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Now for some more "local" explorations! And more photos of things to paint once I get settled in my new studio in the fall!

First stop: beautiful Quadra Island, a 10 minute ferry ride from the central Vancouver Island city of Campbell River. We had our travel trailer set up at Herriot Bay for the winter & it was time to move in--at least for 10 days. That seems to be the top limit of our stopping times for the year!

I got the bike out and started to ride--on to spectacular Rebecca Spit, right around the corner from us. And, to my total amazement, what did I see, in Drew Harbour, surrounded by the local boats and kayaks?

So close to shore, you could hear them breathing!

I followed them while they put on a show for at least an hour, back out into Herriot Bay and around Rebecca Spit. I had to run back to get my bike (which I had hastily dropped at the end of the Spit, while I got my camera out to get some shots). I thought they would head further out towards Cortes Island but they hugged the Quadra coastline heading south towards the next accessible viewing beach about 3 km away.

I definitely got my workout that day, and lots of excitement too!

Here's a photo of Rebecca Spit without all the excitement happening--just a little piece of paradise in our own back yard.

I got lots of photos and inspiration to paint from, now have to carve out the time. This summer I viewed the John Cleese Utube presentation on creativity (about 35 minutes)--his keys were to set aside the space, the time, more time, have confidence (no ideas are bad at this stage) and inject some humour. Very worthwhile watching if you'd like to see the full view and catch all his jokes about how many ____s it takes to change a lightbulb along with the meat!

The photos at right is of Mudge Point Lighthouse, on the south end of Quadra Island. I got a few great photos to continue my lighthouse series of paintings. You might have seen some in my gallery pages...I'm becoming more aware of symbolism and the iconic nature of lighthouses, along with their mostly spectacular settings, hold a strong appeal for me as a landscape artist.

We really enjoyed lots of hikes on Quadra Island--they were a little less travelled than many we have been on this year. Of the 5 we did we saw no-one else on the trails. The fishing was good too--we ate fresh rockfish several nights, and again I got lots of reference shots for future paintings.

This is Discovery Passage, near where the Ripple Rock explosion in the 1950s was the largest non-nuclear explosion in history. It cleared a very hazardous island from the middle of this strait between Vancouver Island and Quadra Island--setting the path for gigantic cruise ships transiting up the coast to Alaska.

In fact, my year of travelling started on one of those cruise ships, last year in August. However, we transited this passage in the dark on the first night, and the last night before we returned. The waters look still now, at slack tide, but there is still a very strong current running through here and small boats have to take care.

We finally packed up the travel trailer and got ready to resume our nomadic summer on Vancouver Island. Next stop: a fishing trip at Port Renfrew, on the West Coast at the south end of Vancouver Island. This trip was payment for a commissioned work I had completed the year before, and the fish were biting!

Along with limiting on halibut and rockfish, and almost limiting on salmon, we picked up cod, and 2 days worth of beautiful fresh crabs. Part of the discovery was a great restaurant in Port Renfrew where you can take your catch in and they will cook it for you--$5 per crab, $8 if you want a side dish. So fresh and lovely, excellent idea and cooking--you'd wonder why you don't see that idea around other places in the world.

We had two great days of fishing although out on the entrance to Juan de Fuca Strait there were big swells and it was cool and foggy. We were accompanied by big sea lions near "J Buoy" and wonder how these animals find their way there, about 13 miles offshore!

Again I saw the orcas off Botanical Beach, and watched them fishing for about an hour. They were too far out to photo, though, and didn't do so much jumping about as the ones at Quadra. Maybe they were too busy fishing!

We said goodbye to Port Renfrew and drove back into the sunshine and heat of the east coast of Vancouver Island. It's funny how much climate difference there can be in 50 km, when the mountains, the sea air, the rain shadow effect all combine.

The rest of the summer has been filled with visiting family and friends, with a short trip up to the north end of Vancouver Island, and Cape Scott, to top it off. We stopped at historic and beautiful Telegraph Cove, which is a small town on stilts (a la Ketchikan, on a very small scale) famous for orcas and the nearest spot to Robson Bight, a renowned cove with a rock beach that the orcas rub on. Here, we did some more hiking but no orcas were to be found. However, we did happen to have an even more rare sighting of the Stanley Cup, the NHL tropy! Somehow I doubt if the cup has ever been to Telegraph Cove, or ever will be again! Willie Mitchell, the LA Kings hockey player, brought the trophy to the area where he started playing hockey and was just getting into the helicopter to leave when we drove by!

Cape Scott was a wilderness adventure and we free-camped at Holburg, right beside the Red Ibis pub (the only place in town!) for two nights after a trailer tire went flat on the 2 hour gravel road in. We walked out to beautiful San Josef Bay just as the rain swept in, and walked back to the truck for our lunch. It was another entirely different weather zone, and although the Port Hardy people said it was "hot", at a sunny 17 degrees Celsius, it definitely was not to us!

The last highlight was stopping into the massive home studio of famous watercolourist artist Gordon Henschel and meeting hime and wife Anne. I have seen his work for many years (he started painting the year I was born!) and it was a great priveledge to be welcomed so warmly, and to see just a little of the body of work he had created. Still painting at 80!! I can only hope that my career gets to his level!

Now you are updated on what I've been up to--hardly "painting away in the world"! However I do have now about 1900 reference photos from several corners of the world--nature, animals, buildings, people, historical spots, and some that I'll use as the basis for some abstracts. I am looking forward to getting into our new place in Summerland September 1, and starting to carve out a studio from the chaos. My first show in the Okanagan is booked--"Santa Presents" in Penticton, November 3 and 4, at the Trade and Convention Centre, so I'll have to get working on some new paintings to unveil then! Hope you can see them "in the flesh", so to speak!
It'll probably be a month before the dust settles and I post again, until then, enjoy the rest of the summer, and think about making a trip to the Okanagan to see my new studio!