RiverWalker Arts: My Art

I would like to remind anyone that any artwork that I’ve created is protected by copyright law. This copyright protection applies to all of my artwork and writings by default, unless there is a prior written agreement stating that I am relinquishing my ownership and copyright privileges to that photograph, artwork or writing.

If you are interested in using my images or purchasing art work or reproductions of artwork, please leave a comment or send me an email. Or message me on my facebook page www.facebook.com/riverwalkerarts

Thanks!

“Beet Root”

"The first supermarket supposedly appeared on the American landscape in 1946. That is not very long ago. Until then, where was all the food? Dear folks, the food was in homes, gardens, local fields, and forests. It was near kitchens, near tables, near bedsides. It was in the pantry, the cellar, the backyard." ~Joel Salatin

Watercolour

“Northern Lights over Lucy”

Light drifts and flickers in the cold northern waters, swaying with the currents in clear salt waters of the endless sea. Colour blooms in the winter sky, it’s ethereal flickering curtains of light an atmospheric collision of solar winds and tiny charged particles. All that is familiar is the Lucy Island Lighthouse guiding sailors home.

Watercolour

“Wynken, Blynken & Nod ”
“Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night
Sailed off in a wooden shoe —
Sailed on a river of crystal light,
Into a sea of dew ...

... shut your eyes while mother sings
Of wonderful sights that be,
And you shall see the beautiful things
As you rock in the misty sea,
Where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three:
Wynken, Blynken, and Nod."

~ Eugene Field

Watercolour

“Old Glass”

Thick fog hangs heavy and the world is shrouded in the thick mist of morning. Light filters through the diaphanous murk of dawn, and slides through old glass into long forgotten reaches of marine history.

History with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its scenes, to revive its echoes, and kindle with pale gleams the passion of former days. ~Winston Churchill

Watercolour

“Lights over Northern Shores”
Born from the solar flares of heavenly spheres these freely flickering phantoms explode in northern skies. Cascading colours of celestial light reach down to kiss the treetops and reflect their brilliance over northern waters.

Watercolour

“Vegetable Progeny”
“I used to visit and revisit it a dozen times a day, and stand in deep contemplation over my vegetable progeny with a love that nobody could share or conceive of who had never taken part in the process of creation. It was one of the most bewitching sights in the world to observe a hill of beans thrusting aside the soil, or a rose of early peas just peeping forth sufficiently to trace a line of delicate green.“
~ Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mosses from and Old Manse

Watercolour

“The Little Stars”
“The little stars were the herring fish
That lived in that beautiful sea —“
~ Eugene Field

Watercolour

“Sailing Away”
“Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night
Sailed off in a wooden shoe —
~ Eugene Field

Watercolour

“While Mother Sings”
“So shut your eyes while mother sings

Of wonderful sights that be,

And you shall see the beautiful things

As you rock in the misty sea,”
~ Eugene Field

Watercolour

“All a Dream”
“'Twas all so pretty a sail it seemed
As if it could not be,
And some folks thought 'twas a dream they'd dreamed
Of sailing that beautiful sea —”
~ Eugene Field

Watercolour

“Dutch Lullaby”

Watercolour

“Cioppino”

A classic seafood stew with a little bit of everything from the sea.
Shrimp, scallops, clams, mussels, and crab meat

Watercolour

“Sentinel Spirits”

poured watercolour from workshop by Leslie Redhead

(leslieredheadart.blogspot.com/)

Watercolour

“Chermoula”

Watercolour

“Spot Prawn”

Watercolour

“Windfall”

Watercolour

“Issac Lake Rest Stop”
“I remember a hundred lovely lakes, and recall the fragrant breath of pine and fir and cedar and poplar trees. The trail has strung upon it, as upon a thread of silk, opalescent dawns and saffron sunsets. It has given me blessed release from care and worry and the troubled thinking of our modern day. It has been a return to the primitive and the peaceful. Whenever the pressure of our complex city life thins my blood and benumbs my brain, I seek relief in the trail; and when I hear the coyote wailing to the yellow dawn, my cares fall from me - I am happy.”
~Hamlin Garland, McClure's, February 1899

Watercolour

“Portland Island”

Watercolour

“Sunset Return to Harbour”

Watercolour

“A River of Crystal Light”

"...they sailed on a river of crystal light, into a sea of dew...."

