image for my holiday cards this year.

So while painters don’t have a literal cutting room floor, we do have pieces that don’t end up where originally intended. The beauty is that these works – often strong, meaningful pieces in their own right – can still find their place in the world. And in this case, while the image is spreading holiday cheer through cards, the original painting itself is available for purchase.

You’re Too Sweet For Me, 48×36 inches, acrylic on canvas, 2025 – Brandy Saturley

December 8, 2025

Inukshuk Painting

New Paintings

A Totem to The Stars – An Inukshuk Painting

It is no secret by now that I have been painting stories of west coast beaches this Autumn. The treasures that line the sand and the structures built from beach things by human hands. I have been making paintings about shells, beach huts, Inukshuk and being in these landscapes.

Shell Still Life Paintings – Brandy Saturley – 2025

With this most recent painting I wanted to capture the aura of the rock stacks seen on the beaches. Here on Vancouver Island you will see these totems of balanced rocks at the corners of the beaches. Sometimes balanced on rock and other times balanced on logs. Know as Inukshuk, these towers come with rocks of various sizes and shapes and are skillfully built into delicately balanced towers to the sky. Inukshuk is a figure made of piled stones or boulders constructed to communicate with humans throughout the Arctic. Traditionally constructed by the Inuit, inuksuit are integral to Inuit culture and are often intertwined with representations of Canada and the North.

Inukshuk in Parksville, BC – 2025

This vibrant acrylic painting features an inuksuk rendered in bold, sculptural layers of stone, each shape carefully balanced to form a vertical figure rising from a rugged landscape. The stones are painted in warm earth tones – soft creams, deep charcoals, russet reds, and weathered greys – giving the structure a grounded, tactile presence. Behind it, the sky glows with a rich blend of ultramarine, violet, and magenta, creating a luminous twilight atmosphere. Flecks of white stars scatter across the sky, lending a sense of vastness and quiet northern magic.

Totem Song, 36×18, acrylic on canvas, 2025 – Brandy Saturley

The foreground suggests rocky terrain, its textures and contours echoing the layered forms of the inuksuk itself. The contrast between the solid, ancient stones and the dreamlike celestial backdrop creates a powerful tension between earth and sky, permanence and wonder. The painting captures the symbolism of the inuksuk as both a guide and a marker of presence – a beacon of human connection within the expansive Canadian landscape.

Inukshuk painting on an entry wall.

December 5, 2025

West Coast Stories

New Paintings

A Circle of Floating Shells and Childlike Wonder – West Coast Stories

Since relocating to the west coast in September 2025, I’ve been immersed in a new series of west coast paintings, stories inspired by shoreline wandering, quiet discovery, and the simple adventure of exploring beaches. In these works, large shells float over coastal landscapes and stacks of stones take on a monumental presence, everyday objects becoming the central characters in their own visual stories.

Beach shells from Vancouver Island

In this newest painting, a child stands with their back to the viewer, gazing up at an arc of floating shells and stones that seem to defy gravity. Dressed in a bright red knit toque and a golden yellow jacket, the figure offers a warm, grounding focal point against the cool blues of the sky and distant water. Above them, shells rendered in soft pinks, sandy neutrals, and deep earthy tones rise and swirl like a circular constellation of gathered treasures, echoing the wonder of childhood beachcombing. Wisps of white cloud stretch across the horizon, enhancing the dreamlike quality that threads through the scene.

West Coast beach and shell paintings by Brandy Saturley – November 2025

The composition feels musical, a moment suspended in time. There is an exuberance here, a spark of childlike imagination that lifts the piece beyond realism. It’s almost as if the circle of shells hovering above the child has been lifted directly from their thoughts, made visible for us to witness.

Game of Shells, Acrylic On Canvas, 30 x 30 x 1.5 in, 2025 – Brandy Saturley

With this eighth painting in the series, the west coast becomes newly rooted within an oeuvre that spans Canada coast to coast to coast. These works continue my ongoing exploration of place, memory, and the magic hidden in the everyday stories gathered like shells along the shoreline.

Brandy Saturley with her West Coast beach paintings series, November 2025

December 4, 2025

Beach Paintings

New Paintings

Paintings Inspired by a West Coast Beach

In early September, I moved my studio from Victoria to Parksville on Vancouver Island. With this shift came new scenery, a quieter pace, and a deepened closeness to the sea. Since settling in, I’ve created half a dozen paintings inspired directly by the nearby beaches – work shaped by daily walks, shifting tides, and the familiar rhythm of the West Coast.

Beach House, 2025 Acrylic On Canvas 36 x 48 x 1.5 in – Brandy Saturley

Nearly every day, my routine includes a long walk by the ocean. When the tide recedes, the sandy beach stretches into what feels like miles of new coastline, revealing areas rarely visible at high tide. Exploring these changing landscapes has become part of my practice. I grew up beachcombing with my mom on the west coast shores of Sooke, Jordan River, and Port Renfrew. We spent countless hours wandering slowly, eyes glued to the sand and the rocky seams where the waves meet land – searching for beauty, texture, and surprise.

The World is Your Oyster, 2025 Acrylic On Canvas 30 x 30 x 1.5 in – Brandy Saturley

West Coast beaches offer an abundance of natural treasures: sun-bleached logs of fir and cedar, rugged rocks, and gritty sand that shifts from Payne’s grey to raw sienna as it dries. Kelp and seaweed wash in with the surf, and seabirds animate the shoreline – great blue herons stalking in the shallows, gulls hovering overhead, Canada geese honking by, and sandpipers skittering across the water’s edge. The beach is never still; it’s alive with movement and detail, always asking your eyes to follow.

