Paul Lewis describes himself as a multimedia artist who also loves to paint.
"I鈥檓 nowhere near Robert Bateman鈥檚 realistic wildlife and nature paintings but I know my stuff looks like a photograph. It's pretty good.鈥�
Seven years ago, he traded his canvas paint brushes for drills and screws creating art from driftwood 鈥� his new favourite medium.
Lewis stumbled upon driftwood art in 2018 while walking around Esquimalt Lagoon. There, he saw the 鈥楳cGnarly the Beach Ent鈥� sculpture by fellow artist Alex Witcombe.
That chance encounter with McGnarly inspired him to create his very first sculpture using his brother鈥檚 drill along with a big box of screws. An experience that taught him a couple of lessons in his newfound craft.
"I made my first sculpture in March 2018 鈥� the bald eagle. I remember going down and collecting shells on the other end of Colwood waterfront because I had this big thing about shells, but for every single one that I drilled through, I must have snapped 10. It was just so frustrating ... everybody loved it, but it was garbage.鈥�
He vowed never to use shells again.
Lewis also learned to build his stuff on top of the highest king tide 鈥� in the safe zone to protect his work from being destroyed by water, a lesson he learned from Witcombe.
鈥淚 built the bald eagle down on the beach and the tide destroyed it. I was picking up pieces for over about a month."
His work has evolved since then.
"I've learned over the years how to make my sculptures more lifelike and that's been a journey in itself.鈥�
To date, he鈥檚 made over 200 pieces of driftwood sculptures, 16 of which are currently displayed along the waterfront: a raven and a baby, Canadian geese and babies, an eagle and a baby, a trumpeter swan, racoon and babies, Douglas squirrel, belted kingfisher, grey squirrel, barred owl and a snowy owl.
All of the animals he has created, with the exception of the five Sasquatches, are usually seen around the Esquimalt Lagoon.
He spends roughly three days creating each piece of art.
Out of all his creations, he cites the 鈥楨agles鈥� Nest鈥� at the Juan de Fuca Recreation Centre down by the golf course as his favourite.
"It's my son, Braedon's memorial piece. He passed away a couple of years ago. The baby eagle has my son's ashes in it. Mommy eagle, which represents Delaney, my ex, is on a big salmon in the nest. And Daddy eagle, he's got a 7-foot long wingspan and he's flying through the trees 鈥� that represents me.鈥�
Lewis says 鈥楨agles鈥� Nest鈥� is a work in progress. He鈥檚 adding two more eagles 鈥� one for Braedon鈥檚 older brother, Jordan, and another one for his mother who helped raise his son when he was away.
The 54-year-old award-winning artist says taking on driftwood sculpting has been a journey of transformation.
鈥淚t keeps me on the straight and narrow and it keeps me focused on good because I am in the public eye now, so I can't react like I used to and go off the hinges and just do something stupid. Plus, also I must protect what I've done down here so if I piss somebody off, guess what's gonna happen?鈥�
Lewis intends to create as many pieces as he can this year, one of which will be a cougar perched atop a tree and gazing down at a mother black bear.
"I won't paint it, so it'll be brown, hanging onto a tree with three little babies climbing up the tree.鈥�
On sunny days, Lewis drives down to Ocean Boulevard where he sets up his workshop table on the waterfront.
"A lot of times people don't know me when I'm down here. They're like, 'Oh my God, have you seen these?' I'm just like, yeah I've seen them and then I go, 'I'm actually the artist' ... like, what?鈥�
This is exactly the reason why he loves doing what he does.
"Just making people happy, to me, is the biggest thing. It really is.鈥�
