Oceans of Art - Day 1

I just returned from Bamfield where I attended the Oceans of Art event (a bit more about that shortly) with a number of other Federation of Canadian Artists members. It was a fantastic weekend of action-packed days where we experienced the marine environment of the far West Coast in all its glory.


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Our trip began at Port Alberni early in the morning when we met at the Lady Rose Marine Services docks to board the MV Frances Barkley. Just over 30 artists and some non-painting partners lugged bags and boxes of art equipment and camera gear on board, then got settled in for the 3 hour trip out to Bamfield.

We spent our time getting to know each other, reconnecting with friends, and putting faces to names that many of us recognized, whose art we'd seen in one show or another. We also met some of the locals, who rely on boats to get around. We stopped for freight and passenger delivery at Kildonan, a tiny community just at the mouth of Alberni Inlet, as it opens out into Barkley Sound. Eventually we made our way into Bamfield Inlet, and pulled up at the Marine Station's dock.

Our first trip of many up the hill from the docks to the station buildings took us to our rather luxurious dormitory accommodation at Buchanan Lodge. We had a group meeting and then a tour of the facilities: many labs, a library, the Whale Lab with tanks and touch pool full of amazing living organisms, the unique scallop-shaped architecture of the Rix Centre (with lecture and conference halls, as well as laboratory facilities, and a beautiful cold-water aquarium full of wonderful fish and invertebrates).


We wandered around, taking photos, sketching, and getting a feel for the facilities, then met again for dinner. The food at Bamfield is plentiful, great tasting, and well received.

To wrap up the day, we were treated to a painting demonstration by naturalist and coastal artist, Mark Hobson. He started with a slide show of his work, and where he works: his floating studio just outside of Tofino. Mark strives to capture the feel and experience of a diver underwater amongst the kelp forests and their inhabitants. He is a master of the play of light passing through kelp fronds, filtering down from the surface, reflecting off the backs and sides of his subjects as they swim through the image.

Tiger Rockfish - Mark Hobson

Now, more about Oceans of Art. In return for our fantastic weekend of wonder and inspiration, each artist will be donating at least one piece of art worth a minimum amount for an exhibition to be held from June 11 - 29, 2009 at the Nanaimo Art Gallery. The proceeds from the sale of the artwork go towards sponsoring the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre's Public Education Program:

Our National Award-Winning Public Education Program provides multi-day immersion field trips for school, college and adult learners. While our focus is on marine and coastal sciences, we encourage custom programs that make use of the incredible environments and people of Vancouver Island's West Coast. As part of our commitment to community we are involved in stewardship and conservation projects as well as facilitating innovative and extremely successful volunteer work experiences for young scientists.

from the BMSC Public Education Program

So the funds go to support the program, and to help schools to afford to attend the program, as there's not much help coming from government.

Oceans of Art - Day 2

After a hearty breakfast, we all piled into, in 12-body groups, two of the station's skiffs to make our way over to West Bamfield. Bamfield is split by Bamfield Inlet: some of the community is on the east bank, some on the west bank. On the other side of the peninsula on which West Bamfield sits lies the open Pacific Ocean. We trudged across the peninsula to arrive at Brady's Beach, a spectacular and well-known sandy beach with rocky sea stacks, perfect for landscape artists! And, at the right time of day, it is perfect for tide pool puddlers. Unfortunately, we arrived late on the incoming tide, so no fantastic tide pools to puddle in. But there were plenty of neat things to sketch and photograph that had washed up on the beach, not to mention the stacks themselves.

We spent the morning on the beach, walking, sketching, snapping shots, and just watching the surf roll in. The hike back was interesting: it's quite hilly crossing the peninsula, and the first hill from the beach is huge! Some of us took the scenic route, and walked the beautiful boardwalk along the shoreline of West Bamfield. Even met some of the residents:

In the afternoon, we split up into our respective groups, and went on different excursions. Our group took a boat up Grappler Inlet. The sun decided to bless us with its presence and made the lighting spectacular for our trip. The water was crystal clear, and we could see way down to the bottom, strewn with pink stars and huge clam shells. At the head of the Inlet was a freshwater lens that had frozen, so we did a little ice breaking (kind of entertaining). And we got to witness nature at work: a couple of raccoons picking up nibblies from the exposed foreshore, rafts of ducks, a cormorant drying off on a piling after a dive, and the ultimate wildlife experience of a bald eagle catching a juvenile gull, then taking it to a rock to pluck and devour while we watched.

A little time was left before dinner for a visit to the Whale Lab, and I took the opportunity to work on some sketches.



After dinner, we were treated to "Life at the Edge of the Sea", a documentary filmed on location in Bamfield and off the coast by the BBC. It's a great film, I've seen it before, but I was so tired from the day's events that I just had to crash. Off to bed to rest up for another jam-packed day.