~ Eugene Field (from Wynken, Blynken and Nod)

16" x 22" Watercolor on Cotton Rag Paper.

“In the Deep Midwinter”

Watercolour

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul. ~John Muir

“Upstream Migration”

Watercolour

Sockeye Salmon swim upstream against the odds. Brilliant red at the end of their life. They roamed in lakes fragile and small, escaped to sea as young, travelled hundreds of miles at sea dogging predators and finally ran the gauntlet of slaughtering fisherman’s nets to this clear stream where the oxygen bubbles up through the gravel, the place of their birth. They will cast their genes into another generation and die in the process. And so they swim on in our memories, in our culture and in our hearts.

“At Rest”

Watercolour

Waiting safe in the harbour for another season to go by.

“Twin Jellies”

Watercolour

Twining together in a bubbling sea two deadly bubbles of venom play.

“When the Snow Flies”

Watercolour

The lake is frozen over and the ground is deep with snow.

We are children once again.

Brew me a cup on this winter’s eve and hold me near
For the frosty winds do howl and the glittering snow does fly.

“Jeweled Sea”

Watercolour

“When Snow Came A Falling”

Watercolour

The way the snow swirls, the way the light filters down and twinkles from above. Here in a muffled white world, a beautiful winter garden.

There is a privacy about it which no other season gives you.... In spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each other; only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savour belonging to yourself.

~Ruth Stout

“Paddling through the Mist”

Watercolour

The waters sing with the soft touch of rain on mist filled afternoon. A timeless place of peace veiled in cloaking fog, trees along the shoreline rising forlornly out of the mists, windswept and steely grey, silhouetted against the diaphanous grey of the sky. Our canoe like a prehistoric creature moving leisurely along, making it’s way elegantly through the glass like waters, the only ripple to be seen is created by the droplets of water falling from our paddles - the world into a kaleidoscope of grey.

Mossy Grotto

Watercolour

" Here in cool grot and mossy cell
We rural fays and fairies dwell;
Though rarely seen by mortal eye,
When the pale moon, ascending high,
Darts through yon lines her quiv'ring beams;
We frisk it near these crystal streams."

— William Shenstone (1714-63)

Lines inscribed on a tablet in the grounds at the poet’s residence

“Anthopleura xanthogrammica”

Watercolour

I wander rocky shores Where mountains meet sea in a rocky green jumble filled with wildlife and fish. Where colour lives in a tiny puddle of water left by the falling tide. I watch small fish dart from side to side, stuck in small pools of water caught in the rocks. A myriad of colour blooms in these pools, the brilliant green of the anenomes stand out proudly against the grey stone and pink coraline algae. All the processes of life in a tiny bit of water.

“Subtidal Bloom”

Watercolour

The way the water swirls the sinking tide, the way the light filters down and twinkles from above. Here in a muffled blue world, beneath the oceans reflective surface is a world as foreign and mysterious as space. Soft bodied creatures bloom like flowers carpeting the ocean’s floor. Tucked in among the rocky algal slopes and a plethora of other life, they reach forth with petal like tendrils. Anemones present a sticky poison to the small and unsuspecting. Their carnivorous souls blossom forth with a myriad of colour in a wickedly beautiful garden.

Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth

are never alone or weary of life.

~Rachel Carson

“River’s Breath”

Watercolour

“I remember a hundred lovely lakes, and recall the fragrant breath of pine and fir and cedar and poplar trees. The trail has strung upon it, as upon a thread of silk, opalescent dawns and saffron sunsets. It has given me blessed release from care and worry and the troubled thinking of our modern day. It has been a return to the primitive and the peaceful. Whenever the pressure of our complex city life thins my blood and benumbs my brain, I seek relief in the trail; and when I hear the coyote wailing to the yellow dawn, my cares fall from me - I am happy.”

~Hamlin Garland, McClure's, February 1899

“Under a falling Tide”

Watercolour

Two crabs scuttle along the pebbled beach just below the clear waters. Dreadfully exposed they run seeking shelter, bobbing up and losing ground with each lap of the tide.

