The Feeling of the Place, Mike Lathrop, Victoria

Soon after we moved to Vancouver island, long before we had kids, we drove up the island and camped the whole way in a tattered old camper van. This painting is based on a photo I took at Rathtrevor Beach on that trip. At that moment, it felt like the whole world fit on that beach. The island felt like home that night, and even more so today.

At a campsite in Goldstream Provincial Park, my 5 year old son, sitting at the picnic table, pointed straight up and said, �Dada, DADA! You should paint that.�

It is humbling to look up at those trees, at once intimidated and protected by them. It reminds me of what grownups looked like to me when I was little. We were all little once, and in a forest like this one, we all still are.

The sense of scale, both in size and time, on a beach like Sombrio fascinates me. The rocks are large, immovable, hard and solid; but they are wearing. It is easy to see how they are not now what they once were. At the same time, I see the limpets, clinging to these rocks. I see that I am as small in my big world is they are in theirs.

I painted this from a series of photos I took at sunrise near Sombrio beach. It was peaceful, but the air was vibrant with the quiet sounds of the woods, and subtle movement was everywhere when I stopped to look for it. The light was voluminous; it felt like you could cut through it with a knife.

Walking around Matheson Lake, one finds there is an island in the middle of it. It looked like a resolute and sovereign haven when observed from the opposite shore where I stood, guarded by tall, quiet sentries and ramparts of tree and rock.