(click image to enlarge)

(click image to enlarge)

I quote from the book: "In Looking West over Quamichan Lake, Hughes employed foreground elements, the foliage at the upper right, and the fence and grasses (with one flowering plant) at the bottom, to establish a visual immediacy, but his real challenge was to make the extensive middle ground interesting.

The lake itself is in the distance and the "subject" of the work is the play of light on the fields. The almost obsessive attention to detail is visible in the brushstrokes that represent grasses and other plants. The broad expanse, which reads horizontally, is balanced by the more distant striped field, which reads vertically. This is a superb example of Hughes seeing visual interest where most of us would see nothing of merit.

The fact that he concentrates our attention on the field of grass rather than the more picturesque elements of the composition reveals his ongoing interest in challenging his own and the viewer's perceptions of beauty in the world.

Hughes produced many watercolours throughout the 1990s, and continues to do so. Most are superb reworkings of earlier subject matter."

The gate in the foreground is on Maple Bay Road. In the background is Mt. Prevost which dominates the Cowichan valley near Duncan on Vancouver Island.

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Hughes also played with the fall of light, casting heavy and space-defining shadows on the tree trunk but fewer shadows on the ground below. He carefully worked out the composition to emphasize the recession into space, even eliminating a boat that was at the left in the original drawing. Finally the painting is a close study of tone and colour: there must be at least ten shades opf blue and an equally subtle range of greys, from blue-grey to grey-black and purple-grey. The work has an almost palpable sense of reality, but the fact that it "feels real is entirely due to Hughes' art."

This ferry is approaching Crofton on Vancouver Island. It has come from Vesuvius, a village on Saltspring Island which can be seen behind the ferry. In the distance can be seen the coastal mountains, including the twin peaked Lions, of the mainland.

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The Beach at Cherry Point is a fine example of the beginning of this tendency in his work. The sweeping line of the beach recalls the dramatic bow shape of Qualicum Beach (1948), but here the sweep of the bay is much more naturalistic.

The light expanse of the water and beach are balanced against the dark strip of the trees. The cloud-filled sky gives the silhouetted trees a three-dimentional quality and sense of volume."

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The eye wanders through the composition progressing from the foreground wild flowers to the slowly moving river and the opposite shore.

As the result of the intense observation and concentration that characterize all of his best work, Beside the Koksilah River has a rightness and completeness to it. Hughes made a painting that is immediately satisfying and that upon repeated viewing, rewards us with new discoveries, such as the wonderfully awkward shapes of the cattle, the floating leaves on the river, the tiny building in the distance (a sawmill), the silhouetted tree atop the highest point of Mount Tzouhalem.

All these may not be seen on first viewing, but all contribute to the complete world that Hughes created."

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The detail of the boats is rich, and the use of colour is varied and lively. The water surface in the sheltered area behind the wharf is quite distinct from the open water beyond. Particularly satisfying are the reflections of the boats, among the most accomplished in his watercolours.

The composition is given visual order by the repeated patterns of the dock pilings in both the foreground and middle ground, and the balance between the verticals of the boat masts and the strong horizontal elements such as the log boom, reinforces this order. Finally the work is animated by an even, bright light, and by the suggestion of a slight breeze in the whitecaps on the water.

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