It sits just off the shores of the Sunshine Coast about 62 kilometers northwest of the city of Vancouver. Merry Island is home to a lighthouse that surely is a sightline fixture to all who live on Redrooffs Road in Sechelt, British Columbia. With its bright white and red construction, this little lighthouse is visible, as it should be, from all up and down the Salish Sea in that particular area. Work first began to construct Merry Island Lighthouse in 1903 so it’s well over one hundred years old. To say it’s a local landmark and fixture would be an understatement.
In 2011 I had occasion to walk the beach below Redrooffs Road with a client who had purchased several of my pieces. He asked if I’d do a painting of Merry Island Lighthouse. I committed to him that I’d let the image come to me, but at that time nothing touched me in terms of a painting that would speak about this special place on the British Columbia coast.
It wasn’t until January of 2013 that I was able to see the image that demanded my artistic attention. I walked that same beach again, this time with another friend. The ominous, dark winter sky highlighted the snowy winter coat of the mountains of Vancouver Island. The lighthouse itself seemed to be a part of that landscape and the white and red structures made their silent statement. That was the image to be painted. It wasn’t a big sky or a huge expanse of water that caught my attention. Rather, it was Merry Island in its splendid isolation. It was those buildings of stark contrast with the dramatic backdrop of huge mountains that spoke to me. That’s why the image is so long and narrow. It speaks only of the place, the solitude and the very presence of Merry Island Lighthouse.
