West Coast Stories

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

West Coast Still Life

New Paintings

Painting on the Left Coast – West Coast Still Life

We recently moved our home and my studio to the seaside city of Parksville, British Columbia – leaving my hometown of Victoria behind for a serene and immersive locale. After just one month, the studio is finally feeling like my own, and the paintings are flowing again. Five new works are already complete. It feels somewhat like being on an artist residency, and I’ve been treating these first few weeks as such.

The beach at low tide in Parksville BC – Canada

Though I’ve lived on Vancouver Island my entire life and traveled across Canada to make and show my art, I’ve rarely turned my focus to painting the West Coast itself. Since moving here, I’ve learned that many locals affectionately refer to it as the “Left Coast.” The phrase plays on geography, our coast lies on the left of the map, but also carries a certain spirit of independence and creative energy that defines this region.

The desire that once drove me to travel and connect with the rest of Canada came largely from feeling isolated from the national identity and the stereotypes of “Canadiana.” British Columbia has always stood apart. When British poet Rupert Brooke arrived in Vancouver after a cross-Canada journey in 1913, he wrote home: “It’s a queer place, rather different from the rest of Canada.” While others may have viewed BC as a rain-sodden outpost, those who live here understand that “Super, Natural British Columbia” is far closer to the truth. As humorist Eric Nicol once quipped, “British Columbians like to think of their province as a large body of land entirely surrounded by envy.”

The Beach in Parksville, BC – Canada

I’ve often said that we live in our own biosphere here on the coast. BC is undeniably part of Canada, yet it feels like its own realm, a place of unique rhythms and light. If, as historian Jean Barman suggested, “British Columbia is not so much a place as a state of mind,” then I find myself now immersed in exploring what that state of mind truly means.

Here in Parksville, I’ve been walking the endless sandy beaches, observing wildlife, flora, and the play of tide and wind. I find myself looking more closely than ever before, perhaps it’s that residency mindset taking hold. Beyond the beaches, I’ve explored the wetlands and railway tracks, visited the local MacMillan Arts Centre, and joined the Oceanside Arts Council, connecting with the vibrant creative community of Oceanside, Qualicum Beach, Nanoose Bay, and Nanaimo.

New Paintings – West Coast Still Life

This exploration has already inspired two new paintings, visual stories of life by the ocean. The palette of these works draws directly from the coast: green-golds, blues, Payne’s grey, and raw sienna. They are part still life, part landscape, inviting the viewer to look closely at the natural details that define this place. Rocks and shells float serenely within these compositions, much as I feel when walking along the shore, listening to the rhythm of the waves.

Unusual Oyster shell in Parksville, BC

The World Is Your Oyster reveals a uniquely shaped oyster shell shimmering above a beach landscape at low tide, while a Great Blue Heron stands silhouetted in the distance. The sundown sky glows with yellows and greys, a quiet tribute to the poetic solitude of the coast.

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

Sumo tells another West Coast story. A stack of stones, balanced like an inukshuk, takes on the presence of a Sumo wrestler, strong, grounded, and immovable, set against a moody sky of blues and greys with a lush outcropping of green trees in the distance.

Sumo, 16×16 inches, acrylic on canvas, 2025 – Brandy Saturley

These paintings are undeniably Left Coast – rooted in place and mood. As I continue this residency-like chapter of my practice, I look forward to seeing how this new home will shape the stories I tell through paint.

See more paintings of Canada here.

October 20, 2025

Bowler Hat Painting

New Paintings

She Was Knocking On The Sky – A New Painting with a Bowler Hat

My painting process has always been rooted in storytelling. It begins with collecting, taking numerous photo references from my travels across Canada and collaging them together into a single narrative or scene. These photos might come from moments in nature or from the controlled light of my studio. Often, they sit in my archive for years before revealing their purpose. This is the story of a painting with a bowler hat.

Canadian Artist Brandy Saturley wearing Lilliput Hats Bowler Hat

The latest painting began with two familiar objects: a bowler hat custom-made for me by Karen Ruiz of Lilliput Hats, and a flannel shirt from Dixxon Flannels Canada – a combination that has become part of my #ICONICCANUCK persona. Over the past two decades, this persona has found its way into several of my self-portraits – a recurring figure set against landscapes that echo the abstracted forms of Lawren Harris. These works merge the real and the surreal, blending lived experience with imagined topographies.

Let Your Backbone Rise, 36×36 acrylic on canvas, 2016 – Brandy Saturley

In this new painting, I return to those themes – idealized forms, undulating skies, filtered light, and softly rounded island shapes. The figure wears a purple bowler hat and a plaid shirt, her long brown hair moving with the wind. She is a wanderer, never home long, drawn to the road and to the horizon beyond.

Inside Brandy Saturley Studio

The title and spirit of the piece come from a Buddhist proverb: “Knock on the sky and listen to the sound.” It speaks to the act of seeking- of listening deeply to nature, to intuition, to the world’s quiet messages. In this painting, “knocking on the sky” becomes both a poetic and spiritual gesture, a moment of connection between self and landscape.

Knocking On The Sky, 30×30 acrylic on canvas, 2025 – Brandy Saturley

The girl with the bowler hat is, in many ways, me, and all who search for meaning in the beauty of the unknown.

The Bowler Hat in Art History

The bowler hat has a rich and layered symbolism in art history, a small object that has come to represent much larger ideas about identity, class, conformity, and individuality.

