12x16 acrylic on canvas

Every spring and summer my family and I spend a week at the family homestead at Port neville, to relax, do some crabbing and to work on the property. As we work and play here you can’t help considering and reflecting on the deep rooted generations of Hansens that have lived here. One of my favourite spots on the property is the slough, it drains out with the ebb to reveal a sandy, clay bottom that becomes a feeding zone for grizzly, black bear, and gulls. Many years ago when tugs would be towing booms south and had a log spill they would call my family to salvage logs. They would run out, yank them off beaches, bring them back to the slough to boom up.

Walking through the slough early in the mornings at low tide is one of our favourite family activities. We can still see boom chains, rings and toggles sticking out of the clay or half buried along the tree line and old logs scattered about, many that still have dog lines hammered in them along with some newly salvaged logs from neighbours.

I took the reference photograph for this painting on one of our many beach walks just before sunset. I loved the way the strong evening sun lit up the old cedar and spruce trees with the dark rain clouds becoming the perfect backdrop to make them really stand out. The beach combed logs and gulls at the bottom were a lot of fun to paint as I had to move them around a little on the canvas for the perfect composition and I think really are the cherry on top.

This piece will be shipped within 5 business days.