Since 1997 my life seems to revolve around paddling canoes. Twice a week, year round and weather permitting, I’m on the ocean in outrigger canoes. Each year I practice for and participate in canoe journeys in replicas of west coast First Nations canoes. Perhaps my greatest passion and joy is that of fly-fishing from my own seventeen-foot canoe. I just love being in canoes and with other people.
It was a day in the summer of 2010. It was a Thursday morning. I know that because that’s a “workout day”. You see sometimes we go out in the outriggers with crews that are older and not as intense about conditioning, cardio and endurance. They’re out just for the sheer love of being on the water together. I enjoy those paddle days, but I also love a workout. This day would see us leave the harbour and paddle out to a group of islands known as the Pasley Islands. Our workout would take us somewhere between 11 and 12 kilometers and save a five minute break it would be a workout every intense stroke of the way. At age 62 I’m proud of the fact that I can still do this and keep up to the younger set in the canoe with me. Having done this for so many years, I also know that when a workout is in session nobody likes to stop. The canoe keeps moving.
On this particular day as we paddled along the steep cliffs of Popham Island, my artist’s eye was wide open. “Do you guys mind if we stop?” I called. The canoe slid to a slow drift and I explained why. I could feel the presence of a painting and I needed to take a few photographs. For the next few minutes this crew of “workout paddlers” endured stops and starts as we paddled along the shore and around Popham Island. When I got home and processed the shots of that beautiful day of paddling I knew I’d found my painting.
Now in a rainy October, as we wait for what’s promising to be an unusually cold and snowy winter I’ve started the process of painting the summer. That’s when I seem to paint summer best, as the fall and winter rattle and scratch at my windows. It’s a simple painting of a simple but wonderful day on the water. Its memory will help me get through the winter. It’s simply called “Popham”
