This past August Rhonda and I visited a local Shaman just outside of Calgary to participate in our animal naming ceremony. I was intrigued to have my animal symbol given to me since I am often offering up my idea of other people’s symbols in my paintings, it would be nice to see what someone thought I was. I’ve been drawn to many animal symbols in my life, specifically the bird, otter and whale. At the end of the ceremony, Rhonda is a Bear, and I am a Red-Tailed Hawk. Our friend Heather also went a few weeks later, and was also a Bear.
Heather and Rhonda have been lifelong friends, and I consider Heather a part of the family. Thus, I decided to surprise them with paintings of The Bear for each of them. I wanted them to be similar, to symbolize the bonds of their friendship, with one slight change to Rhonda’s painting which includes the smaller bear within the larger bear which related to the point in her life (moment of her birth) when her animal symbol first appeared to her.
Not being happy with the original set of 3 Buddha’s I did back in 
This was painted to celebrate Shannon’s and Edmond’s 40th birthdays (just a month apart) and also to enliven their incredible new condo which resides just a block from Giant’s Stadium in San Francisco, California. Unfortunately, their 40th birthdays were actually in 2006… so I was about 10 months late in getting this painting to them. Luckily, I had to opportunity to hand deliver it to them finally this past June.
This set of 3 sunflowers have been donated to the 28th annual Banff Midsummer Ball silent auction, taking place at the 
I started this painting last summer, only recently finishing it this past January. This was officially appraised at $1,500 and donated to the Meals on Wheels silent auction gala on May 12, 2007.
I started working on this piece before leaving for my African trip, but didn’t finish it until after my return. My main goal was to see if I could paint something in only 2 colours (cream and VanDyke Brown). And how elated I was when 3/4 of the way through this piece they discontinued the cream colour! Luckily, I found an exact match under a different brand. Phew. I did this mainly to keep the ethnic tradition of art in my livingroom but give it more of a modern flair.
At 2 months old, Alexa Warren now officially becomes my youngest client. This painting is an addition to the set of three I did for Andy, Fiona and Rafe last Christmas. Now that they have a new addition to their family, of course, a new painting was required.