My next show, "WAVES and WAKES", is scheduled to run from Sat 12th April until Sat 10th May at the Katharine House Gallery, in The Parade, MARLBOROUGH, Wiltshire, SN8 1NE. For further information, ring The Gallery, which is open Tue-Sat, on 01672-514040.

The Skookumchuk Rapids

Size: 1.68m x 1.22m  Status: Private Collection, London, England  Medium: Oils on canvas  

November to December 1981 in Vancouver, Canada  Exhibited: 6, 7, 8 

This locally famous reversing-tide race is seen here inits outlfowing phase into the Pacific Ocean near the Secheldt Islands in British Columbia. Apparently, the name comes from a native Indian word literally meaning 'fast water'.

A thin, undulating boundary-line is marked by a lineof small vortices (whirlpools seen in the right foreground) which form between two areas of upwelling. The distant water, which is flowing much more rapidly, is divided from the upwelling by a series of dark waves (in the middle distance of the painting). At this major boundary, larger eddy-vortices form to periodically split away and move off downstream with the faster flow.

This painting aims to capture these differences in movement of water, through using various thicknesses and differing applications of paint.