CULTURAL CRAWL EVENT AUG 8 + 9

Save the date! The New West Cultural Crawl is coming up! 

I would be honoured if you'd come visit me in my new (and old) home attic studio during the New Westminster Cultural Crawl. My studio will be open both days from 11am – 5pm. I will have a collection of my artful products stocked including art prints, bags, cards and novelties, starting from $5 and up. Many of my original paintings will be displayed and for sale. Support local & get unique gifts for all those special occasions coming up.

When

Saturday August 8 and Sunday August 9, 11am – 5pm both days

Studio Location

My home attic studio is at 423 Fader Street in New West (3 blocks up the hill from my old studio at 100 Braid St Studios). Follow the path around the side, and the entrance to my studio is at the rear. There will be cold refreshments and a space to sit in the garden. Please NOTE the new address.

Parking & Transit:

Free 2 hour parking on Fader Street between Major and Braid St, and on the other side of Braid St closer to Hume Park. Free 2 hour parking on Major Street. Paid parking on Sherbrooke and Columbia.

Sapperton & Braid Skytrain stations are both within 5-10 minute walking distance of my studio.

Prizes + Auction 

All visitors can enter a draw to win an original painting, and another painting will be auctioned off.



Forms of Payment Accepted 

Cash, Credit Card.



More Info 

Map + Venues + Artist Info

Pictures from last year's Crawl (in my previous studio). 


Art, Gifts + Novelties (examples of what you'll find at my studio during the event)

Renewal – 24" x 36" mixed media original painting on canvas. Price upon request.

Tote Bags – $26 - $32

Gift Wrap $5, Notebooks $10, Greeting Cards $5  

Limited Edition Fine Art Prints in three sizes – $20, $28, $38

Artful Tins & Jars – $5, $6, and Essential Oil Roll-ons – $9

See you at the crawl!

p.s. Be sure to visit 100 Braid St Studios and Brick and Mortar Living on your travels. There's a talented and lovely gang at both venues, and I know they'll be delighted to welcome you into their spaces. 100 Braid St Studios has over a dozen artists in one venue, plus a splatter room where you can experiment for yourself. Brick and Mortar has a beautiful selection of gifts, including a small line of my art. Blossom & Vine Floral Co will have a popup flower shop at Brick and Mortar Living as well, and Michelle creates the most beautiful romantic bouquets – I simply have to recommend you treat yourself to one. I most certainly will be:) I know there are many venues participating in the crawl, so be sure to check out the venue list and map to plan your route.

Studio Move + Changing My Focus

Friends, change is everywhere in my life right now! I'm moving my studio and simplifying. My business is transforming. And we're partnering with SelfDesign to support us in homeschooling our son.

It's a lot, but it's good. This is a year of allowing, inviting, and trusting. I truly feel connected to the spirit of ease more than I ever have. I'm saying yes to a lot of things I wouldn't ordinarily, and holding my no's to things that consume too much space or just aren't feeling right. I'm letting myself be "drawn by the strange pull of what I really love" (rumi). The result – walking a path that is winding freely, and being intentional in how I choose to follow it without trying to control where it leads too much. Trusting and leaning in.

Ok, so let me share more about these big changes:)


Studio Move

I'm moving! Well, my studio is. Going from 100 Braid Street Studios back to our attic, my original studio space lovingly known by many as the loft;) This is a huge step in simplifying my life and work, in going back to a quieter place of stillness. Having a studio away from home has been truly wonderful and connected me with a beautiful creative community who will be missed (and it gave me way more space just a few short blocks away!) but I'm ready for the shift back to quiet simplicity. I am in the process of re-creating my sacred space at home - stay tuned for pics! I'm so excited about this change. It's going to be beautiful and I'm so looking forward to creating soulfully in it.  

[Preparing my attic studio for the move. Clearing out lots of the old to make space for the new]


Transforming My Business

I'm excited to announce that Red Pear Creative will be migrating to a new entity under my own name, Ginger Deverell. I am taking a step away from my graphic design work to be with my family, support my son's homeschooling and focus on my art. Red Pear has been my boutique company for 12 years and I've grown with it and received so much creative fulfillment from my work with clients during these years. Now I'm looking forward to the next steps on my journey. You will see my new artist brand emerge over the coming year – it's personal, feminine and whimsical:) I will continue offering and expanding my artful product line and selling original paintings. I will be exhibiting my work more which is a neat shift for me. I will be spending more time tinkering around with surface pattern designs and hopefully producing some neat products for all of you to enjoy:) I will make room to play and experiment in the studio. And I will continue to work at getting my surface designs and artwork licensed while creating art that is true, beauty-full and meaningful, and living a slow and present lifestyle with my family.

