You Are Here: A Heavenly Week Devoted to Creating - (My Artist Residency at LEÑA artist residency on Galiano Island)

 

You Are Here  12 x 12

I was very fortunate to be chosen for a week long residency at the Leña Artist Research and Residency Centre on Galiano Island this winter. Galiano is a lovely peaceful island in the Salish Sea, just a small ferry hop from the larger Vancouver Island where I live. I loaded up my little Smart car with canvases, paints and brushes and headed off with great anticipation.

The first day on island, eager to explore, I took an unplanned 5 hour hike (it involved a wrong turn along the way, ok?) and barely got home before the sun set. On an island with no streetlights. In winter. I had no phone, no food and no water, just my lucky horseshoe tucked away which got me back home while there was still light to see the road in front of me. Let's put it this way, my legs were tingling! Anyhow, it was glorious! I breathed in all of that forest oxygen on my hike to the bluffs, hugged a few trees, sang a bit, and generally found myself settling back into myself again after this trying past couple of years. The result of this adventure was some inspiration for my first piece - Lost and Found:

Lost and Found - 12 x 12

Many hidden treasures to discover in the most surprising places

When was the last time you saw a working pay phone?

 

Old school island gas pump

I saw this on the back of a car and it made me smile

As did this... was the demand softened a tad by adding glitter?

The Bluffs Park trail system on Galiano continued to stump me with every exploration. On one particular day I calculated after much walking that I must be approaching the southeastern junction of Winstanley and North Warbler Roads when in actual fact I was at the northern junction of Canter Road and Jumping Mouse Trail. I stood for some time in front of that "you are here" red dot, stupefied, trying to reconcile where the f*%k I really was instead of where I thought I was. And, once again, realizing I had a long walk ahead of me to get back home. (See the map below and picture me with a frowny, helpless look on my face.) Upon arriving home, my fellow residency artists were amused that I had now been lost not once but twice within three days. In spite of posted maps to guide me! We were told tales of locals not liking the "ugly" metal signs and repeatedly removing them in the dead of night - several apparently were upended and found stashed in an abandoned car deep in the forest. The posted signs might not have helped me that much, but luckily I started this particular walk early in the afternoon and was able to figure it out myself and was back long before nightfall. And, of course, came home with some inspiration for painting #2.

You Are Here  12 x 12

 

 

 

On Wednesday morning we awoke to the last winter wonderland scene of 2022, which was a delightful surprise and inspired this third painting:

Late Winter Snowfall   12 x 12

The summation of my week of painting with no other commitments, in a warm and well lit studio in the woods on a pretty little island, wandering through the forests and along the beaches, taking photos, exploring, and connecting and conversing with other creative folks in a lovely island house was, in two words: sheer delight.  I have such gratitude for the opportunity, appreciation for the beauty of Galiano Island, and a deep joy at finally reuniting with my long dormant creative spark.