The Spit
I have camped at and visited Rebecca Spit on Quadra Island numerous times before with no thoughts of creating a painting. What drew me immediately to my friend’s photo of the same place, was the dramatic light she had captured. The light and dark contrast dramatized the subject matter of two opposite facing beaches separated by a narrow path. I thought this image was captivating enough that it needed to be a large painting, 48” x 60”, which took me a year to complete.
Rebecca Spit Provincial Marine Park is on Quadra Island, on the land of the We Wai Kai people, who run a campground nearby. As you walk along the spit, you pass through a patch of old growth fir trees and at the end, face the islands of Desolation Sound where you may see the white Cortes Island ferry pass by.
A spit, like Goose Spit in Comox, is technically a narrow coastal landform that is still attached to the mainland, like a pathway out to a little island. They form where the coast line abruptly changes direction. The beaches on either side of a spit, face opposite directions and experience different winds or currents. They may be two completely different places even though they are right next to each other. At Rebecca Spit, at one point you can see where during a storm at high tide, the two beaches have almost connected, threatening to turn the patch of trees at the end into their own island.
On one side of the painting, there is blue sky and white patchy clouds, while on the other, there is a dark gray cloud and rain in the distance. The beach on the stormy side is loaded with driftwood, while the other side is sandier and the water is black. I thought the two beaches were a bit like yin and yang, the Chinese philosophy in which “two complementary yet opposing forces shape the universe and all its phenomena”.
The middle path leads to the centre of the painting and a thin band of trees, which, with the perspective, look like they are marching toward the viewer. I played with the light and dark contrast, which is seen on rare days when it is stormy but then the sun comes out and shines on the wet land, making it feel the climax of a movie.
I also added a figure walking their dog, and an accompanying seagull. In most of my paintings I think of the landscape and pathways like metaphors for aspects of our life’s journey. To me, a path is like time, continuously leading us forward into the unknown future. In this painting the path leads one through opposing, yet complimentary forces into the remaining dark forest ahead.