[A few of the artful products I currently offer - find them here]

New Focus
 
This next chapter is about family, a homeschooling adventure, creating spaciousness in life, following our bliss, trusting our own compasses, simplifying and enjoying life's simple pleasures together. It's about having more stillness in our days. It's about moving closer to licensing my work in a way that I'm really inspired by, carefully choosing boutiques to carry my whimsical gifts and products, and being true to the path that I know in my heart. It's feeling like all the pieces of work and family are becoming woven together rather than being two separate paths that occasionally cross. The road ahead is feeling wide open.

[Stillness – continuing the practice of writing my mantra on my body]

And so goes the building of an intentional life. One step at a time, and feeling so right and true. I read this quote in this inspiring post from Andrea Scher on her Superhero Journal and I was SO incredibly moved I thought, Yes. Yes. It has been my compass since. 

“Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.” —Rumi

Thank you for sharing this journey with me. And thank you to everyone who is buying my art and rooting me on – I'm so grateful for you!

With love,
Ginger 

Art Retreat + Solo Trip

[Watercolour girls I painted at Six Breaths Retreat with Danielle Donaldson. Flat originals available for sale - message me at ginger@redpearcreative.com]

It has been a full and creative early summer. In June I went to the Six Breaths Art Retreat in Victoria. I learned watercolour techniques from Danielle Donaldson and fell in love with the simplicity and ease of her process. It felt so light and free to create in this medium and I know it's going to find its way into my repertoire. I had great chats with Danielle about business, process, selling, social media and a few good laughs about her rustic Canadian experience (she's American). She's one awesome and talented woman and I feel like I walked away with a clear sense of the simplicity that's possible in art, and a whole lot of creative inspiration. 

[Learning from Danielle Donaldson at Six Breaths Art Retreat]

I spent a second inspiring day painting acrylic abstracts in the beautiful outdoors with Victoria artist Blu Smith. We painted large and bold. It was in stark contrast to how I'd spent the previous day painting small and delicate and feminine. His process was about creating from intuitive shapes. It was great to see how much I opened up and relaxed throughout the day and by the end I was creating beautiful abstracts that I really loved, and using my own colour palette and instincts. I was really amazed how different everyone's work was. It was inspiring. 

[Learning from Blu Smith at Six Breaths Art Retreat. Flat acrylic abstracts I painted at retreat available for sale - message me at ginger@redpearcreative.com]

I loved the experience of this retreat. I surrendered any expectations and showed up to play. I met an awesome group of women. I made art. I relaxed. And we were at Sleeping Dog Farm just outside Victoria which is a beautiful peaceful working farm. It was like being suspended in time along a quiet country road, right out of a novel. We were all incredibly nourished by the delicious vegan and gluten free meals and the morning yoga. It was all I needed. Thank you Poppet Creative for a fantastic weekend!

SOLO TRIP

After the retreat I stayed on in Victoria for a few days & reconnected with my younger traveler self. I stayed in this hostel and went everywhere on foot. I ate my way through the city at gluten-free spots (which are abundant in Victoria – Bubby Rose's Bakery & Cafe was my fave). I explored beautiful neighbourhoods and beaches. I journalled. I went to Sapphire Day Spa for an ayurvedic treatment. And I faced down my fear of water on a zodiac boat out on the open waters. I saw about 40 Orca whales which was magical and humbling.

[Exploring Market Square / Journalling in my beautiful notebook by Papaya Art + fave artist Anahata Katkin / "Fearless" mantra I wrote on my arm set against tote bag with my painting reproduced on it (buy one here) / walking and more walking]

I think we all need moments to reconnect with ourselves and step away from the daily grind. I came back from this short trip renewed and grounded and it was a really good reminder just how far we can come back to ourselves over a few short days if we give ourselves the space and time. 

With love, 
Ginger

A romantic collection

A couple of months ago I did a 5 days of art project on Facebook with some of my fave art people. I'm looking back at the little collection of art I shared and really digging how the "gingerness" carries a feminine enchanted tone throughout all the work I'm doing whether it be portraits, mantras or abstracts. It's good to take a moment of pause to enjoy, look with fresh eyes, and simply be happy that I can put paint to canvas and have it soothe my soul the way it does and inspire joy in others. Here is the collection of 15 paintings I shared:
 

Left: Truth Journey / Top right: Allow / Bottom right: Be True

 

Left: Winter Angel of Light / Top right: Winter Angel of Dark / Bottom right: Courage 

Left: Bloom / Top right: Spirited / Bottom right: Unfold

Top: Solace Abstract / Bottom left: Abstract, untitled / Bottom right: Pause 

 Left: Summer Flowers / Top right: Grow / Bottom right: Summer Flowers II

With heart, G

p.s. many of these pieces can be found as fine art prints in my etsy shop. If you don't see what you're looking for there please contact me and I'll be happy to create something for you.

