While thousands flock to Rathtrevor Beach to chase the tides every summer, Dan Gray says he prefers fall, winter and spring.
He’s been parking himself and his easel on the beach for hours at a time since 1992, observing and recreating the many facets of Rathtrevor that summer beach-goers often miss.
Gray is showing more than 25 pieces of his latest pastel work at TOSH (The Old School House Arts Centre at 122 Fern Rd. West in Qualicum Beach) from June 25-Aug. 6, all created en plein air at Rathtrevor.
The work will still be on display during the annual Grand Prix d’Art on July 28, where artists will paint Qualicum Beach views on the street within a limited timeframe. Gray is the founder of the event.
“It’s really being alive,” said Gray of painting the environment he sees before him, as opposed to taking reference photos of an area and painting in a studio, or painting from imagination.
“It’s my observation, my built-up experience and my choice of material, and to have my tools and to be on the beach and have a couple of hours to work; to me, it is using my time on this planet at its best. Regardless of the results. Sometimes they don’t work out, sometimes they do.
“But when I’m standing on that sand, I feel that I’m alive.”
One of those more trying experiences was while making his Wet Rath piece.
Having arranged to meet two other artists down at Rathtrevor to do some work, Gray arrived to some unpleasant weather.
“It was just pouring rain when I got there,” he said. “We went out anyway… everything was wet but nobody would give up, it was so cool.”
That session resulted in Wet Rath. “It turned out quite colourful,” Gray noted.
That colour, and the drama are two of the reasons Gray said he prefers fall, winter and spring over the summer.
“The fall colours, and winter and spring have that overcast clouds, the dramatic rain showers, or when we’re lucky we get some snow, but there’s always more colour in the fall/winter because the logs are fresh, the seaweed is fresh, bright greens… In the summer it’s kind of flat.
“On a big, bright day the light is flat. Mainly the colour on the beach comes from the beachgoer.”
It’s no surprise then that there will be few if any views of the beach in the summer at Gray’s exhibit. The show should offer a less conventional and more local side of the beach.
The work will also feature parts of the beach that few casual beachgoers don’t get the chance to experience. That is, unless they’re very still.
“A few of these paintings have the Brant in them, and people go to great lengths to get close to them and flush them to get photographs of them, to see them, to have a picture taken with the birds flying in the background, and really, if you’re quiet and stand still and painting, they come right by me.
“They talk, they enjoy my presence, they’re not threatened if I’m just standing still, and people miss an hour of listening to them talk as they’re feeding along the shoreline,” said Gray.
It’s the same with other animals, as well as getting to see the tide and clouds move along throughout the day.
“It’s like a parade comes by and you’re painting and you get to choose one or another of the elements you weren’t expecting, but there it is and it’s part of the painting. Let the beach come to you instead of you going to the beach.”
Gray’s Views of Rathtrevor exhibit runs June 25-Aug. 6 at TOSH.
For more info about other exhibits and programs at TOSH, go to www.theoldschoolhouse.org.