Denman Island – Year round creativity

Last year, we found ourselves returning again and again to Denman Island.  We came first in spring, for the weekend Home and Garden Tour and then the Pottery Tour. There’s magic in the unique homemade houses, the unexpected fields, the glimpses of ocean through forest. And the warmth of the welcome from the creative souls who shared their homes, their art, and their lifestyles with us.

There are no tour guides for the weekend events so we discovered the Island on our own, following wonderfully clear maps and signs to hidden studios, kilns and flowerbeds.  We were glad to have a car for the summer Studio Tour, to reach dozens of artists scattered throughout the Island.  Even the car line-up for the small ferry can be magical, when the Purple Martins that nest by the dock take to the air with long swoops and musical chatter.

It was an easy walk to the autumn Blackberry Fair from the ferry dock, and in future I’ll starve myself all morning to make room for the extravaganza of pies made from local produce.  A few months later we walked to winter’s Christmas Crafts Fair, when Islander creativity and craftsmanship filled the wooden Community Hall, and a newer Hall nearby, and spilled onto the road with hot drinks and smoked salmon and enormous handmade wicker baskets.                –Lyn

Denman Island has been called an undiscovered Gulf Island, a tranquil rural retreat, a thriving artists’ retreat, and “a speed bump on the way to Hornby Island.”

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