I’ve known Tofino since the spring of 1984. For me, Tofino was a place of transition in my life. It’s where I learned my painting technique and it’s the place that I became an artist. Actually, I realize now that I was always an artist. Tofino is just where that fact revealed itself to me. It’s also the place that I probably saved my life. I quit drinking there. For me, Tofino will always be a special place.
When my thoughts wander to Tofino it’s the ocean that conjures up images first in my mind. There’s no ocean like the open ocean. On a clear day you can almost see Japan. That’s a joke for those of you that have already put me in the same box as Sarah Palin. Tofino, though it faces out onto an inlet and Meares Island, is a very short boat ride, or forest hike, to the open ocean. Even though I was transferred from Tofino in 1987, I’ve returned every year since for a visit. And it’s the open ocean that highlights every visit. I find it alluring and compelling. A visit to Tofino must include some sort of interaction with the ocean.
In the spring of 2015 I was in Tofino for an annual visit with my wife Joy and several friends. We were out on the open ocean by Lennard Lighthouse jigging up some cod for supper. With our fish supper secured and on board, our skipper Chris turned the boat back towards Tofino. The wide-open ocean to our backs, we’d just passed Lennard Light when I spotted the small rocky island to the south with its singular, defiant tree hunched to the push of the wind. I didn’t have my camera with me so in a bit of a panic I called over the boat noise to my friend Cathy. “Take a picture of that island quick. It’s a painting.”
Cathy got the picture and now the painting is complete. For me, whenever I see this image, it’ll forever take me back to the open ocean waters off of Tofino. What a special place it is.
