Old Oak in the Meadow (sold), 2024

Oil on linen, painted on site at Uplands Park during the camas bloom this spring. I have returned to this meadow to paint this old Oak many times over the years. It’s different every time but also the same like catching up with an old friend. My...

Oil on linen, painted on site at Uplands Park during the camas bloom this spring. I have returned to this meadow to paint this old Oak many times over the years. It’s different every time but also the same like catching up with an old friend. My friendship with this Oak actually began 15 years ago when I worked with a seasonal habitat restoration crew removing invasive species like Scotch Broom, Daphne, Ivy, Gorse, Holly and English Hawthorne. It was while toiling in these endangered Garry Oak ecosystems, trying to return them to their ‘natural’ state that I learned that humans have always been a part of this ecosystem. The Lekwungen Speaking Peoples cultivated these meadows for thousands of years for medicinal plants and food. The purple camas bulb was an important food source and it was traded widely. Humans are nature.