Northern Lights over Cowichan Bay

Cowichan Bay is a small harbour village on Vancouver Island, close enough to home to feel familiar and still strange in the right light. This one started late in the evening in July as a small sketch on location, after the sun had gone down behind the hills. Back in the studio I painted this larger version from that sketch, keeping the colour of the sky the way I saw it. Night paintings are rare for me, and this is one of my favourites.

• Original oil on birch panel, 14 × 11 in.
• Painted in the studio from a plein air study (Cowichan Bay, Vancouver Island), July 2018
• Larger studio version of a small painting made on location
• Varnished with Gamvar for archival protection
• Ships unframed, boxed from Oliver; a floater frame on request