Category: Creativity
How Colour Makes Me Feel
August 29, 2024
I’ve often imagined that observing bright colours, especially in nature, was like taking vitamins. The neon green moss in the forest in February, an intense dark blue sky behind white snowy trees, ...
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The Creative Focus at MISSA
July 30, 2024
In hindsight, I can see that it was a random chain of events that led me to teach drawing at the Metchosin Summer School of the Arts (MISSA) this July.
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The Search for Treasure
May 1, 2024
A common stumbling block for artists is “not knowing what to draw, paint, write or sew etc…”. I have heard students or artist friends lament about this and I have been stuck ...
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Did the Dinosaurs Think?
April 1, 2024
Categories: Creativity, Nature
It can be hard to believe, that we live our day to day lives on land that was once shaped by ice or volcanic lava, been the bottom of an ocean, or ...
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Permission to Paint
March 3, 2024
I’ve always felt that I had permission to be an artist. Not in an official way, like I asked someone and they said it was ok – but in a way that ...
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Like Riding A Bike - Getting Creative Work Done
January 1, 2024
I’ve always disliked goals – maybe it’s because my goals weren’t set in reality. I tried goals to “do a painting every week”, or “make set amount of money” but it just ...
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How Birds Give Us a Sense of Wonder
October 3, 2023
One of the most precious gifts I received as a child was a large picture book of birds painted by the 19th century ornithologist/artist, James Audubon. It was from my grandparents in ...
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Creating Space
July 25, 2023
Categories: Creativity, Inspiration
I have been thinking about “space” lately, while replanting some shrubs and trees. Having to consider how much space something like an apple tree will need when it is full grown is difficult while ...
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Do Trees Feel Time?
February 28, 2023
Walking through a forest I often think I am probably barely registering the very tip of what is actually happening there – the local language and lives of the resident plants and ...
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Peace is in Patience
July 4, 2022
I think “patience” is an underrated, yet very valuable quality to have. Patience means being able to tolerate long periods of things not looking like they are progressing, or are like they ...
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