Catching Up

Wow. It's almost been two months of silence from this quarter. Mostly, that's been two months of no art, which is why nothing's been posted here. A couple of exceptions:

Oceans of Art

We attended the opening of this wonderful exhibition of the Bamfield artists' work in Nanaimo in June. Prior to the opening, a number of the artists & guests met for dinner at le Cafe Français for wonderful, simple French cuisine. We trooped across the street to the beautifully renovated Nanaimo Art Gallery, which used to be a bank, and admired the donations of the participating artists. As far as I know, five pieces sold from the show, the rest were shipped back to Bamfield and are still available for purchase through the Public Education Program.

Here's me at the opening, in front of "Exposed", one of my donations (also donated a couple from the "Flow" series"):


Gallery in the Garden

While not strictly an overwhelming success on the day itself (the weather turned from 30C the day before to about 12C in the powerful, probably almost gale-force winds the day of), I was happy to be invited to participate in the Delta Arts Council's Gallery in the Garden again this year. I sold a piece, and I was also invited to provide some works on consignment to the Upstart Crow, a delightfully eclectic gift shop in the village of Ladner. I might even be teaching some workshops through their facilities this fall; I'll keep you posted!

Katka, one of my printmaking buddies I've met through Wet Canvas! was kind enough to keep me company and brave the less than pleasant weather for a couple of hours. She provided me with a couple of photos of my setup and of me demonstrating printmaking to passers-by. You can read more about the day on her blog, The Blue Chisel.


Yes, I was freezing; unbelievably, I thought to bring a windbreaker, but didn't think about having anything warmer for my legs. I ended up, at the tail of the day, wrapping, sarong like, around my legs, one of the towels that I use to transport framed work. The wind didn't manage to take my tent, but I held on a couple of times just in case. It did take some other artists' tents and certainly blew down many displays, and damaged a few. Thank you, Dave, for your brilliant display stands (which he built for this event last year).

And what else, non-artful (or less artful) tasks, have I been doing in the interim, you might ask?

Well, as always, keeping Printsy (more or less) up to date with the (more or less) weekly "Who's Printsy" feature and the Printsy artist interviews. If you've not yet discovered the Printsy blog, definitely check it out - there are some incredibly talented printmaking artists selling their work through Etsy. If you're one of them, and are not yet a part of Prinsty, please convo me so that I can add your shop to the list.

And it's certainly that time of year again: the food production garden has been in full swing, and is just now starting somewhat to slack off a bit as the cooler weather crops come out and the hot weather crops are not yet ramped up to full production. I haven't posted any new canning recipes yet (although will, at some point, share all of my cherry preserve recipes that I tried this year), but you can always check out what recipes I've concocted or come across, as well as other stuff we're up to here, at my other blog, Roman Life.

Oceans of Art - Days 3 & 4

The weather was absolutely spectacular on the morning of our third day in Bamfield. I spent the first part of the morning working on more sketches in the Whale Lab:

Then our group headed out on one of the Marine Station's research vessels to do a little sight-seeing, and to do a bottom drag. We used a small basket that was pulled along the bottom for a short distance, then pulled up and washed the contents into a viewing tray. The Station uses the same, disturbed location for their drags, and it seems to be constantly re-colonizing, because there is amazing variety of critters each time they come out.

The weather turned decidedly less congenial: the wind picked up, the sun went into hiding, and we even got a few flakes of snow. The group braved the elements to have a wee wander along Pachena Bay, sketching and photographing, and a bonfire and schmooze with some local Bamfield artists.


There was time for a little more sketching before dinner:

Then off to an evening of entertainment! Many of the artists collected in the fireplace lounge and Mark Hobson brought out his guitar, and we all had a wonderful time singing and laughing, and sampling some beautiful blackberry wine. We also had a final lab where we all trouped over to the Rix Centre to look at plankton under the microscope. We all found that absolutely fascinating, and many stayed longer than we were meant to.

Our final night was just delightful, and we were all reluctant to depart on our final day. We woke up to a dusting of snow, and we trudged through the slush to breakfast, then back again to load up our gear for transfer to the docks. Some took the time waiting for the return of the MV Frances Barkley with art, some with networking, and some of us with just being lazy. We loaded up onto the ship when she arrived, and had a lovely, friendship-filled trip back to Port Alberni.

We all await with great anticipation the Oceans of Art exhibition to be held at the Nanaimo Art Gallery, 150 Commercial Street, from June 11 - 29, 2009, opening reception on Thursday, June 11 (time to be announced, but likely in the evening). Work will be for sale during that exhibition, and proceeds will go towards the Public Education Program at the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre.