As the firstborn in a Saskatchewan family where art was valued, I aspired early to become an artist. However, over time I felt I was better at words and writing became my creative outlet, I found expression as a freelance writer, poet, and book author.

That changed in 2017 when I decided to delve back into art and maybe illustrate a children’s book I had in mind. A Christmas gift of sketching pencils and a sketchbook opened the art floodgates. I pursued Bible Art Journaling, watercolour painting, and established a daily sketchbook practice. Though I never illustrated that book, my crush on art continues.

Currently books and online videos are my teachers. I spent two years in Billy Showell’s Online School of Botanical Watercolor and am currently enrolled in Acrylic University.

I love depicting nature and the stuff of everyday life using pencil, pen, mixed media, watercolor, acrylic, and oil paints. “Anything can be drawn and it becomes beautiful once it’s on the page,” says sketch journal artist Samantha Dion Baker. My hope is that my art will open the eyes of the viewer to the extraordinary beauty in the ordinary world that surrounds us.

Other places you’ll find me online.

Art by Violet Nesdoly