“Morning Solitude”

Watercolour

Rain drums on the water. The mist swirls along the surface of the river. Cedars rise forlornly along the fog swept stream banks. It is the sacred place, the secret place no one goes. There is no trail that leads in from the road, but the solitude of the perfect fishing spot is well worth the effort to get here. And in the words of Henry David Thoreau “Some men go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after."

“Full Moon”

Watercolour

On gossamer wings dragonflies swim in moonlight. They haunt the night alighting the frost of a dying summer and welcoming the chill of autumn. Stars pierce the darkness watching over this turning of the seasons.

“Night, the beloved. Night, when words fade and things come alive. When the destructive analysis of day is done, and all that is truly important becomes whole and sound again. When man reassembles his fragmentary self and grows with the calm of a tree.” ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

“Summer’s Dream”

Watercolour

Echoes fade and memories die:

Autumn frosts have slain July.

Dreaming as the days go by,

Dreaming as the summers die:

Lingering in the golden gleam --

Life, what is it but a dream?

~ Lewis Carroll

“Færy Flight”

Watercolour

But remember always, as I told you at first, that this is all a fairy tale, and only for fun and pretence: and, therefore, you are not to believe a word of it, even if it is true.

- Charles Kingsley

“First Breath of Dawn”

Watercolour

“This coffee falls into your stomach, and straightway there is a general commotion. Ideas begin to move like the battalions of the Grand Army of the battlefield, and the battle takes place. Things remembered arrive at full gallop, ensuing to the wind. The light cavalry of comparisons deliver a magnificent deploying charge, the artillery of logic hurry up with their train and ammunition, the shafts of with start up like sharpshooters. Similes arise, the paper is covered with ink; for the struggle commences and is concluded with torrents of black water, just as a battle with powder.”

~Honore de Balzac

“Cherry Spring”

Watercolour

In the dream world of another time and place, petals drift like haiku. Their short life a study in the perfection of a thousand shades of pink. Gazing out swathed in slithering silks she stands a symbol of the ancients, the feminine counterpart of faultless precision.

Scented cherry blooms
Sweet florals intoxicate
Then float down as dust

~Kristikim

“Waiting”

Watercolour

Waiting, waiting, for the sea to bring him home....

“I walk without flinching through the burning cathedral of the summer. My bank of wild grass is majestic and full of music. It is a fire that solitude presses against my lips”

. ~Violette Leduc, Mad in Pursuit

“Kayaks”

Watercolour

There are things to be said about sitting by the dying light of a fire on a completely deserted beach. Leaning back against the Giant Sitka Spruce forest, and listening to the waves crash rhythmically against the shore. Pulling up kayaks balanced on the driftwood along the sandy beaches, pebble beaches, beautiful protected crescents backed by thick forests. The rain falling like mist around an ancient cedar tree, just the tip top of it rising forlornly out of the mists, windswept and steely grey, silhouetted against the diaphanous grey of the sky.

“Dragonflies”

Watercolour

Dragonflies with lacy wings and delicate steps flit and flirt through a graceful dance deep in rural woods where wild thyme blows and hyssop chokes out the nodding violets of a mossy grotto. There is magic behind every tree ad blade of grass if only you care to believe in it. And the darting movements of the dragonflies mimick the flight of ethereal fairies in mediaeval folklore.

“Undersea Cathedral”

Watercolour

Lurking beneath the waves exists a truly magical yet largely hidden world, dominated by massive spires of giant kelp. As depths exceed about ten feet, the majestic kelp forest can gain a foothold. Capable of growing up to 100 feet in length, this gargantuan seaweed forms a living coastal band wherever rocky bottoms permit attachment..

By mid summer, the kelp canopy is at its zenith, fuelled by nutrient-rich water and sunlight. The nearly impenetrable surface mats create a dim underworld beneath the surface, even on those days when sunlight wins the battle against persistent coastal fog. Gliding beneath the canopy, surrounded by towering spires of giant kelp, the feeling is one of being immersed in an undersea cathedral.

