Welcome to Januaryyyyy, isn’t 2026 so much fun so far… 😂 I saw a very funny meme I think on Jan 3, someone had posted that they’d like a refund on their trial subscription to 2026, and I thought that was very apt… 😂 I’m thankful I have painting and creativity as my daily life now — my former career military intelligence officer brain is still going into overdrive with everything swirling around me, but at least I can focus on doing what I can to make the world a better place and using creativity to keep myself grounded. I do hope you have some way to do that for yourself as well, more on that later in this email. ❤️
So in late November and December, I ended up being in three exhibitions, and 17 (😳) paintings left my studio to various shows. In two instances a painting (or all of them at a show) sold, so I had to find other works to replace them. Thankfully I had some works that had just come back from other exhibitions so I was able to include them, but that made me think that I should practice using acrylics more (as they dry so much faster, so I can have a new painting done in a few days as opposed to a month for an oil painting). So these are my first plays at acrylics, one is a tabletop my family commissioned me to do (and it shows their looovely new location now that they’re living in Victoria, and along the inner harbour to boot), and one is a trial of a Spinner dolphin on canvas. I’ll need to do some more work to feel fully comfortable in acrylics (as the way you work with them is almost the opposite of how you work in oils), but I think I’m making some good progress. ☺️
The inner harbour one is now available as an art print as well, I really wanted to portray the beauty both above and below the Salish Sea we live on. 😍
I’ve also started working on four more paintings, one of which will be a Great Blue Heron (the reference image I’m using is amazing, thanks to Mark Luther who’s an incredible photographer), and then a series of three where I’m playing with adding botanicals into the background of wildlife photos to create an almost surrealistic image. I won’t share the reference images I’ve made of those (as the images are being used with permission of the photographers), but below you can see my progress on the heron so far, and a mockup I did of the other three, playing with the background colours so you can kind of see a bit of what they are going to be. 😊
And in case you missed it last month, I do have a whoooole bunch more art prints on my site now, and the shipping pricing at checkout is for the US and Canada only (via UPS). If you’d like to order and you’re not in either country, just reach out with what you’d like to order and where you are, and I’ll get a shipping quote from the printer and get back to you. I also went to a local print shop yesterday to find out more about getting prints, art cards, etc done for local shops (art cards might be something I could ship elsewhere myself, but I’d have to see about that later). So if you’re local, make sure you stay tuned to my social media so you can find out when prints (and which prints) are in local stores. 😊 If you have any questions about the prints on the site, please do let me know, I’ve tried to make the listings as clear as I can. Included in the art prints section are these four original oil paintings that just sold at various exhibitions over the past few weeks. If you’re the new owner of one of the originals, I hope you’re enjoying your new art! 🥰
As far as helping you stay sane in this turbulent world, I do have a few mini questions for you, to help me help you stay connected and grounded. Please feel free to just respond to this email to reply, or you can leave a comment on the post. ❤️
Is there anything I can do to help encourage you to get creative (or more creative) in these emails and posts? Like sharing some of my more popular stitching patterns more frequently, or some of my tutorials or full stitching classes?
Would you like tutorials in anything else that I can do, like some basics of oil painting, drawing, etc? The point wouldn’t be to make you a professional artist, just to get your hands moving and your brain doing something different — that alone can be intensely therapeutic regardless of the finished result.
Would you like tips on how to decorate your home so it feels more “you,” and gives you the true energy you need? So many are influenced by HGTV and similar decor outlets that tell you that white on white on beige on gray is “relaxing,” and honestly it’s anything but — it can actually exacerbate stress (like you’re never relaxed in a hospital where it’s all white on white). I’m happy to share what I know to help you build a home that expresses you and has nothing to do with what “influencers” tell you should be popular.
Would more freebies and little mini projects (like maybe a monthly colouring page or something) be helpful for you?
Are you interested in any mini-educational content, like about various wildlife and their quirky habits (or insane pterodactyl-sounding squawks like the Great Blue Heron I’m painting, man those things sound prehistoric, I almost dropped my phone in the ocean when one flew under me and squawked while I was walking across a bridge recently)… 😂 Since I am focusing more heavily on painting wildlife I’m learning a lot of neat facts about them, and I’m happy to share that if there’s an interest in it.
If you have any other comments or suggestions about what you’d like to see in these posts and emails, please do let me know, I’m all ears. I appreciate that you signed up to hear from me, and I want to make sure you are getting value out of what I send you and post. ☺️
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I hope you can find a tiny bit of calm in your day, and let me know if you have any thoughts! ❤️
I love mini educational items especially about wildlife. I love hearing about their habits and quirks in their nature
I love seeing your artwork! I've taken up knitting again and plan to start cross stitching again. All the colors help. I really need to stop reading the news cause there's nothing I can do about the idiot in the white house right now, but it's become surreal. Your emails are wonderful!