By Jessica McKeil

There may not be an official stat to prove it, but spend any amount of time on the Southern Gulf Islands and you'll quickly get the sense that these islands are home to a remarkably high concentration of artists and makers. Across each of the islands (Galiano, Pender, Salt Spring, Mayne, and Saturna), the energy is naturally conducive to the practice of creating, offering up an abundance of daily inspiration.

Maybe it's the slow rhythm of the ferries or the buffer of the ocean that gives everything a little more space to breathe here. Whatever it is, the Southern Gulf Islands have long offered a kind of creative refuge. It’s become a place to unplug and get lost in the flow.

And while every artist's practice looks a little different, there are common threads running through it all: the moments of stillness, the seasonal shifts, and the local community that naturally shape what's created here. 
Curious what a creative daily practice looks like for those who call the Salish Sea home? Here's a glimpse into the routines of artists who live and create on the Southern Gulf Islands.

Sal Wiltshire | Salt Spring Island

Photo courtesy of Jamie Sterling, Southern Gulf Islands Tourism: Oil painter Sal Wiltshire in her Salt Spring Island studio.

Sal Wiltshire, a Salt Spring Island–based oil painter whose work draws people in by weaving colour and mood, shares that she tends to approach her work through intuition rather than from a tactical angle. Her creative process begins with feeling her way into a place. As she explains it, emotion comes first, composition later. "I'm very influenced by my environment," she explains, "and being in the Islands provides me with just enough quiet, space, community, and beauty."

Though Salt Spring is home, Sal also spends time on Galiano and further north on Hornby Island, staying connected to the broader Salish Sea landscape that constantly finds its way into her work. From her Salt Spring home overlooking a lake, she finds endless variation in the familiar view: "I'm always amazed that each day I look out, it looks different."

This daily relationship with the environment is a core element within her practice. "We live in a beautiful part of the world," she says, "and when inspiration might be feeling low, I don't have to look far before I see something I want to share in paint."

Sal's daily practice is always in a state of flux, depending on the season and what life throws at her. But through it all, she draws as much as possible, whether it's at local Life Drawing events, a sketch of a patient friend, or even just a study of her canine companion. But when she is in the studio, her practice becomes more strategic, honing specific techniques or learning from her favourite paintings.

Most importantly, Sal says, the pillar of her daily creative practice is "sitting in stillness and observing the world around me." It's in those quiet moments that her inspiration tends to arrive. "Without fail, the changing colour of the sky or the sound of the geese passing overhead will invoke a feeling I want to translate into paint," she explains. "And from there, my process begins."

Colin Hamilton | Pender Island

Photo courtesy of Jamie Sterling, Southern Gulf Islands Tourism: Woodworker Colin Hamilton of Thula Wood Art on Pender Island.

Colin Hamilton of Thula Wood Art is a woodworker who lives and works on Pender Island, but his creative process takes him far beyond its shores. Much of the work is spent walking coastlines, searching for the essential material that serves as the core of his art: old-growth driftwood. Every piece Colin works with has been shaped by the sea, before washing ashore and eventually finding its way into his hands.

With a background in visual arts and a lifetime of travel behind him, Colin has settled into life as a woodworker on Pender, where he transforms reclaimed red cedar into carved sculptures and finely crafted furniture. His studio is rooted in sustainability, and nature remains his greatest source of inspiration.

"The way the wood splits, how it curves, twists, and undulates naturally, inspires and guides my ideas for what to make with each piece," Colin explains," I love to show the contrast between the rough and gray form of the driftwood on the beach to the beautiful colour of the sanded smooth and oiled wood."

But as a driftwood connoisseur, Colin has serendipitously found himself on one of the few islands without a constant stream of floatsam. The currents take it elsewhere across the Salish Sea, but that's never posed a problem for him. "I love spending time on the beach salvaging old-growth red cedar," he says. "I do this all up and down the Salish Sea coastlines." 

While the wood may come from many different places, his creative space (and family home) remains firmly rooted on Pender. "I feel like much of my work is like a tree with a strong base, centered in roots connecting it to the ground, growing with a natural beauty." Colin has built a home base that contains multitudes: big gardens, a pond, and a straw-bale house, with his cob studio only a few feet away. Which, Colin says, "makes for an easy commute!"

Living on Pender also connects him to the many other resident artists and local art shows, both of which remain an ongoing source of inspiration for his woodwork.

