Paintings In The Post

I’ve mentioned the forestland ‘Temagami’ in my blog so many times that most of you know that it is a ancient old growth Red and White Pine forest that has a remaining untouched capacity of only 1% due to all the clear-cut logging that has occurred throughout Ontario over the last 170 years or so.


Temagami is a large part of my life… in the stories that I tell, the paintings that I create and the poems that I write.


I’ve also shared stories about the art classes that I taught in the Spring of this year – where we created paintings of the Temagami forestland – after a brief lesson to understand its importance.


Sooooooooooo………


The classes were over and I still had two canvases prepped and ready to go. I decided that it would be best in I finished them, and so I did…


Then I thought that I should do something fun with them. I decided to mail them to two friends that I had made on Facebook.

Kim Jonas is a dude in his twenties – I think – and he lives in Sweden. He begins ‘chats’ with me about three times a week. He asks a lot of questions about Canada cuz he’s so interested in it and Canadians! Once he stole (LOL!) some pictures from my photoalbum about British Columbia and with other pictures he had created a video using those pictures to show how beautiful our country is. I loved it and posted it to my wall to share with many of my other non-Canadian friends – ha ha – and they loved it too!!! It is because of Kim’s love for Canada that I want to share this painting with him.

Steph lives in England and we’ve been FB friends for many months, now. She leaves wonderful and positively uplifting comments on my pictures and statuses, all the times. She has made me laugh, so many times that I thought it would be nice to send this to her as a ‘Thank You’!


So, it was time to get the artworks ready for the mail. As you can see, Elly loves it when I cut off the ends of the cardboard boxes especially to make toys for her – LOL!!!


Since these packages are going overseas – and I expect that a few more will, too – I decided to use a special tape to promote Canada…


The last time I was at the post office I noticed this packing tape that was designed with Canadian flags all over it. I looked to see if it was manufactured in China – cuz ya never know- and I was delighted that it was indeed made in Canada… so I bought it!


A few days later, a few more packages were ready for the post, too!!!

I sent four prints down to California, to the nurses that cared for my grandfather, to say ‘Thanks!’


The large package contains this painting. I’m sending it to a close friend of mine from my years in high school.


I lost touch with Brenda after I had graduated from college and I was totally surprised when – three years ago – I found a letter from her in my email inbox. Since then we’ve shared many stories about the adventures in our lives and she always tells me stories about her daughter. Brenda is indeed a super happy mum!!! Since many of my high school friends have received gifts of my artwork, I thought that Brenda should definitely have one, too! But… at the last minute I changed my mind. Ha! Ha! Instead of sending the artwork as a present to Brenda, I decided to send the painting to her daughter. I’m sure that she will enjoy seeing it in her daughter’s room!

I get very excited when I think about my artwork going on merry adventures around the planet! It’s a wonderful way to bring light into many people’s hearts for many years to come!!!

Jim