Enchanted by nature, Peter Varga has a deep respect for the natural world. As a professional landscaper/gardener, he has spent his career observing nature and being outside.

Growing up in a small logging community on northern Vancouver Island, British Columbia, his family enjoyed canoeing, fishing, camping and skiing.

Peter worked as a forestry crewman walking the coastal forests. As an orchardist and arborist he spent ten years in the southern Okanagan region of British Columbia. His love of trees led him to travel and gain experience in horticulture, silviculture, and bio-dynamic farming practices.

This need to record seasonal change led to hours of drawing and taking notes. Sketching helped to discover water colour. Influenced by his mother, an oil painter, and his father, a draftsman, quick washes of colour enhanced field drawings. Figure drawing attracted him to sculpture, wood being a favoured medium.

Peter is known for his drawings, paintings and carvings, depicting people and animals in a natural setting. His love of design shows in his rustic furniture and decorative carvings, enhancing other artists’ work and his own.

Peter resides with his wife Theresa on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, Canada.

About the Duck.

I worked on a beautiful acreage on the Fraser River Delta. When the property was developed a small lake was dug out for water storage, ponds and creeks were added to create flow. The acreage was planted with hundreds of mature hardwood trees. This lake being near the bird sanctuary and the south arm of the river, attracted migratory birds by the thousands. At dusk birds of many types would fill the lakes and fields. A high concentration of raptors attracted by the river and the migratory concentration of birds used the sheltered ditches, hedgerows and fields to hunt and nest.

The owners of the farm brought with them a white Peking duck, a family pet from their previous home. “Whitey”, as he became known, stood out from the smaller, dark wild ducks. You could spot him from very far away. A little larger than the wild immigrants, he ruled the lakes. Protected by the hedgerows and ditches, he thrived and bred with the visiting flocks. Soon many of his offspring returned to breed again, and the flocks there have – true to Canadian form – became mixed and interesting.

I worked on this property for twelve years and talked to that duck every day. Whitey would never leave the water after dusk, not even for food, and you could sense his anxiety on open ground. He would forage far inland during daylight ours only.

A great horned owl ate Whitey one winter. I only found his wings on the frozen lake. This duck lived to be between 20-25 years that I knew of, always outside, open to predators. A real tough bird.  Here’s to you Whitey.