Within a blink of an eye, winter is upon us! This year has been very challenging for people to connect. Now is the perfect time to send a holiday card! These 5 by 7 watercolour cards are printed on heavy stock kroger paper and come in white envelopes. Perfect size for sharing a few photos of your year.
All the colours of fall are so beautiful! I love looking around the lower mainland in the fall. The beautiful fall colours of greens turn orange and red.
It’s a new year! Time to cast off the dreadful shackles of 2020 and try out new things. No one saw how big the events of last year were going to hit us. We’ve all had to make some pretty big changes and sacrifices. I know the turning of a calendar page won’t change the world, but it does bring hope, and sometimes that’s all you need to get through to the next calendar page.
I haven’t been able to work this school year, as we’re home keeping my son safe. This holiday was set up to become smaller and quieter. I was thinking of just postponing it completely as my little one is still young enough to not know when Christmas was. My cousin Sally nominated our family to the wonderful people at Vibrant Yogi, who teamed up with Living Water’s Church in Langley to gift us this generous pile of treasures. Kelsey made our Christmas, and I’m ever thankful for all the work and kindness people showed our family.
My little guy was gifted many transforming robots and superheroes! I was blessed with new art supplies and I just had to start trying all the new things. Obviously, someone must have been an artist looking for supplies because include were things I always wanted, but never got for myself! Brushes, tons of paper, tape, and new metallic paint!
I delved into the land of ink! I became incredibly fixated with these 2 lions. The 1st in forest green, the 2nd in navy blue.
For 4 days straight, all I wanted to do was work on these pieces. It was very freeing to try something new and outside of my regular style of expression through watercolour. I’ve highly enjoyed it, and I see why Aaron Schallie enjoys the details that you can create. It was easy to get into a quiet zone during these dark chilly days and let the hours slip by into the ink and paper. I fairly excited to try many more new things and try out all the supplies! It almost feels like starting all over again.
The season of winter bliss is upon us! A lot of friends have been asking if I am going to create holiday cards. The tricky part is making them affordable to purchase multiples. I’m currently working on a possibility.
Winter holidays tend to carry so much meaning and emotion that I found this project daunting. What do people celebrate? How can I put that into paint? How do you capture the feelings that people have? Trying to paint for what someone else wants became baffling. and I had to stop. I had to just paint what I felt and hope people enjoyed it.
For me, the winter holidays are about family. Pretty vibrate colours among the white winter snow, and hope for the sun and light. And of course, a Peanuts Christmas. 🙂
I have found a lot of winter scenes quite challenging, as they are often bright from reflection and painting light continues to be a challenge for me. So far, these are my collection! Let me know what you think!
My little guy has many medical appointments, often they require going back to Children’s Hospital for them. Lotta tests, lotta weird hours, lotta thinking about the ‘what ifs’.
This past week we were pulling an all-day visit starting with sedated MRIs and blood work. Trying to keep a 3 year old steady enough to do an MRI is very difficult. He has had about 25 of these so far in his life. It used to be so much easier mentally when he was a baby and didn’t know what was going on. Now he’s reasonably afraid when he sees we’re going to the hospital. My little guy is a Champ. He’s afraid, but he keeps going because he’s a brave little guy.
After our first set of tests, we grabbed lunch and spent a little bit of time outdoors so he could run about for a bit. Currently, our air quality is ranked somewhere between Horrible and Mordor. Our playtime outdoors was short, and we went up to Oncology to wait. I took this opportunity to create a piece for the parent’s common room. While this part of the hospital is newer than where we lived, I wanted to brighten up the space that I know every parent wishes they didn’t need.
We got some great news from our Doctor. Kyler’s scans, tests, and blood all are looking stable, and we can now go from every 3 months, to every 6 months! This is wonderful news! I want to be excited for it, but at the same time, I know how fragile remission is. My son and I live for each moment, every silly giggle and song. You hold tight to Hope, because some days it’s all you have to hold on to. #SeptemberIsGoldForChildhoodCancerAwarness
This was the first time I’ve left a random piece of art for people to enjoy. If 2020 has shown us anything, it’s we need to spread joy and hope whenever and where ever we can. Expect more random art gifts!
Something dear to my heart is raising public awareness on the need for more funding towards Childhood Cancers. It’s an awkward subject, and if you’ve stayed to read this long, I hope you’ll enjoy my work.
September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month https://www.kidscancercare.ab.ca/childhood-cancer/stats
Each year, an estimated 300,000 children and adolescents worldwide are diagnosed with cancer
One in every 5 children diagnosed do not survive cancer.
Sometimes Hope is all we have to hold on to, finding a cure gives everybody hope that one day they will get to go home
This piece I make for my son Kyler, and our oncology family. May they live a long healthy and beautiful life
My joy, my mental break comes from the arts.
I’m going to be honest. I love butterflies. Love watching them, chasing them, and now painting them. Know what I don’t like? Feet.
True, mostly adult human feet, but bug feet are not much better. It’s possible that I never looked too closely at our fluttery friends.
I’ve been enjoying drawing outside while my little guy plays in the park. Many parents just stare at their phones, but that feels like a waste of time for me. My joy, my mental break comes from the arts. I highly recommend doing any of your hobbies outside if you can. Much like how food tastes so good when you’re camping, art just feels better outside.
Five minutes after I inked the body… My father pipes up, “You know… Butterflies’ legs don’t look like that.”
*Blink*
“You couldn’t have told me that 5 minutes sooner!?”
I still love this orange butterfly. I told this story to a friend an hour later getting ready for a hike. He takes a look at it, and says, “You know, butterflies are insects.”
“….yes… And?”
“Insects have 3 body parts.”
“Yah! The butterfly has 3 body parts and a head.”
“No… that’s not how it works.”
Thanks Barney.
The next day I was at it again. Refusing to give up! I started drawing at the next park. This time I checked, and double checked the body parts and leg placement. I created, Joy, the green butterfly. She loves to ride on bubbles kids blow in the park.
My flock is growing
Things have been challenging lately. Lots of medical uncertainties, and family being affected. Currently because of Covid if a family member of yours is admitted to the hospital you can not visit or stay with them while they are even in the ER. You can imagine why I know this for sure.
When I’m stressed, you can count on me doing 2 things well!
Eating, and Painting.
I’ll be damned if I didn’t find a way to do both at the same time. Something I think my buddy Russell the Blacksmith can not claim he can do. I am one of those strange folks who has to do something when I feel powerless to do anything.
I sat down with my paper and colours and what came out? Butterflies. Lots of butterflies. Fragile, tiny and beautiful butterflies. Much like Hope, you want it so badly, but know how quickly it can flutter well out of your reach.
My first butterfly was blue. Been feeling very blue lately. My mother was admitted to the hospital this day.
She was released to go home for the weekend, and my butterflies turned green.
Last night I had a quick visit with her and managed to be out in the park, see beautiful dancers spin pretty pretty lights and fire. My soul was appeased.
Today the butterflies multiplied and became multicoloured. Paint what you know? I believe I paint what I feel. My mother will soon have surgery, we are hopeful for the outcome. <3
About a month into me trying watercolour painting I created this sweet blue fox, and I had no idea at the time that people would react so positively towards my art. This little fox is the piece that encouraged me to feel like I could actually be an artist. Because of this little blue fox, I started creating prints and people loved her. I was able to bring beauty to other people’s homes for the first time and it has been an uplifting experience.
I’m happy to report that Sweet Blue Fox has found loving homes in 3 countries across the world so far! I believe that makes her an international star.
My journey into the world of art did not begin the way I thought it would. When my little guy was born three years ago we spent the next, over-half-a-year living in the hospital. There are no windows in many of my rooms so I started creating windows for him to tell him what the outside world would look like one day.
We lived there for three seasons, and I’m very thankful we didn’t go the full year. I love telling him about the colours of trees and the feeling of grass and the wonder of watching leaves blowing in the wind
…though it’s a long journey ahead I knew I was going to surround my son with the most beauty I could.
I found peace in my heart and my mind while I was working. The colours brought smiles to my baby and that gave me a hope. That one day my little super bunny would come home.
It was a joyous time when we finally got home and though it’s a long journey ahead I knew I was going to surround my son with the most beauty I could. I kept all of the art that I made while in the hospital and put them up along the walls.
