Spring Updates and a Free Colouring Page

As an artist (and a human) it is important to be flexible and adapt to a changing environment and an evolving vision. I am quite grateful that I have always been adaptable, and done a lot of different things in my life. It’s made me quite optimistic in general, and given me appreciation for the little things. Since moving back to Victoria, I have traded in my boat for bikes and boots, have spent more time in the forests, mountains and roads than on the ocean and I have been loving it. I am experiencing the earth from a different lens, discovering new (and re-igniting old) passions, making new friends and moving my body much more than I ever have. Life is just generally freakin’ awesome!

My work goals for this year included working more on my own projects, my brand refresh, and getting myself ‘out there'. All of which I am in the process of. I am excited to announce that my application was accepted for the Filberg Festival this year. It is a huge 3 day event in Comox from August 4-6. I have been to it many times, but never as a vendor so I am really excited to participate in that. Although I would say I am generally fairly introverted, I really enjoy getting the opportunity to talk with people. This means I have to step up my game and get some new work done which is VERY motivating, and a prompt to get my own projects done (one of those goals)!! I have also applied for the TD Art Gallery Paint-In. It was so much fun last year that Im crossing my fingers I get in again. I am also humming and hawing about the Make It Market in Vancouver for December. My application was accepted, but 4 days around Christmas means a LOT of product so I am trying to decide it is right for me. Please feel free to share any input on it if you have any. I haven’t been to a Vancouver Market so it’s more of a gamble for me and an expensive few days in the big city. I am pretty excited for ‘work’ this year… lots of things to think about and plan!

In the meantime though, I will be out of the studio from April 16 to May 9th. Heading off to Spain and Italy to fill up my creative well, ride my bike, hike some trails, eat some pasta and gelato, drink some wine, and doodle…and doodle… and doodle… planning my work for all the summer festivities! It’s all about a healthy work/life balance no?

///

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!

Happy Holidays - Colouring Page and December Events News

I’m late! I’m late! Wow… this fall/winter has been such a scattered mess of projects and ideas that it’s already December 5th and I haven’t uploaded my colouring page yet! I suppose it’s bad enough I have no new cards or calendars this year for you either!! So sorry! Sometimes it just is’t going to happen (yes you will notice some similarities in my colouring page as well… haha).

So on that note… there are a couple of cool things happening this month.

There are only a few days left to bid on TWO fundraising auctions that I am participating in. One is over at 1% For The Planet. I am auctioning off a Limited Edition ‘Coastal Hunters’ 16x20 Giclée print! This auction wraps up December 9th so get your bid in while you can!

The other one is ‘Friends of Pacific Wild’ #wildauction2019 in support of Pacific Wild’s Fundraising campaigns to conserve and protect the Great Bear Rainforest. Auction Week will be December 2-6, with the auction closing at 5pm December 6. Head over to Instagram to see the original 12x12 piece I created specifically for this event.

If that isn’t enough, I am also participating in the second Pacific Board Art Show over in Cumberland Friday December 6th. I will have a couple of hand painted skateboards for sale at this event. Sounds like its going to be a fun night! Art show with LOTS of cool creatives, live music, and the whole town is taking part in the Little Village Light Up. It also happens to be a fundraiser too… they all seem to be happening this month!!

I’ve also got some cool client projects happening too - book illustrations, logos, posters and an apparel collaboration. So as you can imagine, I had to pull out of the Christmas Winter Artisan Market this year. Sorry to all who were wanting new card designs or calendars… next year… next year.

There is a fun little piece of news though. I decided to sacrifice any chance of a winter vacation, and spend the money on a new printer (and not just any printer) a large format, pigment ink (archival ink), Giclée printer!! I was finding that with the costs to get high end prints printed, I was more hesitant to do smaller runs of archival prints. My lack of storage, and remote location (can’t just quickly drop in to the print shop) is also an issue. This will allow me try more images that I wouldn’t normally get printed. It will also allow me to give my smaller prints a more personal touch. Larger ones and cards will still be done through my favourite crew over at Art Ink Print. :) My little ‘Paperboat Press’ is sitting buried under half painted skateboards and paint until I can get through my list of projects. Looking forward to experimenting with it when I can get to it. haha! 2020 is going to be fun!

I am also admittedly excited to be back to working on the boat! My studio space wasn’t quite working out for me, and I honestly seem to work better in the chaos of my floating space. I decided to save the rent, and go back to working around Rowan’s homeschooling and Adam’s galley/salon building (keep it simple… sort of). It’s weird what we get acclimatized to. That being said… we do have a new stove and almost a salon/work table so our wheelhouse is getting closer to finished!

Anyhow, on that rambling note. A very BIG THANK YOU to all of my supporters this year… it keeps me going on doing what I love to do! I am super excited for 2020 and all it may bring.

And don’t forget to use CHEER2019 if you go to my card for 20% off for the next couple of weeks.

Wishing you all a warm and happy holiday season!!!