My brother and his family have lived on Vancouver Island for over 10 years now, which means I’ve visited the rainy and densely forested island in British Columbia, Canada, over a dozen times now. While the island has some beautiful natural scenery, there’s only so much hiking, kayaking, camping (insert random nature activity here) a girl can do before she’s looking for something a little different to do. Making it even more tricky is the fact that my brother lives in a small town far from the island’s biggest city, Victoria (read: where all the action is). The town he lives in is quaint and a decent place to raise a family, but teeming with unique things to see and do it is not.
That was why, on one of my recent trips to Vancouver Island, I was happy to discover Chemainus; a village that is home to 40 large outdoor murals and 13 art sculptures. If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of free activities and public art, so Chemainus was right up my (um, painted) alley.
According to Wikipedia, Chemainus was once a logging town, but after its large sawmill closed in the 1980s, the village made the wise move to market itself as a tourist town. Local artists were commissioned to use the shops and restaurants as canvases to create intricate murals that depicted the history of the Cowichan Valley and the Chemainus mural project was born.
When my mom and I explored the village, it was Christmas time and a lot of the restaurants and shops were closed. But I imagine this would be a cute place to wander in the summer time.
Below are just a few of the murals.
