I am so excited. I just sent the largest number of original paintings to Mountain Galleries that I have ever shipped at one time. I was so nervous to let anyone take my parcel. No one will insure art! (Now maybe if I had purchased the art they would insure it for me, but since I painted it, there is no such luck.) So here I am trying to find a company I trust to take 23 of my original watercolours to Jasper. I was going to send them by priority post but Canada Post uses Fed-Ex who contracts out their work. I didn’t want my paintings going through so many hands. It took me a while but I finally couriered them by ground which insures they stay in the same cage the whole trip.
This shipment was momentous for me. Firstly it is a huge honour to be an artist in Mountain Galleries along side amazing professional artists such as Alan Wylie, Jerry Heine, Gail Johnson, and the list goes on. (I’m in the same gallery as Robert Genn, Brian Atyeo, and one of my favourites, Jack Reid ~ who taught me how to paint snow in 2002!) As well, this was the first time that the gallery accepted every piece I showed them!
Some of the paintings will stay at the Jasper Originals gallery in the Jasper Park Lodge, which was the original gallery opened by artist and film maker Wendy Wacko.
Peaking Over at Mount Edith Cavell from Whistlers, Jasper, AB 
Others such as these Lake Louise paintings will be sent to the Banff location of Mountain Galleries in the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel:
Eleven of the paintings are being delivered at the end of December to the Whistler gallery in the Fairmont Chateau Whistler by Wendy herself. This is the part I am most excited about.
In March I gave my notice for my teaching job so that I could paint full time. I had just recently been accepted into the Whistler gallery and with the Olympics less than a year a way I knew I would regret it if I spent my time marking papers rather than painting. I am so glad I made that choice.
Painting continuously has given me the chance to grow as an artist. When you paint in spurts it often seems like you are always starting at square one. This summer and fall I had a chance to get on a roll. It was a glorious feeling.
