Calligraphic cobblestonesRoche Harbor, San Juan Island, WA

San Juan Island bricks sketch by Chandler O'Leary

Roche Harbor is a hidden little pocket on San Juan Island, with impeccably preserved turn-of-the-century buildings, picturesque lime kiln ruins, a pristine saltwater inlet, and wharf buildings that hearken back to some (perhaps slightly revisionist) halcyon era gone by. Yet I had to force myself to even look at those things, let alone sketch them—because I would have been perfectly content to spend all day staring down at my feet.

Pin it!
Related Posts:
Ghost domes Forgotten canyon Summer of Solitude
Get a print of this sketch!

Comments (4)

  1. Marialena

    I love floors, cobblestones, pavements. But I find it eerie to see my surname in these cobblestones. At all. Much less repeated. Clues?

    1. Chandler O'Leary Post author

      Wow, you’re right, Marialena! That name jumped out at me, too, but because it’s shared by a Canadian painter I’ve always admired, and it seemed to fit that I was also painting. (The painter in question was from nearby Victoria, BC, so maybe the bricks were made by a family company? More clues!)

      1. Marialena

        Emily Carr? People delighted in educating me about her when I lived on the opposite Canadian coast years ago. Lovely work. Clues everywhere… And they fit different mysteries for each discoverer.

Comments are closed.