An Artist Comes Home: Painting Mid-Vancouver Island

This morning I woke as I usually do, with a Nespresso in hand and a little time spent checking messages. After a leisurely hour, I pull on my neon pink sneakers and head out the door. Crossing the Island Highway, I make my way to the beach and boardwalk in Parksville. If the tide is out, I wander across the rippled sand, dodging tiny white crabs as they scurry between the shallow pools.

Every morning offers something different.

I might pause to film the stacks of carefully balanced rocks beside the weathered tree near the labyrinth, quiet evidence that someone else has already passed this way. Another day, I crouch low to photograph the morning light dancing across the ridges of wet sand. Sometimes it is the silhouette of Mount Arrowsmith, its summer snowfields slowly shrinking beneath the sun. Other mornings it is the mesmerizing murmmuration of sandpipers that stops me in my tracks.

These walks have quietly become part of my studio practice.

For the past twenty years, I have crisscrossed Canada, spending weeks and often months immersed in places that would eventually become paintings. From Newfoundland to Yellowknife, Banff to Vancouver, I have learned that every landscape has its own rhythm and every community has its own story. My work has always been rooted in spending time, observing, listening, and allowing a place to reveal itself.

This year, that place happens to be home.

A Shift – Painting Mid-Vancouver Island

Since moving my studio to Parksville, I have found myself exploring the mid and northern reaches of Vancouver Island with the same curiosity that has guided me across the rest of Canada. Familiar places have become new again. I am discovering shorelines, forests, harbours, mountains, and communities that I once drove past, but never truly knew.

Every place has a story. Right now, I am telling the story of the island I call home.

This is not the end of my travels across Canada. Rather, it is the beginning of a new chapter. The years spent exploring the country have given me fresh eyes for this remarkable island, and in turn, this place is changing the way I paint.

Even my palette has begun to shift. Red has long been a defining colour in my work, yet the last four paintings contain almost none of it. Instead, soft coastal blues, sea greens, driftwood greys, and the ever-changing light of the Salish Sea have quietly taken its place. The work feels calmer, more contemplative, shaped by tides rather than highways.

There is still so much of Canada waiting to be explored, but for now I am content to slow down, return to the beach each morning, and discover what this island has been waiting to tell me all along.

The island is revealing itself one morning at a time, one walk, one conversation, one painting at a time. I look forward to sharing these discoveries with you as this new body of work unfolds. Whether you’ve called Vancouver Island home for decades or have never set foot on its shores, I hope these paintings offer a glimpse into the beauty, character, and quiet moments that continue to inspire me every day. Follow along here on the blog, or drop by the website, and explore the latest paintings as this new chapter takes shape.