TouchWood Editions, 144 pp, $44.95, hardcover.

Painter, Paddler: The Art and Adventures of Stewart Marshall is the book that fans of author (and Georgia Straight columnist) Andrew Scott have long awaited. Marshall provides exactly the right subject matter for Scott to tackle in this, his third full-length outing.

The work continues the themes of journey and discovery along B.C.'s shores that Sunshine Coast ­based Scott mined in his B.C. Book Award ­winning Secret Coastline (Whitecap Books, 2000). In fact, the opening chapter in that book was a cameo of Marshall, a Montreal-born illustrator and inveterate globetrotter who began sketching West Coast landscapes in pencil and watercolour in the early 1960s. Marshall quickly sensed an affinity with the late Toni Onley, who himself had recently arrived in Vancouver from England. Marshall was amazed to find that the two, who had never been in contact and were unaware of each other, could be producing works that were so similar and yet bore no resemblance to anything else at that time.

Scott was drawn to Marshall not only for his exceptional artistic talent (in the late 1970s, Scott was the visual-arts reviewer for the Vancouver Sun ) but equally because of a shared passion for kayaking and storytelling. In a bid to cut his overhead to the bone, Marshall built his first kayak in the 1970s, packed his art supplies aboard, and, much like Onley--who flew a light plane to isolated backcountry locations where he could paint in solitude--paddled off along the coast for distances of as much as 1,600 kilometres on routes that stretched from Vancouver Island to Alaska. Along the way, he accumulated the adventures that fuel Scott's vivid narrative, which rates equal billing with the colour reproductions of 55 paintings and silkscreens, many given full-page treatment. In turn, the story will undoubtedly provide readers with tall tales to recount to others wherever weather-beaten trekkers gather.

Andrew Scott is a finalist for the Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice Award, which will be awarded at the B.C. Book Prizes next Saturday (May 1).