Floatplanes and Flags

About the Work

Floatplanes and Flags celebrates the city's most theatrical front door. On the wooden dock at Coal Harbour a floatplane rests with its propeller feathered, a second taxiing beyond, while a loose crew of pilots, dockhands and arriving fans in denim and flannel trade greetings along the planks. Across the harbour the downtown skyline stands hung with golden tournament banners, Harbour Centre's saucer marking the middle distance, and the mountains close the scene beneath a rolling summer sky full of gulls.

Pius paints arrival itself — the moment visitors step from water to city with the championship waiting up the street. The banners on the towers read from here as ribbons on a gift. It is a portrait of Vancouver playing host: informal, spectacular, and reachable by seaplane.

Process & Technique

Acrylic on textured board, the aircraft rendered in confident planes of white and silver with knife-cut edges, the harbour beneath broken into dabs of jade and navy. The skyline is scraped in vertically with a dry edge, then the yellow banners flicked over the top in single loaded strokes — bright confetti against the glass.