“A Scrumptious Lunch”

Print from an Original Watercolour

“November Rain”

Watercolour

Live in the rain, swim the lake, drink the wild air…. Thick fog hangs heavy and the world is shrouded in the thick mist of morning. Light filters through the diaphanous murk of dawn. Although I do not move, my focus shortens and I watch the drops of water that fall to the earth. The water pools, and overflows and what the earth can not hold runs to the ocean. The water crashing to the ground is all that disturbs the calm of this mist filled morning..

“Candlelight Under the Rising Moon”

Watercolour

One summer eve in the haunting light of the moon, alone on a headland all but surrounded by the sea sits a little yellow tent. Millions of stars blaze in darkness and the river of the Milky Way flows across the sky. The sounds of water lapping at the shore twine with the gentle rustle of a breeze in the dry grass. While the evening’s dimness stalks the tent, suppressing the idle details of the land, a flickering candle sets it all aglow.

“There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls”.

~George Carlin

“Poetry of the Earth”

Watercolour

“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.”

~John Muir

“Memories of your Embrace”

Watercolour

The North Pacific Giant Octopus (Enteroctopus dofleini) can be found in the coastal North Pacific. Of all the remarkable and peculiar creatures in the oceans, nothing is quite so astounding as the octopus. With no bones save a small beak, Octopuses an fit into the smallest of spaces. (their blood is light blue…oh yes… certainly amazing.)

“Anthology of Blooms”

Watercolour

“Poppy”

Watercolour

A poppy is one of a group of a flowering plants belonging to the poppy family. Poppies are sought after by gardeners for the vivid coloration of the blooms, the hardiness and reliability of the poppy plants, the exotic chocolate-vegetal fragrance, and the ease of growing.

Poppies have long been used as a symbol of both sleep and death. In Greco-Roman myths, poppies were used as offerings to the dead, and more recently as emblems on tombstones to symbolize eternal sleep.

“Dancing Dreams of Summer Kelp”

Watercolour

Thick ropes of slippery kelp reach skyward in the watery depths, a dream world of swirling hues in golden browns and ochre greens sliding through dark swirling waters. Broad leaf like fronds grow huge in the summer sun, dancing playfully in the swift currents along rocky shores. The swirling waters, create a fairy world to alight the imagination.

“But remember always, as I told you at first, that this is all a fairy tale, and only fun and pretense; and, therefore, you are not to believe a word of it, even if it is true. “

- Charles Kingsley (Water Babies)

“Trapped by the Tide”

Watercolour

A tide pool is a microcosm of sea life where creatures flash beautiful and delicate colors as they resist the pounding of the relentless sea, a testament of the resilience of nature. The rich aesthetic found in the tide pool is a source of continual wonderment.

"It is advisable to look from the tide pool to the stars and then back to the tide pool again."

—John Steinbeck

The Log from the Sea of Cortez (1951)

“African Pirogue”

Watercolour

A pirogue is a small, flat-bottomed boat of a design associated particularly with West African fishermen. This boat plies one of the last great fishing grounds on Earth, badly diminished but still able to support thousands of small pirogues. The fish, gravitate to the waters where cold, nutrient-rich waters rise to the ocean's surface. The rush of nutrients and the shallow waters warmed by the sun create a marine cornucopia for fish, birds and much else.

“Masqued Eclipse”

Watercolour

An eclipse of the sun. A darkening of the day. A storm on the horizon. A magnolia tree in fragile bloom.

“This dead of midnight is the noon of thought,
And wisdom mounts her zenith with the stars.”
~Anna Letitia Barbauld,

A Summer Evening's Meditation

“Mythology Remembered”

Watercolour

On 6 July, 1734 a Norwegian ship sailed past the coast of Greenland when suddenly those on board looked out into the murky and unexplored depths and ......... "saw a most terrible creature, resembling nothing they saw before. The unknown creature was using giant fins which propelled it through the water. Later the sailors saw its tail as well. The monster was longer than our whole ship"

“Twinkle Twinkle”

Watercolour

Light drifts and flickers in the cold northern waters. Swaying with the currents in clear salt waters of the endless sea. Colour blooms on the rocks in a profusion of intertwined arms.

