CBC Radio interview

I'll be totally honest. And this may not sound good to some.

When I'm completely surrounded by nature, secluded and engulfed by her beauty, and I hear or see humans approaching, my first response is to cringe. My second thought is, please don't come over here. Then usually followed by, if I ignore them, maybe they won't talk to me.

By my own admission, that makes me sound antisocial and weird.

To clarify, it's not that I don't like people. That's not it at all. I'm just 100 percent more interested in what I'm looking at and trying to capture. And I don't like being taken from that moment. Call me an eccentric artist. I can live with that.

However, when Chris Walker from CBC's Daybreak South spotted me on the side of White Lake Road and asked me a few questions, that was different. He's with CBC. I love CBC. Its pretty much the only relevant station in the Lower Okanagan. Or, in Canada for that matter.

It just happened to be at the exact moment when the sun was setting. For anyone who's actually watched a sunset - and I don't mean, "Oh there goes the sun...", but actually stared at the sky for the 30-45 minute time period, there's a myriad of color changes. I've always been captivated by how the whole sky can change from blue, to light blue, to orange, to pink, to red, to purple. And how that light dances off the clouds is the most beautiful thing to witness. I think about how I can capture 1/10th of that beauty with oil paint. That's why I do what I do. It's an attempt to capture that beauty. That moment. And it keeps me coming back every day.

Then Chris walked up. I tried to give him my attention, and I should have given more. But what I did give was possibly more important. He caught me in THAT moment. And although I didn't look at him much while I was talking and just kept painting, I was able to share that moment with him.

Here's the interview...