Freeway floral fashions on the North Island

By Gord Henschel, North Island Eagle, July 10 2020

Our planet Earth is a wondrous place. Efforts to find something similar in an inexplicably enormous universe have so far proven futile. 

Whether you believe in a maker or in some kind of evolution, the fact remains that beautiful places are to be found everywhere on the face of this green giant. 

However, if there was an architect, I feel that he/she, although an innovative creator, fell short on distribution skills. I’m not complaining, mind you, but in the long run of things (perhaps a few million years) North Vancouver Island got more than its fair share!

The amazing beauty of this place has kept me busy to get it down on paper and canvas for 40 years and sometimes I feel I haven’t even started! I’ve been writing about these encounters for many years now and often, in describing some of my favourite spots, I need to write a detailed explanation of how to get there. My directions have to be accurate because often people follow up on them! On the other hand, some of the spots I return to again and again, are at our very doorstep. One of these jewels is Storey’s Beach in Beaver Harbour.

Since our gallery frequently acts as a tourist info centre, we find Storey’s a great place to send visitors because it’s so accessible for an activity in which young and old can participate: walking!  

I’ve had a great many different experiences while painting there, but the most bizarre was one involving a Japanese film crew taking footage of various North Island activities for TV back in Japan. 

Artwork by Gordon Henschel

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