With arms arrayed around a central disk, Starfish are among the most familiar of marine animals and possess a number of spellbinding traits, such as regeneration. Sadly, these remarkable animals have little to no ability to filter pollutants and toxins out of the water they inhabit, since it is literally pumped directly into their bodies. This makes them highly susceptible to damage from pollution and contaminants.

“Tidepool Mermaid”

Watercolour

In 1836 Hans Christen Anderson wrote a fairy tale called the little mermaid. Which had not a thing to do with the sanitized Disney cartoon.

The Tale begins far out in the ocean, where the water is as blue as the prettiest cornflower, and as clear as crystal, it is very, very deep. In the deepest spot of all, stands the castle of the Sea King, with his six beautiful children; each with a body ending in a fish’s tail. The youngest became besotted when she saw a large ship ripped asunder in a dreadful storm, and a prince, with large black eyes sink into the deep waves.

A mermaid may live to three hundred years, but has not an immortal soul, nor can she obtain one unless she wins the love of a human being. Without an immortal soul a mermaid can never live again; when they cease to exist below the waves they become the foam on the surface of the water, and have not even a grave to mark those beloved. On the power of another hangs her eternal destiny. They are like the green sea-weed, when once it has been cut off, can never flourish more. And so she traded her tongue to a sea-witch in exchange for legs and set off in search of the prince’s love and through it an immortal soul.

The prince although enchanted by this mute girl loved her as a child and married another and so the little mermaid’s heart did break, and on the morning after his wedding she did throw herself from the ship into the sea, and became one of the daughters of air floating through the aether. Swallowed by the sea and lost forever, she haunts the tide-pools on rocky shores. The last reflection of a lonely soul.

“Think Pink”

Watercolour

dedicated to all women who are or have been afflicted with this devastating disease

Each year, thousands of Canadians are touched by breast cancer. In 2010, an estimated 23,200 women in Canada will be diagnosed with breast cancer. On average, 445 Canadian women will be diagnosed with breast cancer every week. In 2010, an estimated 5,300 women and 50 men will die from breast cancer in Canada. The vulnerable pink colour stands not only to remind us of the battle against breast cancer, but the brightness of pink at the same time stands for hope, and strength.

And to all those out there still fighting, make manifest the glory of the earth and the stars that is within you, become a conduit of grace, beautiful and strong, dance and touch the earth…

“Dryad”

Watercolour

Here she waits, this tree dwelling spirit, looking after the forest and keeping an eye on the health of the trees. Seen only as an enchanting wisp of unearthly light, she periodically appears to travelers while waxing and waning with the changing seasons.

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair. ~Kahlil Gibran

“Ode to aSockeye”

Watercolour

It rains down hard, as if the sky itself liquefies and crashes down on the earth. The land soaks up what it can and what the land cannot hold tumbles down through these beautiful glacial rivers heading out to sea. It’s cold, and wet, the valley smells like fish, rotting fish. The water is glacially cold, and there are log jams, root wads and fish. Brilliantly red salmon who've come out of the sea to return to their birth place to spawn and die. They will fight to their death to get there, they will fight against the very mountains themselves to return to the place where they were born. And by the time they get to that gravel bed of their birth, the skin has begun to rot from their bodies, their flesh has gone soft and the process of decay has begun, but and it is here in these trickles of fresh water that pour over small rounded stones that Pacific salmon finish their lives…. they spawn, and expire, completing the cycle of life, never knowing if their offspring will hatch or survive to repeat their own journey.

“Midnight”

Watercolour

It was twelve by the village clock, with dragonflies swimming in the moonlight. The dampness of the River’s fog swept along wrapped in silence as deep and still as the dead in the churchyard.

The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve:5

Lovers, to bed; ’tis almost fairy time.

I fear we shall out-sleep the coming morn

The heavy gait of night. Sweet friends, to bed.

A fortnight hold we this solemnity,

In nightly revels and new jollity.

-Shakespeare

“Guiding Light”

Watercolour

Heceta Head's light first shone in March of 1894, 205 feet above sea level and visible for over 21 miles. One thousand barrels of blasting powder were required to create a flat table on the rocky cliffs. In 1892, a crew of 56 constructed the light. Because of the site's seclusion, building materials were either shipped in if the weather and tide permitted, or brought by wagon.

