Wild Fire: Forest Recovery
September 2026.
For the past year and a half I have been visiting the site of the wild fire near Sooke Potholes Provincial park to document the burn and the recovery. It is rain forest country and the return of the understory has been wonderful to watch. I have been doing three types of art to document the forest: Drawings in my sketchbooks, watercolour paintings on paper, paintings on wood using fire and casein paints.
For the past year and a half I have been visiting the site of the wild fire near Sooke Potholes Provincial park to document the burn and the recovery. It is rain forest country and the return of the understory has been wonderful to watch. I have been doing three types of art to document the forest: Drawings in my sketchbooks, watercolour paintings on paper, paintings on wood using fire and casein paints.
Between 2007 and 2010 I worked with Mike and Michi DeRoos on the articulation of marine mammal skeletons. Sometimes I carved bones but my skills were most used in covering up the repairs and constructions of others so that the bones looked pristine. In 2010 we worked at the Beatty Biodiversity Museum at UBC. How does this relate to the images below? Well during the installation of the Blue Whale all the collections from around the university were being brought to the museum and stored in the new metal drawers and display cabinets. This meant that masses of beautiful wooden drawers were being dumped. I saw the surfaces as having potential for an art project and was able to pull 8 from the dumpster and fit them in my little car. They had been waiting for the right project and it arrived with the inspiration to depict the forest recovery after a fire. In 2024 there was a fire in Sooke, quite close to where I live and only a 5 km walk from the parking lot. I have been going there as often as I can manage and drawing the forest and its recovery - first the fungi and lichens and mosses- then the deeply buried bulbs- now those from seed. These are the first and are created with fire and casein paints, then sealed with wax.
Imagined fire- 2025 before it was possible to visit the site.
Created with fire, casein paints and sealed with wax of a wooden drawer sal-
vaged during the building of the Beatty Biodiversity Museum at UBC when I
was working on the Blue Whale Project.
28" X 42" $1400.00
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Return of the Fawn Lilies, Spring 2025. Created with fire, casein paints and sealed with wax of a wooden drawer salvaged during the building of the Beatty Biodiversity Museum at UBC when I
was working on the Blue Whale Project. 28" X 42" $1400.00
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Camas return - Spring 2026. Created with fire, casein paints and sealed with wax of a wooden drawer sal-
vaged during the building of the Beatty Biodiversity Museum at UBC when I
was working on the Blue Whale Project. 28" X 42" $1400.00
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Profusion of undergrowth. Created with fire, casein paints and sealed with wax of a wooden drawer sal-
vaged during the building of the Beatty Biodiversity Museum at UBC when I
was working on the Blue Whale Project. 28" X 42" $1400.00
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Smaller paintings of the forest recovery.
SOLD: By the creek, winter 2025. Watercolour on paper 11 X 14"
Columbine return Summer 2025. Fire and casein paint on board.
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At South Shore Gallery in Sooke.
Lone cedar at the trail edge. Salal and mosses returning. Winter 2025
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NFS Lichens return to the burn site. Winter 2025.
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