January 2025

Welcome to the first newsletter for this year! I hope that 2025 has started well for you and that the year ahead will be full of blessings and triumphs. These newsletters will be short & sweet. My intention is to add some colour and beauty to your day, give you a peak into new and upcoming art and collections, as well as a quick fix of inspiration. So here goes…

Just Launched (now available on products)

This month saw the launch of the Herons & Poppies collection. It was inspired by the white-faced heron who regularly visits our farm and sometimes pecks at my studio window. He is fairly shy, but I am delighted whenever I see him. My husband and I photograph him often and I was thrilled to capture him in flight. The poppies that I painted were from the first poppies I ever planted growing in the garden a year ago. It’s always exciting when one plants something for the first time and then see it emerge from the soil. It’s a miracle that never ceases to amaze me. Such beautiful flowers. I could never do them justice. I never get tired of photographing them either. I have like…hundreds of photos!!

I also launched a mini collection for Valentines Day, called Lovebirds. This was painted in digital watercolour, something I’ve really come to enjoy over the past year. You can get the free printable Valentines Greeting Card as seen in the first pic below, here.

Should you wish to license artwork from either of these collections, you can view my full portfolio here.

My Shop

I’m thoughtfully designing and collating new products with the intention of making everyday moments beautiful. It takes time to hunt these products down and then design them. For now, you can find a selection of the Herons & Poppies lunch tote bags in my shop along with details on how to find home, living, office and other products featuring my designs. I received my little lunch bag this week and I absolutely adore it! The print on the neoprene is beautiful. The quality is fantastic and that little bit of stretch makes it perfect for holding everything together snugly. I can fit in 2 lunchboxes, my water bottle and a few extras. Love it!

Upcoming Collection…

The full Love from the Cosmos Collection will be launching in February. The details will be available in next month’s newsletter.

What I’m working on…

I’ve been working on a series of flowers from my time in Fiji for a few months now. I’m playing with refining some of my rough travel sketches and incorporating the flowers for placement designs.

Invitation (some thoughts on life and faith)

With Valentine’s day coming up and thoughts of love, hearts, and lovebirds on my mind, I came across this verse the other day. Proverbs 19:8a To acquire wisdom is to love yourself. I guess there are many forms of self-love and ways to attend to it. We’re familiar with self care, me time and spa days. But this struck me because it’s not a quick fix. It’s a worthy investment. With wisdom one can avoid a lot of heartache. With wisdom, one can cultivate a lot of good habits and character. This leads to better relationships with better boundaries, better use of finances and resources, perhaps even better health, mentally and physically, which all make for a happier person in general. So I believe it to be true, that the best form of self love is to acquire the wisdom necessary for living a full and happy life.

Wishing you a fabulous February!

With joy and beauty,

Jo