Finding a balance between work and play is a tough one for self employed individuals. One one hand you have the freedom to sneak out and go for a hike or bike ride at any point in the day, but there is always that underlaying feeling of “I should really be working right now”. The advantage of course is that because it is not a traditional “work day” you can schedule your work/life in accordance with the weather… which seems to be how I roll for the most part. The draw for forest bathing or getting out on the bike if the sun is shining is hard to resist, and luckily my creative time is is usually strongest before the sun comes out or later in the day. I have to silence that guilt voice that creeps in to tell me “you should be working right now” as otherwise, I’d be working all the time. All work and no play makes Claire a grumpy girl! A healthy dose of outside time has saved me in more ways than one. It refuels my creative flow, keeps me feeling healthy and fit (both mentally and physically), makes me appreciate nature and everything in it, and just all in all makes me grateful to be alive. I highly recommend it.
On the ‘work’ front, I have had lots of projects on the table this past month… still mostly for clients. I was accepted into the TD Paint-In (formerly known as the Moss St Paint In) this year so I am in the process of coming up with an action plan of attack for that. What do you think? Prints, cards? Another run of hand painted hats? After 2 years of no markets, it is going to be fun to get out there and chat with folks again in that environment! It is on July 16th from 11-6pm so be sure to come and find me and say hi!
I also have some exciting news coming next week, but I can’t say anything… yet! Stay tuned on my Instagram (@utchichi) as I will be sure to share the release! And yeah, sorry I’m not much of a social media poster… I keep trying to commit to a plan for that as I know there is value, but there’s just so much junk on all the social media channels these days that its hard to see the forest through the trees (and I’d rather go out and see real trees). 😏
May also held Pacific Wild’s Wild Auction Annual Fundraiser. Thanks to all who supported all the artists by bidding on their art. My piece “Sunrise Bear” was bought outright in the first half hour which made me feel really good! Thanks you so much to whomever you are!!!! <3
Thats about it for shareable updates! I had a little fun with this months colouring page. I was working on some spot illustrations for Pacific Wild and was having fun drawing the details on the Rockfish… I figured you may have fun colouring them!
Happy June… get outside!!
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For those who are new to my site, each month I offer free west coast inspired colouring pages that are published and distributed in Tofino Time Magazine. They are also available for download as a high resolution PDF here (scroll down to the button below). If you would like them to come straight to your inbox when I occasionally send out a newsletter, please sign up for my mailing list (yeah, that annoying pop up). Personally I hate getting a bunch of spamming emails, so I promise to keep it to a maximum of once a month (more like once every 4 haha)! Please feel free to download them for personal use. If you are a restaurant, school, organization or business that wants to print them for your clients, customers (or to keep their kids happy) or students then I am totally fine with that too. All I ask is you leave my contact info at the bottom of the page please. Enjoy!
