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Westcoast Expressive

A monthly dose of creativity, connection, and wonder. Expect inspiring reflections, simple art invitations, studio happenings, and opportunities to create together in a supportive community.

Featured Post

A local invitation: Friends of the Studio

I mentioned that an invitation to Friends of the Studio would be coming soon. Well, here it is. A quick note for those farther afield: this will be the only Friends of the Studio email sent to my full list. From here, dates and updates will only go to those who opt in. Why show up? Because it can be surprisingly hard to make time for the things we love. A million other things grab our attention, and the sketchbook stays closed, the mending sits in its basket, the journal goes untouched. I’ve...

There’s a particular kind of shift that happens in September. Summer has its own rhythm. Long days, open schedules, bare feet, late evenings, following the light and seeing where the day takes us. And then September arrives. The mornings are cooler. The calendars fill up. We begin gathering ourselves back in. I find this transition can feel harder to navigate than we sometimes expect. Autumn asks us to pull our energy inward, away from the free flow of summer, and there can be a heaviness to...

I just got home from a week of kayaking in Desolation Sound. The first few days were exactly what I needed. Paddle. Eat. Swim. Sleep. Repeat. Somewhere around the fourth day, I noticed something shift. Until then, I'd been happily taking it all in—the changing colours of the water, weathered driftwood, seals surfacing beside the kayak, the rhythm of paddling. It made me wonder how much of everyday life keeps us in the role of observer. We spend so much time taking things in. Even beautiful...

Hello July! My hopes for your July are simple. Beautiful sunsets that make you pause. Kind words from unexpected places. Moments that feel almost curated just for you. Connections that leave you feeling seen and heard. Summer has a way of drawing us into our gardens, onto trails, around campfires, and back to the things that help us feel most like ourselves. I hope you find time for whatever lights you up—and perhaps make something along the way. That thought inspired a little summer...

June Thoughts.... The Artist Garden by Claude Monet Hi everyone, I've always loved gardening because it feels like creativity in slow motion. A bit like painting with the land. You plant something, tend to it, and then wait. Sometimes for weeks. Sometimes for months. Some things are already happening beneath the surface, even when nothing looks different yet. I'm not always as good at staying with that kind of time. June is reminding me to try Studio Notes I'll be reducing my hours over the...

Doodle found on my drop cloth after a workshop...made me smile Hi everyone, May has arrived with that feeling of things opening up again. More light, more movement, more energy in the air… and also more demand on our attention and time. It can feel like everything speeds up just as something in us is trying to slow down enough to notice it. So this month I’ve been leaning into something simple: coming back to myself through creative expression. Not to make anything good or finished— but to...

Love this Lino print by Aijung Kim Hello Creative Ones! April is here… which means we’re officially in that strange in-between season. One minute it’s sunny and you’re convinced you’ve turned a corner in life, the next minute it’s raining sideways and you’re questioning everything (including your choice of jacket). Honestly, it feels kind of like being a human. A bit messy. A bit hopeful. Slightly unhinged some days. So instead of big, dramatic transformations, I’ve been leaning into small,...

Artist: Elizabeth Porritt Carrington There is a particular quality to March. The light lingers a little longer. The air shifts. The forest floor begins to soften. Nothing dramatic — just a quiet returning. Awakening rarely arrives in a rush. It is subtle. Gradual. Often uncomfortable. A stretching after a long season of conserving. In our inner lives, awakening can feel similar. We may begin to sense movement where there was once heaviness. A flicker of motivation. A desire to clear space. A...