Watercolour
and crayon
©2016
Charlene Brown
The
latest artist studio tour for our fundraising group from the Art Gallery of
Greater Victoria was to Gabriola Island, about a twenty-minute ferry ride from
the up-island city of Nanaimo. As always we visited several fascinating and
productive (and idyllically-situated) workspaces – two of which are included in
the mix in this painting.
The
Entrance Island lighthouse off the northern tip of Gabriola, has been there since 1876.
Situated so close to
Nanaimo, it has watched over thousands of boaters and kayakers, and for
many years the annual flotilla of bathtubs in a race to Vancouver. The lighthouse keepers have rescued many
in distress, regularly saving lives over the years, and the boating community, in
turn, keeps its eye on the lighthouse.
In 1995 when it was announced that Entrance Island might lose its
keepers, more than 100 kayakers, in an act of protest, formed a ‘human life
preserver’ around the island. Since then, almost every newly-elected Provincial
and Federal government has included this integral part of the Gabriola Island
community in their budget-cutting
plans... but the lighthouse keepers carry on.
