Happy New Year

What a wonderful thought it is that some of the best days of our lives haven't even happened yet.” - Anne Frank

Here we go again… the man made calendar has come around and many folks are rearing to crack into a fresh day planner with visions, goals, and resolutions for what we want to see in a new year. 2021 was a great year for me so I am not in a hurry to drastically change anything I am currently doing as it feels as if I am on the right path. Sure… I do plan to focus a little more on personal projects this year, lots more hiking adventures, oodles of time outdoors, packing even more kms on my bike, and of course much more quality time with family and friends. I am also getting a clearer picture of where I want to see my art biz go, and how to get there now that I am feeling pretty solidly settled here in Victoria. All in all, 2022 looks like its going to be pretty good and I am excited to see where it will go. I’ve already seen more inquiries for new client projects as folks are wanting to make sure things get done in time for spring with all the supply chain issues out there, so I definitely suggest connecting with me sooner rather than later if you’re looking to get some creative work done!

A huge thank you to everyone for your support this past year. It means a great deal to me, especially with such a crazy couple of years for everyone! May 2022 be full of awesomeness in your worlds!

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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 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.

KAKAWIN - Colouring Page

I am a little mind blown that it is September already. I can feel the chill in the air in the evenings now, and see that the sun doesn’t want to stay up as late anymore, and the dew is a little heavier too. I actually love September. It is a time for organization, routine and a feeling of productivity. This year has flown by, and I am sure it has felt that way for many of you too.

We are settled in our place in Victoria now. I’m already sad to be missing my morning harbour sunrises, my dock family, my friends (sorry if I didn’t say bye… I’m terrible at them), and my little stinky otter pals, but I’ll be back and forth… often (and I’m not THAT far away). Being a live aboard in the harbour for over 6 years was amazing, but certainly not without its challenges. I love living on boats…it keeps you so in tune with the weather and the tides, and the sleeps are the best (except maybe the 6 weeks of storms in the winter), and doing so for so many years has given me a huge appreciation for the little things that most take for granted (showers, laundry, full sized fridge, freezer, actual WORK SPACE with all my supplies under one roof… and basically not living out of totes anymore). It’s made me a resourceful and pretty hardy gal, and truly grateful for the little things. I am looking forward to be able to spread out and be able to play with mediums that I couldn’t really use unless it was summer and could do so outdoors (I just bought a 36”x48” canvas to pick away at). So that being said, lets open the page to a fresh new chapter. All you peeps in Vic, I am here now… feel free to reach out!

As we were hauling all our stuff off the boat, there had been a few instances of Orcas, or Kakawin in Nuu-chah-nulth cruising through the harbour (I had the best neighbours), so I felt it fitting to include them into this months colouring page (and Robinson, I even included your boat at your workshop on Strawberry Island)! What colours do you see when the late summer fog breaks in the mornings? Feel free to colour and tag #tofinocolour if you want to show me your stuff!

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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 here (scroll down to the button below), and on the Tourism Tofino website. If you would like them to come straight to your inbox each month as I am planning to start doing sometime this year, 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! Please feel free to download them for personal use. If you are a restaurant, school 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.

Stream Keepers - Colouring Page

Autumn is finally here! Every year I am stoked for the crispiness of fall. Time to break out the wool socks, beanies, sweaters and gumboots. I’ll miss those warm mornings and long days, but there is something to be said about just getting cozy and creative in this less chaotic time of year. This year I have a studio to retreat to when the weather gets rocky which is something I certainly look forward to!

October being the month of fall colours and Halloween, I did up some wild salmon for you in their more ‘ghouly’ stage of life. The return to spawn to the river from which they came. Starting from tiny eggs buried in beds of fresh water rivers, they go through many stages of fresh water life before venturing out to the open ocean for a few years before making the trip back. Between deforestation and destruction of natural habitats, fish farms, sea lice, natural predators, human industry, climate change, rising ocean temperatures, pollution and other threats, these incredible fish have a tough life. Wild Salmon are a foundational species to life on the Pacific Northwest. Wild Salmon have been a huge part of First Nations culture for ages. People and many species of wildlife depend on the marine-rich nutrients that wild salmon provide. Salmon watersheds provide clean drinking water, and because they are composed of flowing rivers and dense forests, they absorb carbon to slow climate change! The commercial fishing industry also supports local economy and communities along the Pacific Northwest. Wild Salmon are important for so many reason and I am glad to see more and more organizations fighting to protect them and restore their habitats.

You’ll see this page in Tofino Time magazine this October. Please feel free to download from my site as well, but please… pretty please… leave my contact info on the bottom if you are sharing them in your business, or other public spaces. :)

** I love doing these colouring pages and I hope you do too. I am so happy when I see them printed out in restaurants, or used in schools, and I love to see people colouring them! The other day however, I went into one of my favourite shops in the city and saw kids colouring one of my pages. Normally I would be so stoked to see that, but this time honestly I felt cheated and disappointed. The line of contact information at the bottom of the page was cropped off! Now I completely understand that images posted on the web are at risk of this, and perhaps it was an honest mistake, but I have included that contact info at the bottom of every upload so it was definitely deliberately cropped. That info is my calling card. That is so if someone sees the pages and likes my work, they may hire me for a project. I do not get paid for the hours of work these pages take, nor do I charge to use them, but that ability for ‘exposure’ (yup, artists hate that word), and the projects that may come of it is in essence how I do get paid for them. If you want me to keep doing these, then please, all I ask is you leave my info at the bottom of the page. If that is too much to ask, then I will just have to stop giving them away for ‘free’. **