Wild Asters and Spreading Dogbane

Hello friends, its been 10 months since my last newsletter. I have had quite a busy 2026 until now with travel adventures to NewZealand, Canada's Eastcoast provinces and Vancouver Island - what fun! Lots of fodder for blogs, newsletters and creating art.

And now it is the fall season, my favorite time of year for being outdoors. Northgate Trails, situated directly south of Dauphin, Manitoba - just before the north entrance of Riding Mountain National Park - is a lovely place to wander on foot.

Late September a few years ago, my husband and I were walking our dog on one of the trails there. I was stopping frequently to admire the haunting wood spirit tree carvings by artist Earl Graham and take photos of the ground cover along the trail, including the wild asters and spreading dogbane. While I photographed these plants I remember being mesmerized by the composition these late blooming Wild Asters created as they were poking their heads through the Spreading Dogbane.

Symbols of resilience, Wild Asters represent patience and grace, while Spreading Dogbane signifies stubborn endurance and survival in difficult environments. Wild Asters provide essential, late-season nectar for bees, migrating butterflies, and other pollinators. Spreading Dogbane offers an early-summer nectar source for pollinators and other beneficial insects. And its tough, fibrous inner bark has been used to make cordage by indigenous people. Both plants also have traditional herbal and medicinal properties.

I had previously done an acrylic painting of these plants, underpainting the canvas with red as a contrast to make the botanical colours pop. It went shortly after to its new home. Then, last fall as the weather cooled, I decided to revisit these photos and they inspired a new linocut design. I started working on the design last October, carved the lino and then hand-pulled the prints last December.

And late May this year, I finally hand-coloured them!. This is a varied edition and limited print run with a maximum of 20 hand-pulled prints. A framed version of this artwork is now on consignment at Lasting Image here in Brandon - and they did a wonderful job framing it for me!

I've also listed one of the editioned hand-pulled, hand-coloured prints on my website, which I am vowing to quit neglecting and populate more frequently with my artwork and their stories!

In closing, best wishes to you and yours!