VANCOUVER ISLAND FINE ART GALLERY

Vancouver Island gallery collection by fine art photographer Michael Andrejkow. Sought after by private collectors, galleries and businesses. Michael’s award winning artworks are perfect for decorating your home, business or office space with fine art photography. The Vancouver Island collection is offered in a limited edition, luxury fine art, face mount acrylic finish starting in sizes of 36 inches wide.

Located only an hour and a half by ferry sailing from the British Columbia mainland, Vancouver Island sometimes feels like a world away. Drawn to the island’s spectacular natural beauty, Michael has made it his home and has spent years exploring this marvel of the natural world. Named after Royal Navy Captain George Vancouver who first explored its coastal waterways, bays and inlets in 1792. The island has a population of just under 865,000 people as of 2021, with almost half living in Victoria, its largest city and British Columbia’s capital.

Located in the broader region known as the Pacific Northwest, the island is surrounded by the Salish Sea to the east, the Juan de Fuca Strait to the south and the Pacific ocean to the west. It is a true ocean lover’s paradise. To the east of the island lies the British Columbia mainland and Washington State. To the south the Olympic Peninsula. At a length of over 450km (279mi) and 100km (62mi) in width, the island is the largest off the west coast of North America. Running along the length of the island, is the Vancouver Island Ranges, a towering mountain spine reaching heights of over 2km(1.24mi) at its highest points. Located in Strathcona Provincial Park, the oldest provincial park in British Columbia, is the Golden Hinde, the tallest mountain on the island. It measures 2,195m (7201ft) and is named after the ship of explorer Sir Francis Drake who spotted it in 1579. Strathcona Provincial Park is also home to Della Falls, the tallest waterfall in all of Canada at a height of 440m (1440ft).

As one of the wettest meetings of sea and land in the world, the island boasts some of the highest annual rainfall amounts found anywhere north of the tropics. Due to the rain shadow effect created by the mountains on the island and the Coast Mountains on the British Columbia mainland, winter months are legendary for weeks of overcast conditions as weather systems move inland of the ocean and unleash amazing amounts of rain. All this precipitation creates one of the densest, most unique biological areas found anywhere on planet earth. The island’s temperate rain forests are home to some of the largest tree specimens in the world. The record holders include the Red Creek Fir, with a height of 73.8m (242ft) and a diamater of 4.2m (14ft), it is the largest Douglas Fir in the world. The Cheetwhat Giant, with a height of 55.5m (182ft) and a diamater of 6.1m (20ft) is the largest Western Red Cedar in the world and the largest tree in Canada. The Carmanah Giant, reaching a height of 95m (315ft) is the tallest Sitka Spruce in the world and the tallest tree in Canada. The climate that gave rise to this amazing ecosystem was influenced by even more powerful geological forces over millions of years.

Vancouver Island is located on the Ring of Fire, a geologically active area where continental tectonic plates meet. This slow motion crustal collision, over millions of years of geological time, gave rise to the mountains seen in the area today. It is a region characterized by powerful mountain building processes, volcanological and seismic events. Some of the world’s most powerful earthquakes have occured not far offshore in the Cascadia subduction zone. The forces that have played out over eons and shaped the island’s geography as we know it today will continue for eons to come.

What initially drew Michael to the island was its spectacular natural beauty, its peaceful coastal waterways, old growth temperate rain forests and snow capped mountain peaks. It is the same things that attract visitors from around the world to this day. Now you can bring the beauty of the island home. Please enjoy browsing the Vancouver Island art gallery collection below and do not hesitate to get in touch with any questions you may have.