This year I am setting up at potter Cameron Stewart’s Studio, 3620 Highway 6, Passmore, Slocan Valley (on Hwy 6, 5 minutes north of the Co-op at Slocan Park –there will be signs).
If you are in the area come on out!
I’ve been painting up a storm of miniature 5″ x 5″ oil paintings on little stretched canvases so that I (finally!) can offer Barbara Brown originals for sale!
I also have samplings to share with you of new writings as I work towards a Volume II of the book: SYLVAN REFLECTIONS: Wanderings, Paintings & Ponderings From the Forest.
Always such a fun weekend and I would love to see you!
Latest Painting:
‘Through’
Oil on Canvas, 14″ x 18″
Through
Into the dream..
With a swirl and a swish,
Swim yourself through.
On a wish and a whirl,
Wind your way into
The green beyond beckons
Calling you home…
The leaves you see are mostly those of Hazelnut ~ a shrub symbolic of family happiness and abundance, creativity and inspiration, divination and protection. Considered to hold ancient knowledge, when eaten the nuts will heighten awareness and grant wisdom. Hazel wands are traditionally used to gain knowledge, wisdom and inspiration; to further the art of communication; and to enhance energy.
Today, scientists tell us these nuts are excellent food for brain function. The forest is the Inland Temperate Rainforest in the interior of British Columbia, Canada, the only one of its kind on Earth. It is a wet belt resulting from weather systems, laden with precipitation from the Pacific Ocean almost 500 miles away, rising over the coastal mountains and sending down a lot of snow and a fair bit of rain when they come up against the heights of the Columbia and Rocky Mountain ranges. It is a lush and diverse ecosystem, boasting a huge variety of species of trees, mosses, ferns and lichens.
This afternoon in the woods I encountered the big cinnamon Black Bear that my husband saw a few weeks ago quietly foraging outside his workshop.
There is an old naturalized volunteer apple tree just off my path through the forest and as I walked by today I heard large rustlings in its heavily-laden upper reaches. I couldn’t see through the dense foliage, but figured most likely Bear so I backed away a respectful distance and sat down to watch, hoping to get a good look at him.
He had seen me but wasn’t alarmed, took his time climbing down, and ambled off into the forest depths with a single slow backward glance at me, an acknowledgement of our sharing of this forest. Gentle giant. His whole being exuding nothing but Peace.
I turned and headed back home, leaving the forest to him this afternoon.
I didn’t take his photo …this is what he looked like though, a likeness I found on Pinterest –sorry the photographer’s name wasn’t there to credit.
Two Favourite Quotes:
“Reverence is the quality of being that every cell of our bodies deserves – but is seldom gifted. If you could regularly bathe your whole body in the reverence that you feel at the foot of the greatest tree, the top of the most wild waterfall, the newness of the most perfect baby, the heart-lift of the most exquisite melody – do you think it could serve your health and harmony?”
~TreeSisters
“Let the beauty of what you love be what you do. There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss Earth.”
~Rumi
SYLVAN REFLECTIONS: Wanderings, Paintings & Ponderings From the Forest
100 full colour pages of forest inspiration for $27
The book is available through my Etsy Shop.
Thanks so much for listening, May the forest be with you!
Please, if you would, forward this to any nature lovers you know who may be interested in subscribing to this newsletter (it comes out occasionally, a few times a year). Elders, house-bound, or even just city folk who can’t get out into the forest as much as they would like, may be especially happy to join me, vicariously, on my walks in the forest.
For various options of beautiful high-quality giclee Printsof the paintings, as well as the Book and its companion Film, plus Art Cards, Poetry Postcards, and Fridge Magnets . . .
There are some Miniature Original Oil Paintings there for you too!
The first Volume is also still available, with it's own companion film:
