Showing posts with label nature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nature. Show all posts

Saturday, January 27, 2024

End of January already

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to drop a note and say hello. It's hard to believe January is pretty much over, and so is my week of holidays. In my mind I had wanted to go somewhere for the week, like Mexico, and enjoy some sun. I decided to stay home and have a week at home. It's been pretty busy. I've added a few pages from my website to here since it shut down last week.

Also did a fair bit of video creation. I saw the Chiseled Ice Festival mid-week, before things started to warm up and melt the sculptures too much. As it was, some of the finer pieces of ice had already broken off. They were still lovely to look at.

Also went for a walk in the creek valley. I had been seeing what I thought were Ruffed Grouse during the week, and was hoping they would move into the creek valley and set up residence. However, I reviewed the footage I had taken of the group over at the gas plant, and realized those ones were likely Grey Partridge.

I still feel like some of the other birds I saw were Ruffed Grouse but I'm not really a partridge or a grouse expert. I went for a walk hoping to find some of their tracks in the snow, which are always cute to see as they look like little stars, or their pellets which look like All Bran (nothing against the cereal, it's delicious. That's just what they look like). But there was nothing out there. I was a little disappointed, but I had a good time anyway.

The creek is also starting to melt in spots, as you can see in the photo. I usually don't trust myself to walk on the ice but it really is amazing seeing all the trees and tall cliffs from the viewpoint of the creek.

For my last day off, hopefully we can go for a walk out at Elk Island. I will probably have to wrap my knee up in a brace to help it manage against the ice, and make sure I have my cleats with me as the melting snow wrecks havoc on my knee.

I've also been forewarned that I am heading back into a disaster zone. Two of my coworkers are off, one due to medical leave and the other to take care of their spouse who just had surgery. I feel like I'm going to need another holiday after a couple of weeks.

About Me - A Biography of Sorts

Hi everyone! Just wanted to post a bit about myself. Feel free to ask questions, too.

I am an Ojibwe or Ahnishnaabe artist living in Edmonton, Alberta. Having grown up in northern Manitoba, I gained an appreciation of nature and spent much of my free time drawing and experimenting with various media. In my early adulthood I began to explore painting, and eventually developed my own style of Woodlands artwork. I enjoy the freedom of the abstract style and creating images with sharply contrasting colors or smooth blends. I have also been inspired by Inuit soapstone sculpture and folklore. I'm actually inspired by a lot of stuff, but mostly nature.


Northern Canada inspires much of my work. As a child, my family often went on fishing excursions, woodcutting, and explorations of Canada's pristine wilderness. I self-studied animals in great detail by reading every book I could find at the local library as a child, and have a great love for birds. In recent years and thanks to COVID, I've gotten into hiking and camping with my husband. We really enjoy checking out new places and being in nature instead of just skimming the surface as one often ends up doing when just driving or traveling. I still love traveling though, and seeing new places and learning about the history and culture of the people living there.

I have painted for over 20 years now, and sold artwork to locations across the globe and have participated in various art shows in Alberta and Manitoba. I prefer to sell my art individually so I can enjoy meet the people and hear about what they like about my art, but I enjoy the virtual modes as well.

I live with my husband, Lyndon, and my black cat, Maho, in Edmonton, Alberta.




Wednesday, January 17, 2024

Out with the Old, in with the New?


So I had to make a tough decision this year. I will not be renewing my domain name (no point sharing it here if it isn't going to exist anymore, lol). It will expire on January 19 (2024 in case you're reading this years from now).

I think I will be posting the artwork that was previously on that page onto here, as time suits me. Then everyone can still enjoy seeing my artwork and those who want to have it hanging on their walls can make a purchase as well. It will take time as I'll have to find the Paypal buttons/links to add in there.

What else have I been up to? Not a lot. I pretty much took 2023 off as an artist, and focused on continuing to create videos on YouTube (Donna's Adventures if you are curious). There's a lot of nature and hiking themed videos. With the whole pandemic I've really enjoyed getting closer to nature and re-discovering/taking a closer look at my "backyard" so to speak.

Speaking of backyard, we are fighting a battle right now with a coyote that has discovered our deck has a gaping hole in the latticework, and realized it would be a great home. There's been prints all over the backyard and copious amounts of poop. Big poop. Not sure what it's been eating but it's been eating well. Not the thin pointed poop full of fur that I usually see the creek valley or natural areas. I tried taking my cat out there to make a presence but it was too cold for him. He stood in the tracks yowling while I quickly distributed some loose fur around along the trees then whisked him back indoors. Poor little guy.

I told him he was helpful even though he got cold. I think my cat likes being helpful, although he's usually more of a help in the kitchen with cleaning up food scraps, especially meat.

I went back outside and scooped up all the fresh poop the coyote had somehow produced overnight (how can one animal poop so much?) and even the urine that was frozen solid in the snow.

My cat was also very excited as my husband and I headed out there with a staple gun and coils of chicken wire to try to close up the hole. It should work, for now. He sniffed my gloves thoughtfully when I got back in, nudging the fingers.

If nothing else I will try to get out there to make a human presence known and hopefully the coyote will get the idea that he should find somewhere else to live.

That's all for now. Hope to be on here again soon.

Monday, November 23, 2020

2020...Coyote encounters

So, life has been carrying on. It's been a few years regrettably since I last posted.

I've been doing well. Hope you have been also. I'm still painting, and still add things into my website occasionally. It's a lot of work, especially trying to get the images to line up and ensuring all the buttons work. My website. This year of course has been bad for my art sales, but good in the sense that I have more time to paint. I am grateful for my day job which keeps me going in life.

I've also been posting onto YouTube regularly. My page is here: My YouTube page. My husband and I have been going for walks in our local ravine, as well as touring the nearby countryside and finding nice nature places to hike. Check it out. I make clips of various things that I think are worthy of sharing, like this video I uploaded today of a coyote barking and howling.


Well, I think that's all I have to say. Please stay safe out there!

Update: I had another coyote encounter the next day which I also made a video of.


It was a very cool moment which I won't forget for a long time.