The Mighty Arbutus |
Above. Ted and Phyllis loaned me a boat to row out into Silva Bay, a sheltered waterway at the south tip of Gabriola Island. There is a deserted islet there where I imagine myself as Robinson Crusoe. Entirely undisturbed, I spent a few hours painting this grove of trees seen against the distant shoreline of the Coastal Range.
That said - I’ve heard it is a very good hard wood to burn. Apparently it makes excellent charcoal. Because of its irregularly curving shapes and tendency to crack, it’s not often used for cabinet making. The dense, heavy, close-grained wood is pale reddish-brown with thin whitish sapwood; it cuts like soft wood when green, and becomes brittle when dry.
Above. The deck at Windsong, a hilltop home on Gabriola Island, provided me with expansive vistas but in this case I chose to paint a view looking directly into the woods. It’s a bit of a jungle, which makes painting the arbutus even more of a challenge.
Personally, I am content to just look. That gorgeous inflection of orange among the deep green forest catches my eye every time. They are graceful spirits of the forest and I think of them as ‘our beauties’. Robert Amos is a Victoria artist and writer. His paintings and commissioned work can be seen at robertamos.com.
The contorted multi-limbed trunk of the Mighty Arbutus often grows tenaciously from rocky outcrops
FEB/MAR 2012
The Saanich people were less interested in the wood than the leaves and bark. They use them for medicinal preparations for colds, stomach problems and post-childbirth contraception.
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