
Upcoming Independent Exhibition
DAVID A. HAUGHTON
Two Havens: Paintings of Rebecca Spit and Mackenzie Beach
September 25 to October 8, 2025.
Noon to 5 pm daily.
Tuesday and Friday until 8 pm.
Thirty-seven exuberant, colorful new pain.ngs that focus on iconic features of the landscape of two of Haughton’s most cherished havens in BC: MacKenzie Beach near Tofino and Rebecca Spit Park on Quadra Island.
Haven: a place where one is free from intrusion; see also: refuge, retreat, shelter, sanctuary.
30 years ago I was introduced to a small resort on Quadra Island, across the water from Rebecca Spit Park - a place of remarkable beauty and calm. Around the same Rme Lyne, my future second wife, frustrated and roiled by her work in Emergency Medicine, discovered MacKenzie Beach near Tofino. It proved to be a refuge to which she could return for weeks each year to regroup and recharge.
A few years later, in the midst of the sadness and confusion that marked the end of my first marriage, I returned to Quadra, now as a single dad, with my child and my visiRng parents. Struck again by the peaceful loveliness of the landscape, I resolved to return yearly with child, family and friends, thereby building a set of shared memories. Lyne and I met and during the 25 years since we merged our lives we shared our personal havens and confirmed a tradiRon of biphasic travel. Each winter we journey to MacKenzie Beach during storm season. Each summer finds us with family and friends on Quadra Island walking the length of Rebecca Spit before dawn.
In each haven I have found an iconic feature that inspires each Rme I visit.
• In the surf off of MacKenzie Beach lie two small Rdal islands with trees twisted and bent by
onshore storm winds.
• On Rebecca Spit the aligned blue-black silhoue_es of old-growth Douglas fir trees at the edge
of the ocean are outlined by the pre-dawn light pouring over the Coastal Mountains.
Each year, when I visit each haven, I am compelled to paint new versions of these same moRfs - tweaking size, format, viewpoint and light. I seek genius by small increments.