It’s with mixed feelings that I can say most of my stock for the Banff Christmas Market has arrived.
My restock of metal prints came in last week, along with a large order from Art Ink Print in Victoria, who handle my 11×14 poster prints. That shipment included both my own stock for the four Banff Market long weekends and a big order for the Calgary Zoo, which I delivered on Wednesday.
Each of my poster prints is hand-signed, and the Zoo got the very first print of my latest Snowy Owl painting. It’s always a nice feeling to see a new piece in print for the first time.
Another large order from Pacific Music & Art arrived yesterday. They’ve licensed my work for several years on a wide range of products. People often tell me they’ve seen my art in stores across Alberta, BC, Alaska, and the Pacific Northwest. Those are all Pacific products.
They also produce the calendar many of you look forward to each year. That means I get to sell my own artist edition while the same calendar reaches stores I could never reach myself. Some of you on Vancouver Island have even told me you already picked up your 2026 calendar before I got mine.
If you’ve ever bought a magnet or coaster from me at the Calgary Expo or the Banff Christmas Market, those are Pacific items, too. I already had several designs in stock, but yesterday’s delivery topped up my inventory for the market.
So yes, you have to spend money to make money, but placing large orders like these is a serious expense, often weeks or months ahead of actually selling anything. Anyone who’s ever kept retail inventory knows the feeling. It’s something I never get used to and it puts me on edge.
That’s the “mixed” part.
While I’m happy with this year’s calendar order and confident in my usual sales projections, the Canada Post labour dispute has thrown a wrench in everything. Normally, early calendar sales through my online store help offset these upfront costs.
Announced late last night, as of Saturday, Oct. 11, Canada Post is moving from a nationwide strike to rotating strikes, which should get some mail moving again, just not reliably. So for now, my online store will stay closed until I see what happens. But until Canada Post proves this isn’t just a temporary pause before another shutdown, I can’t risk taking online orders that might end up stuck in limbo. I’ll plan to reopen by late October. 
My last outstanding order, custom tote bags featuring my Christmas Bear painting, has shipped from Montreal by courier and is scheduled to arrive next week. Thankfully, that one’s unaffected and on track.
Like every other small business caught up in this dispute, I just have to wait and hope for a resolution soon… or find a way to make this year’s Christmas sales work despite it all.
So yeah, I’ve been angry and stressed. I won’t pretend otherwise. Even with rotating strikes, which should get some mail moving again, the uncertainty means gritting my teeth, clenching my jaw, and trying to accept what I can’t change while working on what I can.
On a brighter note, I’m currently working on a dog commission that’s been a welcome distraction. I’d love to focus on that full-time for a week, but for now, the editorial cartooning is paying the bills until the wildlife paintings can contribute again. And thankfully, with each Canada Post strike and job action having taught hard lessons, all of my newspapers now pay by direct deposit.
I’m also creating a project for Wacom, featuring their new Movink Pad 11, hands down the best mobile drawing experience I’ve had. Full stop. I’ll share more about it in an upcoming video, which includes outdoor sketching footage. Above is a preview: a small practice piece I’m working on to get comfortable with the included software.
Thankfully, I’ve got a short cabin trip coming up with my buddy Darrel, something we booked a while ago. It’s a pre-market reset before the long haul through November and December. I’m looking forward to a few days of quiet: playing cards, Scrabble and guitar, napping on the deck, and wandering the pastures with my camera in search of wildlife. Fall is my favourite time of year there.
Here in Canmore, we got our first snowfall last Saturday. Most of it melted in the valley by Sunday afternoon, but the mountains stayed white for a few days longer. If this isn’t the best view from any Safeway in Canada, it’s at least in the top three. Helps (a little) to soften the shock of the ridiculous grocery prices around here.
But I was biking my errands in shorts again yesterday and snapped this pic of Policeman’s Creek.
Back to work.
Cheers,
Patrick
If you missed the video I created about the Alberta Birds of Prey Centre and the creation of my most recent Snowy Owl, here it is again.