Piece of Mind, 2025 Acrylic On Canvas 30 x 30 x 1.5 in – Brandy Saturley

The shells alone could fill an entire painter’s palette. Clams, mussels, urchins, and sand dollars scatter the beach in sculptural arrangements. If you’re patient, you may even find a moon snail shell with its perfect spiral centre. Ancient-looking oysters, limpet “hats,” sea snails, weathered sea glass in ocean greens and blues, and the occasional dried starfish all contribute to this shoreline treasure trove. It’s a natural gift shop, continuously restocked by the tides.

Pilgrimage, 2025 Acrylic On Canvas 30 x 30 x 1.5 in – Brandy Saturley

With all this richness, it’s no wonder my recent paintings have become stories of the beach – reflections of this place, its rhythms, and the familiar West Coast magic that has shaped me since childhood. Parksville has already found its way into my work, and I imagine the shoreline will continue to shape my canvas for a long time to come.

Resilience, 2025 Acrylic On Canvas 30 x 30 x 1.5 in – Brandy Saturley

Explore the other areas of Canada through the paintings of Brandy Saturley here.

November 24, 2025

A West Coast Painting

New Paintings

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.

A log structure on the beach in Parksville, BC Canada

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.

Beach House, 36×48 inches, acrylic on canvas, 2025 – Brandy Saturley

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.

November 20, 2025

Still Life Shells Paintings

New Paintings

Shells As Still Life – Paintings of the West Coast

I grew up on a West Coast beach. As a child, my days were spent either drawing in my bedroom or beachcombing and hiking. Just a mile from my house was a quiet stretch of sand with a view of the snow-capped Olympic Mountains, near a place called East Sooke. It was there that my fascination with collecting shells began – arranging them into still life compositions and collages right on the shore.

Moon Snail Shell found in Parksville, BC Canada

Sometimes the shells came home with me, transforming into elaborate displays on my bedroom shelves, often accompanied by rocks and driftwood. Later in life, I began photographing these arrangements, some created on the beach and left behind for others to discover. I became captivated by their smooth, sculptural forms, their layered textures, and their soft, natural palette.

Various clam shells – Vancouver Island, BC Canada

When I think of shells in art, Georgia O’Keeffe immediately comes to mind. I remember visiting her home in Abiquiú, New Mexico, where she kept collections of shells and rocks displayed in her courtyard – often alongside her iconic skulls. In many ways, we are kindred spirits, both drawn to natural specimens that eventually find their way into our work through paint and brushstroke.

Shells found on beaches on Vancouver Island, BC Canada.

Since moving my studio to Parksville, BC – near the expansive sandy beaches on the east coast of Vancouver Island, I’ve found myself revisiting this lifelong fascination. I walk the shoreline almost daily, continually distracted by the remnants of shells scattered along the tide line. For the first time, I’ve felt compelled to paint them, translating these natural arrangements into still life compositions on canvas.

Sea Shells Still Life Paintings – Brandy Saturley 2025

Four New Still Life Shell Paintings

These four new paintings feature shells suspended within coastal landscapes, captured at different times of day and in shifting light. While they are still life paintings, I also refer to them as portraits, as I am painting a portrait of the landscapes, where the shells act as the sitter. They express my enduring love and curiosity for these homes of the sea – a West Coast meditation on beauty, fragility, and form.

The World is Your Oyster, 30×30 inches, acrylic on canvas, 2025 – Brandy Saturley

Piece of Mind, 30×30 inches, acrylic on canvas, 2025 – Brandy Saturley

Resilience, 30×30 inches, acrylic on canvas, 2025 – Brandy Saturley

Pilgrimage, 30×30, acrylic on canvas, 2026 – Brandy Saturley

November 4, 2025

A Spirit Bear Painting

New Paintings

Tales of the Wild West Coast – A Spirit Bear Painting

In late 2019, I began painting stories of a polar bear searching for a new home – a journey that took this wandering bear from coast to coast, discovering the beauty and vastness of Canada. Along the way, the bear has been joined by a cast of familiar Canadian characters, from Canada Geese to moose, each adding to this evolving visual narrative.

Float Away With Me, 12×9 inches, acrylic on canvas, 2025 – Brandy Saturley

Most recently, I found myself drawn to another iconic creature, the spirit bear, adding a new chapter to this ongoing story of travels across Canada.

The elusive Kermode – Spirit Bear

The spirit bear, also known as the Kermode bear, is a subspecies of the American black bear found along the Central and North Coast regions of British Columbia. With its distinctive white coat, the spirit bear is the official provincial mammal of British Columbia. These white bears are not albinos, they have pigmented skin and eyes, and while not exceedingly rare, their populations are carefully protected because of their deep ecological and cultural importance.

View of Mount Arrowsmith from Parksville, BC beach.

Over the past month, I’ve been painting the landscapes and still life of Parksville, British Columbia, my new home and studio by the sea. For this latest work, I wanted to capture the spirit of the West Coast in autumn: the soft tones of the beach, the distant rise of Mount Arrowsmith, and the abundant bird life that fills the scene with energy. It felt like the perfect landscape for a spirit bear to roam, quietly powerful, reflective, and free.

A Spirited Walk, 30×30 inches, acrylic on canvas, 2025 – Brandy Saturley

Here is A Spirited Walk, my newest painting and the latest tale in this series of Canadian wanderers, a story of connection to place, myth, and the wild heart of the West Coast.

October 27, 2025