My Artwork

My landscape and nature photography is also available for purchase.  I use Fine Art America, a POD (print on demand) site based in the States, where you have hundreds of options on custom sizes, colours and even frames to create the perfect piece for your home and budget. There are canvas, acrylic, and metal prints, framed or unframed ; Samsung and I-I-Phone cell phone cases; large 5 x 7 greeting cards suitable for framing (and these also become more affordable in orders of 10 or more). Just click on the picture for more information. Buy in confidence as Fine Art America offers a 30 day money back guarantee.  The quality of work they do is superb and I know you will be happy with the product you choose.   The Fine Art America watermark in the lower right hand corner of these prints WILL NOT be on your purchased print.  

Art and wine - what could be a better combination?

Now this is cool. and a fantastic deal if you live in the U.S. Starting now, for the entire month of July, all orders placed on my gallery comes with a $100 gift certificate for wine from a company called NakedWines.com. (Unfortunately this is limited to buyers in the United States).  All you have to do, to receive this fantastic offer, is to purchase any print or greeting card from my galleries and you receive a free $100 voucher to put towards a wine purchase of $160 or more! Yes, it's that simple!  Here's the link to my gallery: http://marilyn-wilson.artistwebsites.com/
The complete details are on the following page:
http://fineartamerica.com/winepromotion.html
The fine print is here: The gift certificates are only valid for first-time buyers on NakedWines.com and can only be applied towards wine purchases of $160 or more. You must be 21 years old or older to redeem the gift certificates. The wine that you purchase can not be shipped outside of the United States.

Being Thankful

Time flies by so quickly these days.

I have set a personal goal of becoming more mindful of the moment, and of becoming more consciously thankful for those moments.
 

Today I am thankful for the small kindnesses of strangers. I am grateful to the student who kindly held the door open for me today at work.

 I am thankful to the driver who let me in to her busy lane of traffic, and to the other driver who waved thank you to me when I let him into my busy lane.

I am thankful for a safe haven to call home.

Bat in the Woodpile

We had a carpenter friend over last weekend to help us with sagging plywood under a corner of our deck. We had thought that water might have entered there and were preparing for the worst. Dry as a bone under there (thank goodness) but what we DID find was this little fellow, attached to the inside of the plywood up snug against the insulation. He obviously had crawled under the sagging part to get inside and keep warm. He is hibernating (alive and well). We called Wild Arc (an agency affiliated with the SPCA that deals with wild animals) and they told us what to do - To move a hibernating bat safely, use a dustpan (bleach it afterwards) and if you have to touch him use thick leather gloves (dispose of them afterwards), because 1% of bats can carry rabies (very small chance but use caution still ...). Anyway, I took pictures of him first, before moving him safely to a small woodpile under our deck that won't be used this year. Funny thing is, we have found a bat in that woodpile years ago (obviously not the same one but it's a popular bat hotel, I suppose!) We were told to tuck him in to a safe sheltered spot and he will awaken now and again to go out to feed. Bats are such great little creatures and we felt honoured to find this guy.

Please Vote for Tia!

I entered a picture of our cat Tia in a photo contest. There are many cute pets entered, but if you would like to vote for my photo of Tia, your votes would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!

http://www.petconnection.ca/photo-contest/

Kitten portraits for Broken Promises Rescue, Victoria, B.C.

I volunteer for an animal rescue agency here in Victoria, B.C., taking photographs of some of the foster animals that come in for placement in their forever homes.  Recently I photographed two kittens at their wonderful foster home.  Both these kittens have had a hard start to life before being brought into the care of Broken Promises Rescue (www.brokenpromisesrescue.com). They are not littermates, but have been fostered together and have formed a strong bond. Ichabod, the little long haired black kitten, was found with both eyes badly infected, and only one recovered fully. Edward, the short haired black and white kitten, was found nearly dead by the side of a road and brought to the agency, with a badly damaged eye.  Both kittens will lose their 'bad' eyes when they are about 9 months old (paid for fully by the agency). Both kittens have fully recovered, with a few bumps along the way, but now are ready for adoption to their 'furever home' together. They are thriving and bonded and healthy. And active! It was hard to get photos of them that weren't blurred!  Here are a few of the photos I took.