The cover features one of my favourite new paintings, The Grizzlies. Inside you’ll find a mix of new pieces and some perennial bestsellers. I’ll let you know when they’re available.
Though Sarah and her spouse live near Edmonton, and I could ship the painting, she and her Mom had planned for a couple of nights in Canmore this past weekend, and I delivered the 18”X24” stretched canvas to their hotel. I took them outside into the sunlight for the reveal so they could see the bright colours and the details. Whether on paper, metal or canvas, my work always looks better in print than on a screen. People have been saying that to me for years. Sarah said it, too.
Despite the bright sun, I got some shots of the two black bear cubs. There might be inspiration for a painting or two in the few photos I kept, but I will let them simmer and review them in a few months. My mood and circumstances can colour my perception, so shots that don’t inspire me in August might push the right buttons in January.
Although I prefer to take my own reference photos whenever possible, I am not interested in becoming a professional photographer. Connecting the dots between aperture, shutter speed and ISO and understanding how they work together, it just seems like math and bores the hell out of me.
I know that hook because I have it for drawing and painting. I can spend hours detailing little hairs or working to get the texture of a bear’s nose just right. I am confident that would be incredibly dull for most people.
So, while I revel in learning a photography trick or technique that helps me take better reference, like 
At the end of July, on the day I sent 
Though most of Alberta had been dealing with heavy wildfire smoke that week, it completely cleared up by the time I got to the cabin and stayed that way the whole four days we were there. The temperature even dropped to a comfortable level and we got some welcome rain. In fact, on the first night, it cooled off so much that we wondered if we might need a fire in the wood stove. Given the oppressive heat we’d just escaped, we had no appetite for that. But wearing long pants and a hoodie seemed strange that evening, given how uncomfortable the past month had been.
Even though I couldn’t turn off my busy brain, it was good to get away. We did what we always do: sat around talking, napped on the decks in the afternoon, walked around the large property, and played guitar, cards and Scrabble. Yes, we’re boring old men.
It was a very pretty and delightfully cool morning, and I knew there would be plenty of time to nap on the deck later in the day, so my mood improved. I wandered up the road, spooked a few deer and watched them take off across the neighbour’s newly cut and bailed hayfield. I kept my eyes peeled for other wildlife, hoping for an owl or coyote.
The base of the tree she ran up to escape was twenty feet below me down the steep bank, so her ‘safe height’ now put her at eye level with me as I stood on the road. And she was NOT happy about it.
Though I had done what I could to boost my exposure compensation to account for the dark area in which I was shooting, I needed to keep the shutter speed high to try to capture this quick little marten. In the end, none of the pictures I got were very good, but I enjoyed the moment. I don’t know if I have ever seen a pine marten in the wild, but I was pleased with the early morning treat.
.
Today is World Press Freedom Day. As part of the observance of this reminder of the importance of journalistic freedom around the world, 
I enjoyed drawing this cartoon, though I learned long ago that what I think is clever and what other people like can be very different things. It’s a running gag between my wife and me that if I think a cartoon is particularly good, it won’t get printed anywhere. But if I send out one that meets the strict quality control metric of “good enough to meet my daily deadline,” that’s the one that gets printed and complimented the most.
When I first moved to Canmore in 2001, I worked for a sign shop for a few years. Every place I’ve worked taught me skills I’ve applied to my own business. From that job, I learned design techniques, colour theory and how to create vector art. I still use vector paths and Bezier curves for clean ink lines in my editorial cartoons, a skill I learned at Canmore Sign Co.
These are larger die-cut stickers than you will generally find, each around 4” X 5”. I didn’t want to shrink them down and lose the personality for which my whimsical critters are known. I also wanted people to have the option of putting them on vehicle windows, so they’re made from long-lasting, weather-resistant, high-quality vinyl. Finally, I chose a matte finish over glossy for better visibility in changing light.
