West Coast Prints

This illustration was initially designed to enter Delta’s street banner competition in 2021. It was one of the first illustrations I completed. It depicts the essence of the little riverside town of Ladner. The Native Dawn fishing boat is moored to the docks in front of the red wharfinger’s house in Harbour Park while a Barred owl looks over the scene and a mute swan gracefully paddles along through the river’s reflection. I used a bold colour palette of red, green and blue to create a sense of both childlike whimsy and warmth.

This illustration is based on a few images I captured of the sunset outside of Speed’s Pub in Ladner British Columbia in March of 2023. Heading Home, Harbourside Sunset, depicts a small boat heading West at sunset in the Chilcotin Slough. In the background is the well recognized Wharfinger House of Ladner Harbour. The sun setting through the Poplar trees of Harbour Park light up the background and river reflections with hues of orange, pink and yellow. Silhouettes are created of pilings and a small boat with a single passenger, heading home. This illustration is dedicated to the memory of René, who was a solo traveller in the world and a constant presence around the river front in Ladner, BC. for many years.

This illustration is based on a series of images I captured of the aborgylphs on a row of Alder trees in Deas Island Park, Delta, British Columbia. This image represent a labour of love twice over. The first ‘labour of love’ was performed by the person who originally carved these hearts on a tree in Deas Island Park, in Delta, British Columbia. And the second ‘labour of love’ was me spending somewhere in the region of 40 hours illustrating it! I’m fascinated by arborglyphs as they offer such a sense of wonder and mystery. Who carved these symbols of love and for whom? I always also wonder, too, what happened in all these love stories carved in the barks of trees?

Early Spring on Elliott St. in Ladner Village on the Westcoast of British Columbia, these red tulips make their appearance in an industrial brick planter just outside the Ladner Machine Shop. Long ago, someone planted these tulips, and these four are what remains. The juxtaposition of the tulips and the retro machine shop appeals to my personal aesthetic sensibilities; grungy and beautiful, with a feeling of hope and resiliency.

Last Glance, The Seven Seas Fish Company, a building I walk past, that is still standing, on the corner of Chisholm and Georgia streets almost every day with my dog Wink. In the late fall of 2021, I captured some amazing images of the reflection of the abandoned Seven Seas Fish Co. Ltd. cannery in its window. The very next day, the window had been broken, and just days after that, the neighbourhood news was that the city was going to demolish the cannery. While I love the texture of peeling paint, the light of a sunny fall morning and the reflections cast in this one, I think I love the story more – capturing a singular moment in time that will never again occur.