ABOUT Metchosin Ocean Art is a year-long parade of participation art events reflecting on the ways of water, its landmarks, and journey toward the ocean that surrounds us here on Vancouver Island, BC, Canada.
Explore single drop of water: As a trickle, a puddle, a stream, a river, a pond, a marsh, a lake, the mist, rain, clouds, in the veins of all living things—plants, animals, and people. The same water circulates forever: saliva – an ice crystal – fracking oil – washing mud – an olive leaf – a raptor’s blood: shape-shifting earth’s salt oceans and sweet tea. The artworks we share in making are also like water in their ability to build momentum and shape-shift.
We start with painting, one drop at a time, and the work will transform over the following year into: a tapestry, mural, sculpture, installations, banners, flags, carpets to host conferences on ocean learning.
EVENTS
Tuesday, April 22, 2025
EARTH DAY: Ocean Art Parade of Events
Self-Guided Ocean Art Walks from Metchosin Arts and Culture Centre to the Ocean at Witty’s Beach, Metchosin, Vancouver Island.
The Ocean Art Walk begins at the Metchosin Arts and Cultural Centre (MACC), with an 11:00 orientation, map and tour of the exhibitions – FLOW: Where Water Leads Us at the Point of View (POV) Gallery and AIR: Exploring Our Place in the Atmosphere at Metchosin ArtPod.
From MACC, walk left onto Happy Valley Road, pass the Metchosin Corner Store, then turn left onto Metchosin Road to see historic St. Mary’s Church and Cemetery, known for its spring flowers.
Turn right onto Wootton Road to reach Sea Bluff Farm. With the farmer’s permission, enjoy special access through the farm between 11:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. (Regrets, no dogs allowed.) The Sea Breeze Outdoor Learning Shelter offers a resting place and picnic table—bring a lunch or share potluck-style. Please pack out what you bring in.
Sea Bluff: Launch of the FireSmart Invasive Species Scotch Broom Removal, hosted by Spirit Bay at 12:00 p.m.
Then, participate in the family-friendly Flower Power—a hands-on community painting inspired by the spring colours blooming across Metchosin. Create and paint using brushes made from Scotch Broom!
12:30–1:30 p.m. – Join a guided tour with Sasha Kubicek at Sea Bluff Farm to learn about native pollinator hedgerows, seed beds, and Garry Oak meadows—along with restoration techniques and ways to support pollinators.
Exit the farm on Witty’s Beach Road turning right and continue down the forested road to Witty’s Lagoon Regional Park, where a trail leads to a breath-taking ocean view and stairs to beach. At low tide, explore vast sand flats and tide-pool marine life, shifting vegetation, and sculpted coastal cliffs.
On your return walk along Witty’s Beach Road, enjoy roadside folk art installations, then complete the loop back via Happy Valley Road. Watch for Chosin Pottery, a well-known ceramic studio set in a Japanese garden.
Throughout the walk, discover artworks in progress—including Fish Run sidewalk murals by Art Brendon, Flower Power painting at Sea Bluff Farm, and a photography project in progress by Edward Peck and Phyllis Schwartz—while taking in Metchosin’s vibrant wild life: native flowers, butterflies, bees, berries, trees, lichens, mushrooms, succulents, and moss.
Whether you walk the full route or pause along the way, we invite you to slow down, look closely, breathe deeply, and explore our place in the atmosphere.
Ocean Art Parade of Events
With MACCA, ArtPod, Sc’ianew Youth, Sea Bluff Farm, and CRD Arts
Information: MetchosinOceanArt.substack.com / initiative of @DyanMarie
March 15 – April 26, 2025
FLOW. WHERE WATER LEADS US
Point of View Gallery / Metchosin Arts and Cultural Centre
FLOW, installed at the Point of View Gallery (POV), features a collective painting created over the past year with wide community participation. The artwork explores the movement and circulation of water on its journey to the ocean. Timed to celebrate Earth Day, the installation weaves together six previous community creation events: WHIRLPOOL, OCEAN ART: Tribal Journeys, MAKING WAVES, FALLING WATER, WATER WAYS, and WONDERS OF WATER. This collaborative ocean art and ecology project honours the waters that surround us and invites engagement with the local environment.