Six Breaths Retreat!

Lovely friends, I am going to an art retreat! I am so so so excited and blissed out about it. It's been awhile since I've taken time away for myself and my creative heart. It will be a really unique experience working with two completely opposite teachers on a farm in a tranquil setting, along with daily yoga and fresh local food. Heaven. Here's a peek at the instructors:

DANIELLE DONALDSON – whimsical, feminine

BLU SMITH  – bold abstract

 
It's happening June 12 – 14 at Sleeping Dog Farm in Victoria BC (Canada) and I'll be posting and tagging on Instagram as I go with #sixbreaths2015. Follow along to see all the goodness and fun that comes from it! And if you have any super recommendations of inspiring things to do while in Victoria please leave me a comment below or email me at ginger at redpearcreative dot com.

The retreat is hosted by Poppet Art Studio, a Victoria based creative studio run by the talented artist Andrea Soos, with lots and lots of classes for everyone. Check it out!

xo Ginger

Change, Trust and Peace

My gosh the journey into your authentic life is something else. I've been in hibernation for a few months now, recalibrating and finding my way through lots of change. I'm starting to unfurl and come back out into the open where I can be seen again, and in some ways it feels amazing and just TRUE. In other ways it's scary. I'm changed and still changing and I suppose in some ways it feels very vulnerable. I don't have fancy labels or roaring successes to define me and I'm not entirely at home in my body and style right now (although that's evolving daily), but I'm beginning to find my centre and feel steady again. My life is quiet these days with a whole lot of being right where I am and not too much striving and achieving. It's a transformational experience. I'm simply being me—the me that's been there all along, the one that I've been struggling to love no matter what. And that's enough.

I think the hardest part though is letting go and allowing the journey to unfold. I catch myself in moments of self-doubt, feeling like I'm wandering blindly with no idea where I'm going, desperately clinging to the idea of success by achievement – being on track, having a plan, accomplishing. But being present is nothing like that experience. Instead there is a lot of trust needed. In the moments when I trust my instincts and trust the process I know so clearly that I'm right where I need to be on my path and my inner compass knows exactly where I'm going. I simply need to quiet my mind to allow the clarity to shine through. And it does. And I feel peace.

It's funny you know, I've always found it easy to see and celebrate the beauty and wholeness of others, simply appreciating their warm hearts and beautiful uniqueness without questioning whether they should be MORE. The bigger challenge is to see this completeness in yourself, to know you are everything you need to be, and to be still long enough to simply be jn your own presence and feel it. That's truly what peace feels like. That's a life worth living.

All of these pieces add up to a life of peace.

And so, the journey unfolds. A deeper layer. With many moments of straight-up fear and insecurity, but also many blissful moments of clarity, wholeness and truth. I'm so completely aware that the road will continue to dip and rise, and I will feel lost and then whole again many times over. This is the journey. This is transformation – moving from that cocoon to the glorious butterfly in flight. So worth it.

Spring Art Market this weekend!

Join me this weekend for a Spring Art Market at the studio.

Come on down. This is a great chance to see beautiful new art and visit with the studio artists, scoop up locally made gifts and do some mother's day shopping. I will be featuring artful products ranging from $5 – $40 (including art prints & blocks, greeting cards, tote bags, journal books, gift sets, tins) and original paintings ranging from $45 – $900. Lots of beauty to share, and lots of options for everyone. Please mark your calendar!



When: Saturday May 2, 2015 from 12 – 5pm

Where: 100 Braid Street Studios, 100 Braid St, Unit 200, New Westminster BC. Entrance is off Braid Street. There is parking behind the building and on nearby streets. Braid Street Skytrain station is across the street.

