This painting depicts a small stream running through the grounds of Royal Roads University in Colwood, an area of rainforest and moss. This is a large painting of which only a small section rotates but it initiates big changes in the tone of the painting. There is just the stream, then the crow eats some carrion as a reminder of the brutality of nature, and then a candy wrapper floats by as a record of the human presence.

Bromley Rock is located on the Similkameen River near Princeton, I have often stopped there for picnics, heading home from visiting Penticton. The river is a beautiful colour and the spot tranquil, despite being close to the highway. Being part of a provincial park and close to a highway, means that the humans and the bears would fit the narrative of the landscape of this painting.

Xchanges, where I have my studio, is on the second floor with a balcony overlooking Victoria and on to the Olympic Mountains in Washington State. I used photos taken on Xchanges balcony as source material. I loved the colours of the sky. A sunset is a brief burst of beauty so adding in a butterfly seemed appropriate. The final choice is a fire which involves similar colours, and as a sunset is the end of a day so a fire is the end of something. And this final choice for the viewer certainly changes the mood of the painting.

My youngest daughter Meliah posed for this painting, sitting for drawings, photographs and painted colour notes. Meliah most definitely sees herself as an athlete and is proud of her involvement with Special Olympics, so she had to be portrayed in that shirt (not to mention it is a gorgeous colour). The panel with the “neutral” expression is how Meliah presented herself when asked to “pose”. The other panels reflect the range of emotions Meliah presents in life from a wonderful, engaging smile to a screaming “NO!”; and with Meliah you can almost experience them as quickly as the viewer rotating the column of the painting.

Every summer we take a family trip up to the Okanagan and stay with my parents in their house overlooking the lake. And every summer time is spent at the beach, lazing around, doing some swimming and maybe abit of drawing. This painting comes out of one of those beach days. There is just the beauty of the lake, there are the ever present beach chairs and toys, and at one point in its history coyotes would have safely roamed the beach.

I was given a digital camera that can be used underwater so it had to be put to use. The source photos were taken during a summer visit to my parents. The swimmer is my daughter Meliah. The image of water, blue sky and traces of the Okanagan hills is Okanagan Lake reduced to essentials.

This is the view from the hills above my parent’s home. So it was a common view of my youth, and so were water bombers. Every summer there are forest fires in the Okanagan and the bombers sweep down on the lake to load up. The presence of the bomber in this painting alters the feel of the landscape as opposed to the other choices, bringing forth the danger and fear amongst beauty and tranquility.

Saxe Point in Esquimalt is a wonderful park with an incredible, unobstructed view to the Olympic Mountains in Washington State. This painting documents that view, mixes in the beauty of a dragonfly with the beauty of the mountains, and then there is the human presence and the confusion it brings with it.

I was hiking with friend Ross behind his house on Triangle Mountain  when the photograph used as source material was taken. Only a small part of this painting changes but the changes from sky to crow to float plane imply quite a change to the sounds and experience of the landscape.

Rhododendrons are common in Victoria and especially around my home. The flowers are wonderful. Along with allowing me the opportunity to explore paint and marks, this painting documents the beauty of the rhodo flower from bud to full bloom to dying petals.

Another painting derived from the hike with Ross. A beautiful old tree in fading light. The colours of the rotating column do not change much, but the content certainly does; it is a toy pistol but a good metaphor for human interaction with the environment.

This painting depicts a view of the ground in the hills behind my parent’s house near Penticton. It is a semi-desert area so walking there as a child I was always checking the ground for cactus and rattlesnakes. The images of the rotating column involve a child’s plastic toy and the tail of a rattlesnake, for both elements radically change the experience of the wilderness portrayed.

This painting was commissioned by friends Hannah and Robert. They wanted a painting about the contemplative prayer group that met at their home. The members of the group are artists, poets, musicians and writers who gather in silence to listen to God. Afterwards there is tea, talk and laughter. This is the complex painting I came up with that involves ten columns that rotate. During the meetings Robert walks the dogs and then joins us later so occupies a different space in the painting. Within the room each head has an expression of prayer, then rotates to one of talking or laughing. Each member of the group was asked to pick a religious figure from historical paintings of biblical imagery and those became the third facet of the rotating columns.