David Foster Harbour Pathway

View from the south side of Victoria Harbour

Watercolour and marker

©2018 Charlene Brown

The Harbour Pathway celebrates our unique working harbour, recognizing Lekwungen First Nations history and enhancing the natural marine habitat. When complete, the pathway, named for musician and producer David Foster, will extend over five kilometres from the Rock Bay industrial area, under the new bascule bridge at Johnson Street, around the Inner Harbour, past the Empress and the Provincial Legislature to the Ogden Point cruise ship terminal. 

The condominium where I live is in the Songhees area, on the north side of the harbour shown in the upper right of the painting. The Westsong Walkway runs along that side from the Johnson Street Bridge to Head Street in Esquimalt. 

As You Like It – set in Vancouver, in the Sixties!

Bard on the Beach

Watercolour sketch

©2018 Charlene Brown

In August I went over to Vancouver for a matinee performance of Shakespeare’s As You Like It, a hilarious version set in Vancouver in the 1960s, with music by the Beatles, much of it sing-along. This adaptation actually follows the original plot in a recognizable manner and most of the action takes place in the Okanagan Forest, which is of course an apple forest because the Okanagan is one of Canada’s prime fruit-growing areas.

Bard on the Beach presents four Shakespearean plays throughout the summer in two tents, the larger of which seats 733 in 15 tiers. The only other time I attended a play there was many years ago and I’m pretty sure we sat on benches on one level in one tent.

Virtual Paintout in Amsterdam

Corner of Herengracht Canal and Amstel River

Watercolour

Charlene Brown

The Virtual Paintout is in Amsterdam this month.

There are more than 100 kilometers of canals in Amsterdam, forming about 90 islands connected by 1500 bridges. Herengracht is one of the four main concentric canals forming a belt around the old city. Here is a link to the Streetview I have painted, the intersection of the Herengracht canal and the Amstel River.

Photovoltaic Haiku

Canadian Museum of Human Rights, Winnipeg



The cables to the left of the vehicle bridge in the painting hold up a separate, side-spar cable-stayed pedestrian bridge. This part of the bridge, the Esplanade Riel, was named after Louis Riel, a Métis who was hanged for treason in 1885. The Human Rights museum opened in 2014 to much acclaim… and protests from groups – the Métis, for example – who believe that Canada’s actual human rights record isn’t nearly as grand as the building.

Line I: Photovoltaic electricity is produced by converting light using semiconducting materials.
Line II: Grid parity, the point at which an energy source becomes a contender for widespread development without government support, is more easily achieved with the abundant sunlight of summer.