Colin's daily practice starts by checking the weather forecast, because so much of what he does is impacted by the weather. On sunny days, he heads outside to salvage driftwood or carve sculptures within the peace of the coastal forest, away from the distractions. When the weather turns, he heads into the studio to work on furniture making, carving, and final touches. He's built a creative life on Pender where every day is different and, as he says, "always a new adventure."  

Jenny Ritter | Mayne Island

Photo courtesy of Jamie Sterling, Southern Gulf Islands Tourism: Artist and musician Jenny Ritter at work on Mayne Island.

On Mayne Island, Jenny Ritter is an artist, musician, and busy mother. When asked about how she approaches her creative work, she offered up a motto many parents can relate to: "Do what you can, when you can." Her artistic philosophy is grounded in embracing imperfection and welcoming experimentation.

Rather than starting with a fixed outcome in mind, her process unfolds organically. Unexpected hiccups, like spilled coffee or pigments reacting in strange ways, only serve up new creative challenges. "The idea can change and morph," she says, and she enjoys seeing how it evolves.

Over the past seven years living on Mayne, Jenny Ritter says the island has profoundly shaped her work. In fact, she credits it with helping her grow into the artist she is today. Her watercolour pieces have become illustrative, playful, and filled with folkloric and natural elements, a style that has developed alongside her life on the island. "I've definitely come into my own as an artist here," she says. She has become a self-prescribed "nature worshipper."

Jenny’s artistic foundation on Mayne technically comes in two parts. First, it's her time spent in her garden and in the forest, which immediately comes across in much of the imagery she uses in her work and in her music. Second, Mayne's tight-knit community has rallied around her work, supporting her in all of her pursuits, including her very first solo show in 2024, sponsored by Arts on Mayne.

Jenny's daily practice, now centred around school schedules and life with her daughter, often begins with a walk in the woods. As she wanders, birdwatching or mushroom hunting, she explains, this "time for thought is essential to the creativity that brews in the background of the mind." Her subconscious gets to work in these quiet moments, and once she’s back at home with a warm drink in hand, she can let the rest flow. 

As she has come to realize, in a previous life (without kids), Jenny may have been a relatively unscheduled person, but her creative work is thriving now thanks to the daily structure of Mayne Island’s school life and scheduled her wanders in the woods.

Maricia DeVique | Galiano Island

Photo courtesy of Jamie Sterling, Southern Gulf Islands Tourism: Glass artist Maricia DeVique in her Galiano Island studio.

Glassworker, gardener, and shepherd Maricia De Vique has lived and created full-time on Galiano Island for the last 22 years. Over the course of her career, her art has explored many different materials, from clay to stained glass. But now, her practice has settled into working almost exclusively with warm glass (glasswork that happens between 1100°F and 2000°F). She fuses, casts, and drapes glass creations that explore the land, sea, and botanicals that make up her world on Galiano.

Although Maricia works in glass, what she's truly chasing is light. "I respond to light hugely," she explains. "A lot of my ideas come from me glimpsing or capturing in my head what light has done to something." For her, it's less about form and more about the way colour and reflection interact with shifting illumination across her gardens and the environment surrounding her on the island.

"Working with light and colour feeds my soul," Maricia says, and that connection is especially evident in her moonscapes. Using glass in natural tones of green, blue, and purple, she’s spent years capturing the many moods and expressions of the West Coast moon, playing with transparency and depth to reflect its effervescent glow. 

Like many artists in the Southern Gulf Islands, her daily practice is dictated by the seasons. The summer months are a rush of visitors to her open studio. Long, interesting conversations fill her summer days, so by the time fall arrives, she's ready to lean into the quieter, calmer season to find the space for more focused, creative work. 

Maricia’s off-season is usually when you'll find her lost in a project in her studio, hours melting away as she falls into the work and sees the project through to completion. These are long, happy hours that she spends exploring light, which fills her soul. In her words, "I live in paradise. I lead a blessed life. I do what I want to do."

Across the Southern Gulf Islands, daily creative practice is shaped by the season, the incredible coastal landscape, and the intensely creative communities here. There is a sense of remoteness that helps turn off the noise and find artistic flow, while the shifting seasonal light across the environment provides an endless source of inspiration. In this part of the world, art and life blend into a beautiful daily rhythm that can be so hard to create elsewhere.