Rainsong Studio Blog

On beautiful sunny days Paul likes to move his current project out on the deck to take full advantage of the sun and beautiful surroundings of RainSong Studio. Aerial displays of leaping salmon inspire not only Paul's artistic creations, but his dinner plans as well!

This beautiful Stone Sculpture was carved on the front deck of RainSong Studio,  with bald eagles soaring overhead and beautiful sunsets reflecting light off the ocean all around.

RainSong Studio bathed in the beautiful colors of the RainBow. Thanks to Joanna Streetly of Strawberry Island for this shot!

After a grand spring storm on the west coast, this beauty appeared. I took this shot from the sunrise deck of RainSong Studio. Neilson Island juts out to the left, with a blue sailboat moored in front.

Here we are, floating on the blue Pacific between Neilson and Stone Islands, in the harbor of Tofino. This photo was taken by our ambitious daughter, who hiked up Lone Cone Mountain on Meares Island one lovely summer day to get it. Thanks, Kat!..

When we  began our adventure of off-shore, off-grid living in the wilds of Clayoquot Sound in the year 2ooo, our first vessel and only mode of transportation was this beautiful Wolverine Canoe. We stuffed all our life's belongings into a few garbage bags, spent our last hundred dollars on food and a six pac, and along with some art supplies - 3 rocks and 3 canvases - we headed out early one Spring morning from Tofino.

We paddled out into a golden dawn on a gentle sea, and four hours later we pulled our canoe up onto the shores of a beautiful white sand beach at the base of Catface Mountain. For the next three weeks, we drank water from the clear streams cutting through the beachsands on their run to the ocean, ate up every bit of food we had brought with us from town, and feasted on freshly caught Salmon, which we roasted over an open fire each evening. Finally, after running out of food supplies, and living on salmon for three days straight, Paul finished his first beach-studio salmon sculpture, and we loaded it up into the canoe and headed to town to find a buyer.

Work on the new roof at RainSong Studio with wonder-boys Joel Grey, Sean McDonald, and Vargas Dan! We had to wait for a break in the winter storms, and luckily one came after only 5 months! And, miracle of miracles, the rains and winds held off for 4 days, allowing us to finish the job! We didn't have to use ropes  or safety nets because anyone who fell off the roof just landed in the nice ice-cold ocean!

Winter on the west coast brings the challenges of torrential rains and great winds. Our anchorage spot offshore from Tofino gives us a front row seat on all the action; every drop of rain, every gust of wind, and every surprise appearance of the rare winter sun.

RainSong Studio now boasts a deep-water-green new roof, and we are enjoying our lack of leaks immensely! The new sunroom is oriented to the southern exposure, so we are catching every ray of warm sunshine that we can, and looking forward to more and more of it with the coming Spring. We celebrated the festival of Candlemas this week by lighting candles in every window and stoking up the woodstove, topping the whole thing off with a hot soak in the seawater tub outside on the deck!

The roofing insulation goes on next,and our mantra right now is "every day in every way we are getting warmer and warmer!"