Doug Giebelhaus met “Flyin’ Phil” St. Luke more than 20 years ago after moving to Parksville.
It wasn’t long before he became curious about the big friendly-looking guy walking up the highway and waving to passersby.
“I was driving to work and I’d see this guy and people are honkin’ their horns and waving. And I thought, ‘who is this guy?’” Giebelhaus said.
One of his friends told him, “oh that’s Flyin’ Phil.”
“And then I finally got to meet him,” Giebelhaus said. “This guy, he’s just the nicest guy and just a gentle friendly guy and inviting.”
He got to know St. Luke over the years, bumping into him countless times, and later immortalized Phil with two paintings, which currently hang in the McMillan Arts Centre (MAC) in Parksville.
One captures St. Luke with his characteristic two thumbs up pose and the other shows him beating a drum while leading the Parksville Canada Day parade in 2016, his favourite memory.
“Seeing him playing the drum in the Canada Day Parade, that’s always been a highlight of every summer, seeing him in there,” Giebelhaus said.
READ MORE: City plans ‘Flyin’ Phil’ celebration of life for June 9
Giebelhaus is part of a city council-approved committee working towards fundraising a statue of Phil for downtown Parksville. He said there was a previous campaign to collect signatures in support of a statue several years ago when St. Luke was alive. This brought out many stories and memories of St. Luke, from just about every demographic you can think of.
“It’s something special to the town and that’s something that, as an artist, something that I observed and that I wanted to capture and shine a light on with the painting,” Giebelhaus said. “It’s something special not just for a small group of people or whatever, it’s the entire town.”
Giebelhaus wanted to emphasize that the exhibition is not about him and it’s about the bonds between the community and St. Luke.
“It’s about their personal relationship that they had with Phil. Sometimes people will be looking at the paintings and they’ll be talking about stories and their time they had with Phil,” he said.
His painting of St. Luke at the parade was displayed at the Old School House Arts Centre several years ago. Giebelhaus was not there to see St. Luke’s reaction, but was told his friend was moved by it and teared up at the sight.
Another good memory is how St. Luke used to mix up his name in a funny way.
“He would call me Bill. So we were Phil and Bill,” Giebelhaus said with a chuckle. “He’d always introduce me to his friends or whatever, ‘this is my artist friend’.”
Giebelhaus said he was introduced to painting by a friend when they played guitar in a band together. He thought it seemed like a fun thing to do and since then his work has been featured on the cover of the What’s On! magazine and the season two finale of Chesapeake Shores, which filmed in the PQB area until last year. Giebelhaus even appeared as an extra on the show.
His two paintings of St. Luke will be on display at the MAC (133 McMillan St.) until the June 9 city-hosted community celebration of St. Luke’s life at the Parksville Outdoor Theatre.
St. Luke died Jan. 13 at 70-years-old.
There is more information about the statue fundraising committee and ways to donate on Giebelhaus’ website flyinphil.ca. Check out more of Giebelhaus’ work on his personal website Paintings by Doug.