Originating in 19th-century England as practical headwear for working-class men, the bowler quickly crossed class boundaries. By the mid-20th century, it became synonymous with the British middle class, the uniform of bankers and city workers, a symbol of respectability and social order.

In art, however, the bowler hat took on more surreal and philosophical meanings. Most notably, René Magritte used the bowler repeatedly in his paintings as a stand-in for the “everyman” – a faceless, anonymous figure navigating dreamlike realities (The Son of Man, Golconda, The Man in the Bowler Hat). Magritte’s use of the hat stripped it of social hierarchy and turned it into a symbol of mystery, anonymity, and the tension between appearance and reality.

Later artists and filmmakers have drawn on the bowler’s visual and cultural weight to explore ideas of duality, between individuality and conformity, reality and illusion, the seen and unseen self.

In your own work, the purple bowler hat subverts this history. It becomes personal rather than anonymous – a symbol of self-definition instead of conformity. By placing it within a natural, Canadian landscape rather than an urban or surrealist setting, you transform the hat from a marker of class or mystery into a poetic emblem of identity, curiosity, and connection to place. Having the woman wearing a plaid shirt, the uniform of the working class everyman, further echoes the sentiments of Magritte.

October 9, 2025

A West Coast Painting

New Paintings

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.

The beach in Parksville, BC

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.

The beach in Parksville, BC

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.

Brandy Saturley in studio residency at Pouch Cove Foundation, Newfoundland Canada

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.

Great Blue Heron

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.

Detail View, When I Go To See, acrylic painting on canvas by Brandy Saturley, 2025

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.

When I Got to SEE, acrylic on canvas painting, 30×60 inches, 2025, Brandy Saturley

October 6, 2025

New Small Canadian Paintings

New Paintings

New Small Canadian Paintings – 6 New Small Works to Collect

When I took my art practice full-time nearly 20 years ago, one of the first commitments I made was to create new paintings consistently every month. That simple decision shaped the direction of my career. Each year, I set myself the goal of producing between 25 and 35 original works, and this year I am on track as I approach painting number 31. Over the summer I produced six new small works, each one highly detailed and rich with storytelling.

Get The Good One, 2025 – Brandy Saturley

These new small paintings invite you to experience fresh visual stories of Canada, capturing the essence of the Canadian landscape and way of life. From glowing sunsets to quiet canoes on the lake, from towering mountains to the dancing Northern Lights, each piece offers a vibrant palette and a deep connection to the wilderness.

Heralding Autumn, 2025 – Brandy Saturley

Small paintings are an ideal way to begin or expand an art collection. They bring the same level of detail and storytelling as larger works but are accessible in scale and investment. Each painting is created with the same care, layered brushwork, and attention to light and symbolism that define my larger canvases.

You and Me and Dancing Skies, 2025 Brandy Saturley

Whether you are drawn to the serene stillness of a canoe on a glassy lake, the brilliance of a northern sunset, or the energy of the Aurora Borealis, these works carry a distinctly Canadian spirit. They are original, one-of-a-kind pieces that will bring warmth, color, and a story of Canada into your home.

Let’s Paddle Away, 2025 – Brandy Saturley

Explore these six new works now and find the piece that speaks to your own love of Canada.

Languishing Along, 2025 – Brandy Saturley

Your Wonderland, 2025 – Brandy Saturley

See more paintings by Brandy Saturley. Follow the artist on Instagram @brandysaturleyart

August 26, 2025

New Polar Bear Painting

New Paintings

The 30th Polar Bear Painting – Filled With Wildflowers

Each day, I walk the quiet country roads and along the edges of farmers’ fields in North Saanich, where nature’s details slowly reveal themselves. In spring, the once-muted palette of greens and golds transforms into a vibrant patchwork of wildflowers. The landscape, previously hushed and restrained, now bursts into song, each bloom a different note in nature’s symphony. Scarlet reds, brilliant yellows, soft purples, and crisp whites dance across the fields, shifting with the breeze, breathing life and motion into the earth beneath my feet.

This seasonal shift brings with it a deeper richness: textures layered like brushstrokes, shadows that stretch and play among the petals, and a fragrance that invites you to pause and breathe a little deeper. It’s a time of awakening, when even the most familiar paths feel reborn. As I walk, I imagine myself part of this landscape resting among the tall grasses, enveloped by blooms, listening to the hum of bees and the whisper of the wind.

It is in this moment of quiet immersion that my mind returns to the Polar Bear King.

Now marking the 30th painting in this ongoing series, this latest piece brings the iconic figure of the polar bear into a new setting, surrounded not by ice and snow, but by wildflowers in full bloom. This king of the North finds himself in a dreamlike place, filled with colour, vitality, and the gentle chaos of nature’s abundance. It is a celebration of contrast and transformation, of strength meeting softness, of solitude meeting bloom.

The Wild Life, Acrylic On Canvas, 36 x 60 x 1.5 in, 2025 – Brandy Saturley

As with every painting in the series, the Polar Bear King becomes a mirror for my own journey; roaming, observing, resting, and transforming alongside the landscapes of Canada. This wildflower-filled work is not just a new chapter for the bear, but also for me, and for anyone who has followed this series over the years.

Brandy Saturley studio, North Saanich, BC Canada

Here’s to the thirtieth painting. To wildflowers. To wandering. To finding beauty in unexpected places.

July 3, 2025