Qualicum Falls, 22" x 30", mixed-media on paper

Paintings Inspired by the Sunlit Rocks at Little Qualicum Falls

an example of the rocks that so impressed me in '94 at Little Qualicum Falls

Although many of my paintings of Little Qualicum Falls on Vancouver Island tried to capture three pools, each one different, I was also fascinated by the ‘sunlit rocks like crumpled aluminum foil’ as I wrote in my sketch book in September ’94.

I was there again at the same time of year in 2017, but the surrounding rocks looked quite different from what I remembered. Maybe it was the light? At any rate my camera has this ‘creative’ button on the dial that churns out five mostly bad images but this highly posterized one actually makes the rocks look like crumpled foil. Posterization of the rocks at Little Qualicum Falls on Vancouver Island

A painting of the wrinkled rocks along with the turquoise water and surrounding forest. (30″ x 22″, 36″ x 28″ framed; mixed-media on paper)Acrylic on Paper of Little Qualicum Falls on Vancouver Island

A sunlit pool with the intense blue-green water rippling around a large rock that goes way down.
sunlit pool with rocks that look like crumpled aluminum foil at Little Qualicum Falls over on Vancouver Island, Canada
Impressionistic painting of the above rock and sunlit water. (12″ x 16″, mixed-media on wood panel)Qualicum Falls, 12" x 16", mixed-media on wood panel

23 years later and various log jams have changed the course of the water, causing the waterfall at the side of the three pools to disappear. I have run this image through the photo app Sketch Guru Gouache.Little Qualicum Falls run through the photo app Sketch Guru using Gouache

In the painting inspired by the above image I painted the rocks with flat sandy acrylic, and the water with shiny translucent colour (18″ x 24″, mixed-media on wood panel)Acrylic painting on wood panel trying to capture the intense green blue water and crumpled rocks at Little Qualicum Falls over on Vancouver Island, Canada

One of the star attractions of Little Qualicum Falls on Vancouver Island was the three pools, each one different: one a sun-lit deep sea green, one a ‘black pool’ and the last a ‘shallow pool, clear’ with blue and ochre stones in the bottom.

(More paintings and sketches of the three pools.)Watercolour & Crayon Sketch of Little Qualicum Falls

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