Saturday, December 14th, at 1:00 PM
PEACE JOY PARADE
Metchosin Arts and Culture Center (MACCA)
Join us for a festive walk through the Metchosin Arts and Culture Center, led by Chris van de Water and contemporary dancer Maple Hunter, along with friends. All are welcome to participate and enjoy a visit to the Very Merry Makers Market, Metchosin ArtPod Gallery, ReImagine Swap and Shop, and more.
WaveWand Ribbon-Making Station
From 12:00–1:00 PM at the MACCA office, create your own ribbon strip to wave in the parade! Free ribbon strips will also be available for anyone joining the Peace & Joy Parade.
PEACE & JOY SQUARED and OCEAN ART
Presented by Metchosin ArtPod, the Metchosin Arts and Cultural Centre, and the CRD.
November 9, 2024
LET’S GET TOGETHER Share Skills, Make Things, Flags in Particular
11:00 AM to 3:00 PM, Metchosin Arts and Culture Center (MACCA), Event Room, Metchosin, Vancouver Island
A Saturday collaboration with artist-animators Diana Smith, Kim Money, Dyan Marie, Anita Doornekamp and others as they offer this skill-oriented, speed-learning/making event. •11:00 AM: Monoprints Diana Smith •12:00 PM: Multimedia painting Kim Money •1:00 PM: AI-generated images Dyan Marie •2:00 PM: Creation and installation of flag bunting. Apply your new techniques to create art flags including related to the worlds we share in Metchosin’s surrounding ocean, fields, farms and forests. For inclusion in: • Peace/Joy Squared installation of flags with ArtPod in the Metchosin Arts and Culture Centre’s Point of View Gallery from November 10 to December 25. • Participate in at the family-friendly Joy Parade throughout MACCA on December 14th, as part of MACCA’s seasonal program and as part od ArtPod’s extended Peace/Joy Squared exhibition. • Save and reuse your flags in the proposed Metchosin Ocean Art Parade, an art-embedded walk from MACCA to the ocean, through the village centre, farm trails, rural roads, the ocean beach, and forest paths. Summer 2025. Support and appreciation to the CRD, MACCA and ArtPod More information dyan@dyanmarie.com Updates: civicstudies.ca/ocean-art/ FREE All are welcome!
September 8, 2024 Metchosin Day – WHIRLPOOL
At Metchosin Day, community, families and friends contributed by painting continuous long lines of marks, representing water currents, waves, ripples, and whirlpools—efforts to reflect on the circulation of water and the majestic, mysterious ocean that surrounds our island. Among the obstacle course for pet chickens at Metchosin Day—a yearly rural festival here since 1967—and the sheep shearing demonstration, giant zucchini races, dog show, and competitions for the cutest pig, biggest cabbage, strangest carrot, dance, music, and goodwill, we added another 42 feet to our Ocean Art Parade painting at the Artpod station. Overall, the artwork now stretches 132 feet and aims, in the spirit of country flare, to be the longest painting on Vancouver Island.
August 14, 2024 MAKING WAVES
Participation project with Sc’ianew Youth Group, discussion about the circulation of and painting of ocean waves. Sc’ianew First Nation Lands / Beecher Bay
August 10, 2024 FALLING WATER Performance:
Launching with a “Falling Water” performance, danced as a single drop of water, as rain, as a storm, with “Falling Water” that paints a stream. Participation Art: An open invitation to join in and continue creating a shared project to paint a stream, drop by drop in falling water. Metchosin Arts and Culture Centre.
August 24, 2024 Tribal Journey’s Sc’ianew Landing
Ocean Art Painting Project as one of the reception events for the annual Tribal Journey’s Sc’ianew canoes landing. Beecher Bay / Sc’ianew Lands
July 1, 2024 WATER WAYS
Painting event to explore the circulation of water at Festavas, a July 1st community festival at Metchosin Arts and Culture Centre.
April 12, 2024 WONDERS OF WATER
A participatory sculpture of close looking at water, featured in the group exhibition Wonders of Water at Metchosin Artpod, a rural artist-run, community gallery in the village of Metchosin, BC, Canada.
Project by artist Dyan Marie, with participation and or support from Metchosin Arts and Culture Centre, Metchosin ArtPod, Sc’ianew Youth, The CRD, BC Hydro, and arts, culture, ecology, and community members.