The Broughton Archipelago

In March of 2020 I decided to leave everything behind and create my own “artist residency” in the Broughton Archipelago, a unique environment in-between Canada’s mainland and northern Vancouver Island. Two planes, a bus, and a boat ride with some fishermen delivered me to the off-grid home I would be volunteering in, and painting out of. Gilford Island, filled with towering Cedars, and forest floors thick with Salal would be my home for the next six weeks. During my stay, I used spotty wifi connection to gain my certificate of Natural History Illustration, the unique Raincoast was the perfect place to delve into nature.

Upon my arrival, COVID-19 quickly took the world by storm, creating an experience and story I wont be soon to forget.

A day at Billy’s Museum (above). Billy Proctor has lived in the Broughton’s his whole life and built his homestead at Echo Bay. A man of immense knowledge of the area, he is an experienced trapper, logger and fisher, changing his trade as the demands changed. But through it all he has been a beach comber, and naturalist. Billy’s Museum contains all his finds from when he was a child to now. I was lucky enough to spend the day there, sketching records of the areas history.