Like art vacations as well as the coastal world? Then an Art at Sea trip on the Maple Leaf might be perfect for you.

On these special painting holidays, exceptional artists who are also excellent teachers take just eight students into the coastal B.C. wilderness aboard the classic schooner Maple Leaf for focused lessons in painting nature and coastal scenes.

The limited number of students allows for one-on-one instruction, in addition to the small-group lessons.

This art vacation also includes hallmarks of all Maple Leaf trips: natural history interpretation, exceptional cuisine, sailing a classic schooner, wildlife viewing, shore excursions and a sense of camaraderie and fun.

Art at Sea in the Gulf Islands with Mark Hobson
Apr. 9-14, 2008

Painting Holiday Summary

If you love to sketch and paint nature, join the Art at Sea painting holiday on the classic schooner Maple Leaf next April and receive personal instruction from celebrated coast artist Mark Hobson.

Mark and the Maple Leaf's crew will lead a small group of intermediate level students on a watercolour painting and exploring tour of the Gulf Islands.

Destinations include little-known islands where some of nature's most beautiful spectacles occur: seabird colonies, sea lion haul-outs, wildflower meadows, cactus areas and steep-sided waterways.

The trip will also involve other scenic locales ranging from remote docks to quiet anchorages, to sailing classic wooden schooner Maple Leaf in Georgia Strait or one of the islands' major channels.

Mark is a gifted and inspiring instructor and he has taught dozens of guests on the Maple Leaf to paint during Maple Leaf's regular nature cruises. This special art vacation allows the art to take as much focus as the nature.

Class Details and Plan

This painting holiday is open to watercolour painters who wish to paint the richness of the west coast landscape.

The Gulf Islands in the spring are the perfect backdrop to studying reflections and mossy outcrops. Arbutus trees have rich red bark in April and will hopefully be a feature of the five day workshop.

The days aboard will generally involve a lesson each morning followed by a less scheduled time in the afternoon where we go ashore either to continue to paint or to sightsee and photograph. The agenda may vary depending on the weather, the location and the group's interest.

The subjects we hope to cover in the daily sessions are:

• Wet on wet skies
• Shoreline rocks and Beaches
• Vegetation i.e. mossy rock bluffs and arbutus trees
• Drift wood in morning light
• Water and reflections

Throughout the exercises pointers in composition, lighting perspective and colour will be covered along with a host of tricks and techniques. With the small number of fellow-painters aboard there will be excellent opportunities for one to one instruction.

You will see the world with new eyes at the end of these five days!

"Classroom" locations

Most of the lessons will take place on board. On the daily shore excursions participants will have opportunities to do shorter sketches with pencil or pen and ink which may be coloured with watercolour washes.

Supplies

A detailed list of suggested supplies will be sent to each participant upon request or once you have joined the cruise.

Eligibility

For someone who is new to watercolour there will be some opportunity to learn basics, but the exercises will be primarily aimed at an intermediate level. Mark will be happy to discuss with you any concerns you may have regarding your skill level.

About Mark Hobson

Best known as one of the coast's most celebrated artists, Mark Hobson is also a trained biologist, former park ranger and high school teacher. His love of nature and of people has enthralled Maple Leaf guests for decades.

Mark lives in Tofino, B.C. and has painted professionally for just over 20 years. His paintings of the wildlife and landscapes of the B.C. coast are created in a remote float house studio surrounded by the natural beauty of Clayoquot Sound.

His work has won international awards and been featured in shows as far afield as Europe and Hong Kong. The National Geographic Society included his work in a display at their headquarters in Washington D.C. in 2002 and his designs have graced 3 coins produced by the Royal Canadian Mint. In 2003 and 2005 his underwater images won the Pacific Salmon Foundation's stamp competition, and appeared on B.C. salt water fishing licences. Mark was chosen as the Ducks Unlimited Artist of the Year in 2006.

A fascination with the natural world and overseas travel has combined to his leading tours to places such as the Galapagos, Costa Rica and the Arctic. A strong advocate for wilderness, Mark has been involved in several environmental campaigns and in the donation of hundreds of images to conservation efforts around the world.

About the Gulf Islands in Spring

There is no better way to celebrate the return of spring than sailing among these eclectic islands in south-western British Columbia.

While the rest of the North is still clothed in a blanket of winter, the Gulf Islands burst with life - from the green flames of new growth to meadows of bright flowers and the exuberant, noisy clamour of seals, whales and birds flocking around millions of spawning herring.

The first warmth of the season begins an amazing chain of natural events. In the ocean, huge blooms of plankton provide feed for millions of herring swimming inshore to spawn on beaches. A host of predators come to the feast. California sea lions, Steller's sea lions and harbour seals gorge themselves in the schools and herring balls. Transient Orcas hunt this abundance of marine mammals.

As tons of surplus herring spawn washes onto the beaches, flocks of birds gather on water and onshore. Scores of eagles, huge rafts of scoters, Brandt geese, grebes, loons, Brandt's cormorants, and dozens of other species abound.

Onshore, meadows are carpeted with wild flowers...white Easter lilies, pink sea blush, purple camas, Blue-eyed Mary. All shine against a spring-green palette.

Here, a rare Garry Oak ecosystem offers plants seen nowhere else in the world, including magically twisting oaks and the arbutus whose beautiful red limbs inspired the Coast Salish people to name it 'the naked tree'.

Fresh spring breezes make for some brisk sailing, and we also get generous portions of sunshine. The sandstone shorelines of the islands have been eroded into fantastic whorls by the sea. A stunning variety of sea life is found here...brightly coloured sea stars, crabs, clams and seaweeds.

About the Schooner Maple Leaf

The Maple Leaf is a classic B.C. tall ship. Built in Vancouver in 1904, she was the first ship north of San Francisco with electric lights. She has a rich history of operation on the B.C. coast and an enviable reputation as both a beautiful and sea-worthy vessel.

At 92 feet long, and built of coastal Douglas Fir on Yellow Cedar, she is strong and gorgeous. For more information and images of the Maple Leaf, click About Maple Leaf above.