“Autumn Sanctuary”

Watercolour

It is the Diocese of British Columbia's third cathedral, built after the first, built in 1856, was destroyed by fire, and the second, built in 1872, became inadequate for the size of the congregation. The current cathedral was built in 1929.

The falling leaves drift by my window
The falling leaves of red and gold
I see your lips, the summer kisses
The sunburned hands I used to hold

Since you went away the days grow long
And soon I'll hear old winter's song
But I miss you most of all, my darling
When autumn leaves start to fall
- Falling Leaves
by Johnny Mercer

“Cnidarians”

Watercolour

We have walked on the moon and continue to push the open boundaries of space. Yet the mysteries of the Ocean continue to elude us. Long tendrils drift flickering in the cold northern waters. Swaying with currents in clear salt waters of the endless sea. Amid these forests of vine-like arms no morsel is safe. Jellyfish emerge pulsing up from the watery depths of the bottomless sea. They are moving their translucent mass through the watery shadows. Salt laden currents sway to and fro creating a soothing and tranquil undulation at odds with the unearthly gleam of a predator on the hunt.

“Tow Hill”

Watercolour

North Beach on Haida Gwaii is an incredibly lengthy stretch of sand interrupted by Tow Hill a large 350ft high outcrop of basalt columns called a Volcanic Plug, that reaches out of the surrounding expanses of forested flatland-bog before continuing on to Canada’s longest sand spit formation.

It is on North Beach where according to Haida legend, the raven first brought people into the world by coaxing them out of a clam shell.

“Where the Wild Wind Blows”

Watercolour

Wild and free, there are no mistakes in flowers. They bloom forth in profusion, spontaneous bursts of colour. But it is daisies alone that provide dreamy imager , pure and passionate vigour which perpetuate and harmonize in our minds the sensations of gentle charm and violent intoxication with which they inspire us.

“Oona River Rock”

Watercolour

- this from a workshop with Nicole Best Rudderham.

The mark of a successful man is one that has spent an entire day on the bank of a river without feeling guilty about it. ~Author Unknown

“The Stark Blues of Winter”

Watercolour

The wind stirs and the skeletal branches creak in protest like old rusted hinges. The movement dislodges the newly settled snow and sends it swirling to the pallid earth. The air seems clearer, the sky hangs low, and the world is full of possibilities. The snow just keeps falling. It coats the forest in powdery white, and makes the world stand still. There is a surreal quality to the light, you could almost believe in magic on a day like today.

Macrocystis

Acrylic

Swaying in oceans currents this algae can grow two hundred feet long, at a rate of two feet per day. It is harvested as a food supplement but also used as an additive to salad dressings, ice creams, sauces and toothpastes...

Which goes to show... you never know where you might find your next meal.

“Kitson Island”

Acrylic

Isolated on a small island facing the grey quicksilver pacific ocean, sits flanked by mainland mountains, that rise majestically out of the ever present mists. Those mists rise up and hem the island in eerie drifting cloaks of pale moisture. It rains here. The type of rain that pours down on the world and fills up the earth, the ocean drinking what the land cannot hold.

“Dancing Medusa”

Acrylic

With no heart, bones, eyes or brain, Medusozoa are made up of 95% water, and yet they are still a remarkably efficient ocean predator. Gently pulsing in ocean currents these predators are in balance with the large predator fish of the seas. With overfishing the balance appears to be tipping in favour of these transparent and graceful but deadly predators.

“Tranquil Solitude”

Acrylic

“Devil FireFish”

Watercolour

Nestled in the emerald moss within the window pane, a tarnished silver vessel stands draped in the delicate blades of foliage long dried. They rustle in the slightest breath of air, a voiceless song in an ageless light. I am drawn into a clouded dream at the verge of sleep where sand melts in pools of the sky and even the distance feels so near. A red stonefish, clad in stripes of fatal venom sulks through my thick watery vision. Upside-down and blossoming for that devil firefish the dead flowers metamorphosis into fragrant, ethereal bloom.