Here's a little peek at some of the products I will have on hand, all pretty and ready to gift:)

I hope to see you there!
xo

TV set decor – My Art

 packaging up my art for a TV show set

Hey peeps, a little something neat to share – recently a TV show filming in Vancouver contacted me and purchased a collection of my art to feature on a set in an upcoming new show. My lips are sealed until it's public. Stay tuned. 
x

Kundalini, my yoga practice

I'm doing Kundalini yoga these days. I stumbled into it last winter and for the past year and some I've been transformed by my time at my classes. It's gentle. It's spiritual. I'm able to practice being present, and I actually meditate. I leave feeling revived. Every time, without exception. I am finding my Kundalini spirit and elevating my energy through this elegant and simple household style of yoga. It isn't a conquest or path to prove my worthiness or competency. I won't strive to figure it out, research it and perfect it. I simply go and allow the experience that each class brings. And something I love about this type of yoga – the mantra we use is "Sat Nam" which means Truth and Identity. Our teacher is a gift – she truly is a woman I admire. I was in my class the other day and she asked us to think about this question:

who am i?

Strip away the labels, the constructs of identity. Without your roles, who are you?

My answer floated into my awareness – a gentle soul, with an essence of beauty and a desire to grow.

Simple.

x

Quiet: Reflecting on 2014 & looking ahead

For years I've chosen a word at the beginning of each season or sometimes just for a phase of life and it has guided me. It has been an informal and very intentional practice. A few past words are believe, receive, peaceful, abundance, beauty, trust, breathe, begin, hope, fun. In 2012 I experienced coming alive again & feeling peaceful. In 2013 I had a beautiful year full of discovery & I expanded and when it came to a close I had a strong desire to push myself further, and so last year I chose the word unleash to guide me. It came from a very powerful intention and desire to put my passion and creativity and full self out into the world. To truly unleash my potential. 

I did just that. I put my art and creative self further out there. I launched the year with a kindness mission which inspired my heart and gave others a small gift (I loved hearing from people how they saved my messages of kindness on their fridge or how it lit up their day or how it felt like the message was aimed directly at them and it was just what they needed to hear). I rented a beautiful studio space, created a sacred space, properly celebrated which is something I don't always do, and joined a creative community that I can walk to. I started documenting inspiring moments and began posting on Instagram and instantly loved the experience of sharing pieces of myself with other beautiful creative souls and having a little window into their lives and work (find me at @redpearcreative). I wrote guest blog posts & shared reflections on my process and work on my own blog. I connected with shop owners and had my work featured in beautiful boutiques. I shared my passion and process with visitors at events & experienced the joy of selling my art. I expanded my products to include notebooks, art blocks, gift wrap, art prints, greeting cards and tote bags. And I pinned my heart out on my Pinterest boards. I set out to unleash myself into the world and I felt like I grew and expanded with every step of the process. What I didn't expect was for a whole new meaning of the word unleash to surface and in some ways collide with the outpouring of work – unleashing from roles and labels, untying myself from things that aren't working, letting go of what I don't need anymore. Almost by force at first, I started letting go of things that weren't serving me. Oversubscribed work commitments, draining interactions, physical clutter, big ideas that were too big for this time in my life, expectations, limiting labels, unnecessary rules. It was a choppy journey and by the end of the year I was feeling depleted and sort of lost. I was struggling on the mama front, and struggling to remember who I was. It wasn't until I withdrew entirely and unplugged for a few weeks that I started to see it was all taking shape. I was becoming. I was going through that rough patch that seems like there's no reason but at the end you look back and see with simple clarity that it was all necessary. It was during this I started to feel the word quiet spreading over me like a warm blanket.

Now as I am firmly planted in a new year I find the word quiet is my guiding force. This is a time for hibernation, going within, reflection, renewal, closeness, smallness, gentleness. I am feeling quiet on all fronts. I am not expanding big, but instead I am expanding in small subtle and quiet ways. It is a soul expansion rather than a tangible material expansion. And it extends beyond me, beyond self, to those I love most dearly, and to what I feel is most important in life. It is a quiet re-discovery of who I am and what my place is in this world. This is my way forward. And of course I am still making and creating, and doing it very intentionally.

xo

p.s. Quiet art prints available in shop.

In the swirl. Sit with it.

I was sitting with a woman I highly respect recently, telling her about how I'm finding it hard to accept where I'm at right now. She said this:

Sit with the discomfort.
Don't run away.
Don't lash out.
Don't try to control and improve things.
Sit with it.

How? How do I sit with it? I begged. Right now things suck. They suck. So let them suck and acknowledge that they suck right now. They will change and things will look different at some point but right now they're hard. Don't tell yourself to suck it up or to be ok with how things are. Let them suck and sit with that. Be in the swirl.

I did. Things have already lightened. I continue to be amazed at our resilience.

love

Prints available here.

Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. 