“Black Eyed Susan”

Watercolour

One of North America’s most common flowers is oft overlooked for the earth is crammed with heaven. For among the profusion of blooms under the summer sun it is a common yellow blossom with a history healing. As an astringent, it has been used as a poultice on sores, swellings and snake bites; as an infusion in the treatment of colds, dropsy and worms in children; and juiced as drops to treat earaches.

Sebastes in the Summer Seas

Watercolour

In the swirling seas of summer dreams the ancient Sebastes rockfish swim free with the majesty of age and grace. The salty currents flow with timeless currents, a summer dream that has bloomed for centuries.

“But remember always, as I told you at first, that this is all a fairy tale, and only fun and pretense; and, therefore, you are not to believe a word of it, even if it is true. “

- Charles Kingsley (Water Babies)

O Tannenbaum

Watercolour

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Thy candles shine out brightly!
Each bough doth hold its tiny light,
That makes each toy to sparkle bright

plumes de neige

Watercolour

Les premiers flocons sont quelque chose de féerique.

He was made of snow

But the children know

How he came to life one day

“Little Toy Train”

Watercolour

Old toy trains, little toy tracks. Little toy drums coming from a sack.

Carried by a man dressed in white and red.

Little boy, don't you think it's time you were in bed?

So, close your eyes and listen to the skies

All is calm, all is well

Soon you'll hear Kris Kringle and the jingle bells

“Secluded Lagoon”

Watercolour

More than a hundred miles from the deafening din of civilization, in the stillness of a warm summer’s day, British Columbia’s coast comes alive. It is here deep within an unnamed fiord where . the untarnished beauty casts it’s reflection on isolated and sheltered waters. A location where one begins to realize that there are places on this earth that are sacred. Where there are no shiny bits of plastic laying around, no beer cans or bottle tops, no roads or ATV trails, no sounds of aircraft flying above, no power lines or humming generators, no signs of human existence. They are sacred places where the eagles rule the skies, the bears rule the land and the salmon rule the waters. Where the mists rise and linger cloaking the forest in a thick feeling air. The waters have a crystalline clarity whose memories mark an age long past. Time stands still.

“Silver Bright”

Watercolour

Spring Salmon chase the herring that dart silver bright and flashing in and out of the summer kelp.

Kelp Greenling

Watercolour

Hexagrammos decagrammus found on the continental shelf in the temperate or subarctic waters of the North Pacific. They can be found off rocky shorelines, in kelp beds, and, especially during spawning, in shallow inlets and tidepools. They are scavengers but also catch and eat small fish and bottom-dwelling animals such as crabs.

"It is advisable to look from the tide pool to the stars and then back to the tide pool again."

—John Steinbeck

The Log from the Sea of Cortez (1951)

“Havana”

Watercolour

A step back in time, a place of modern thought and old world traditions, a city of laundry hanging from balconies, old broken shutters peeling back vibrant paint, and half bricked up doorways... the signs of people carrying on their lives.

The capital city, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. Havana was founded by the Spanish in the 16th century, it’s people, culture and customs draw from diverse sources, such as the aboriginal Taino and Ciboney peoples, the period of Spanish colonialism, the introduction fo African slaves and it’s proximity to the United States.

“Fall Path”

Watercolour

To wander in the crisp fall air through ancient woods is to refresh the mind. To smell the leaves underfoot and explore whatever lies beyond the next bend in the trail is to find peace within.

“Swamp Rose Mallow”

Watercolour

“Summer’s Dance”

Watercolour

Have you ever observed a humming-bird moving about in an aerial dance among the flowers - a living prismatic gem.... it is a creature of such fairy-like loveliness as to mock all description. ~W.H. Hudson,Green Mansions

“Indian Summer”

Watercolour

Cows are amongst the gentlest of breathing creatures; and, in short, I am not ashamed to profess a deep love for these quiet creatures. ~Thomas de Quincey

“Haunted Wood”

Watercolour

“Lazy Haze of Summer”

Watercolour

“Dreamscape”

Watercolour

“Rocking at Anchor”

Watercolour

“Sweet Peas”

Watercolour

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine.

~Shakespeare