—Oscar Wilde

Winter: The Journey into 2015

Journey Mantra, prints available here

I've learned that sometimes life has other plans. If the universe has indeed been sending me whispers as I believe it does, let's just say I've been ignoring them and there was no choice but to yell to get my attention. I was busy making plans – business development, projections, new contracts. The works. Then life happened and here I sit with my world turned on its' end. My son needed me. He needed me to stop, to be there for him. My husband and I are choosing to unschool and I'm spending my days engaged with my son, learning to be present, and fitting in time for solitude and art. I'm re-imagining the year ahead. I'm finding my footing and trying to lean into this whole process. It has been a hard, hard road here with some of my darkest and most hopeless moments only weeks behind me. I've moved through labels and boxed solutions. I've faced judgement and fear. I've laid awake in anxiety. I was swallowed whole by grief and have been (am) struggling with my identity and the loss of my dreams as I had imagined them. It's been a hard road to acceptance of who I am and who my son is but I've come to a truer place of letting go, trusting my instincts as a mama and a sensitive soul, truly seeing my son and myself for all our beauty and strength, and knowing what's important.

This is where I need to be. This is where my son needs me to be. At home, present, and slow.

I'm thinking and reflecting a lot about a mothers' attachment to her child (not the child to mom, but the other direction) and seeing how easily this is eroded in a busy and stressful lifestyle. I'm really looking at those parts of myself that I'm not liking and seeing that it's within my hands to change – to slow down, pause and look into my son's eyes when he's telling me his biggest secret, to delight in him, to give a full hug when my husband comes into the room. To give time and quality. To trust my son when he tells me what he needs, especially if his only way to express it is through a tantrum or anxiety or fixation. To truly believe he doesn't need fixing (and neither do I). I feel like I've been on the run, avoiding, escaping, pleasing, multitasking, succeeding for so long. I'm exhausted. I'm ready to slow down. To practice being present. To let go.

It's not entirely simple though – removing external distractions in my life has opened up space for this stream of internal distractions and dialogue and restlessness that is deafening at times. There's something unnerving about simply being with yourself and your most cherished ones, yet there is a weightlessness and sense of peace that's so true. Yes, it's relief. It's the beginning of a new journey. And honestly I'm ready for it.

Here's my mantra for myself right now: Dear Self, be who you are and trust that your journey will unfold as it should. And I share the same wish for every other beautiful wholehearted person out there having their own breakdowns and breakthroughs.

xo

My Work in Brick and Mortar Living Boutique!

I'm excited to share a few snapshots of my work in Brick & Mortar Living boutique here in New West. This is the best place in town to pickup local artisan gifts, hands down. Go check it out and pickup some of your special gifts for the season!

I'm so delighted to have Brick & Mortar carrying my artful products. I just dropped off this batch of beautiful goodies today, so by the time you make it into the store you'll find even more to choose from. As pictured below: handmade and surface designed gift wrap $6 for 2 unique sheets, notebooks $12, greeting cards $5.95, and greeting card gift sets $26. Also carried in store are my small fine art blocks $22 and mini tins $5.50. Enjoy!

Brick & Mortar Living is at #50 - Sixth Street, New Westminster, one block up the hill from Sixth and Columbia.
  
Feeling the joy of the season. With love,
xo

Torn.

I want to share a book with you.

This book TORN is one of the few books that has stayed on my bedside table for a long stretch. I didn't know a couple of years ago when I went to a book reading with a friend that this book would become such a favourite for me. I pick it up and read a short excerpt before bed on my hardest days, and the thing I love about it is it doesn't try to teach me anything, impart any great wisdom or technique, and it definitely doesn't try to fix the problem or take the pain away. It simply shares stories from other women just like me who experience the duality of motherhood and career, the pull in multiple directions, the human experience of feeling and wanting opposite things at the same time. This is how I spend much of my time, torn, and this confirms many other women/parents do too. It reassures me to know that I am not alone. And it give me a laugh sometimes too. There's a lot to be said for that.

I Am Resilient.

Every day in Vancouver the birds flock from all over the city back to their nesting place in Burnaby. It's a breathtaking thing to watch hundreds of birds in flight, sweeping across the sky in chaotic and seamless unison. Today as my broken heart was finding strength again I found myself thick in traffic and watching these graceful creatures. They know by instinct how and when to journey home. They know the way. They trust the journey. They do it every day. I can too. My heart has been shattered by the immense pain of being a mama and feeling the uncertainty recently, but it is healing and I'm finding my way again. I am resilient. This is what brings us through.

I am resilient.