My name is Olive and I was born and raised in the Toronto area as an only child with two entrepreneurial-minded parents. Art has always been part of my life. I remember sitting at meetings with my parents as a kid and entertaining myself with a pencil and paper. My early years at the Toronto Waldorf School were full of wonder and creativity. Then, in high school, I was given a solid visual arts base through the Arts York program at Unionville High School. I went on to complete my Bachelor of Fine Arts at York University with a major in Theatre Set Design.

After university, I lived abroad as a missionary and went through some wilderness years. Eventually, I found my way to Vancouver, got married to Tim and had two daughters. Tim and I developed a blog and co-wrote two books. In 2012, we established a marketing company called Coracle Marketing, helping small businesses with their online marketing needs. In 2023, we re-branded to Coracle Coaching and Consulting so that Tim could focus more on his work as a certified coach.

After our two daughters were born, I dabbled a bit in watercolours; simply because they were easier to set up and put away. But my heart always longed to paint with acrylics again.

In January 2020, I read a book called "Designing Your Life" that challenged me to take some small,  practical steps toward the life I dreamed of having (I wrote a blog post about how the book changed my year). My life purpose - or what some people term "calling" -  is to be a conduit of beauty, an advocate for rest, and a practitioner of grace. Art was the convergence of all three elements. I knew in my heart of hearts that if my life were to unexpectedly end, I would regret not living into this artist part of me. (The other thing I want to do is become a spiritual director and provide spiritual companionship to people, but that will need to come later.) I decided to set aside a chunk of time each week to paint for one year and see what happened.

Another catalyst for my decision to own the "artist" in me is that Tim has a degenerative chronic condition called Ankylosing Spondylitis. As the years pass, his physical health challenges increase. I wanted to have a way to help provide for our family in case someday he doesn't have the same working capacity as he has now. I figured that starting now would give me the time I needed to build a good foundation for my art career so that one day, should we need to rely on it, it will be established.

My goal in 2020 was to create a body of cohesive work that I could show to people. I decided to focus on skies, partly because I've always enjoyed the process and results of my past skies, and partly because skies offer an infinite range of inspiration. I was happily surprised when I received much positive response to my work and ended up creating over 60 paintings of various sizes over the course of the year. I gathered the best pieces from the year and offered an Art + Scripture calendar on Kickstarter, which sold about 500 copies and found homes across Canada, as well as in the US, Singapore, Hong Kong, UK, and Germany.

Also in 2020 during the pandemic, I started an "art hug" movement called #LittleArtsofKindness to send tiny pieces of art to encourage front-line workers and people in isolation. The story was featured in our local newspapers Tri-Cities News as well as Vancouver is Awesome. Artists from across Canada and in the United States ended up participating in the movement.

I think of myself as a conduit of beauty because painting is one of the ways I participate in God's beauty. I am merely imitating, reflecting and pointing people's attention toward the True and Original Beauty. When someone asks me to paint something for them, I often will pray for the recipient as I plan and paint the piece. As much as painting is pushing pigments around on a canvas, it is also holy work to me.

My hope is that my paintings can offer you a space to pause; to breathe; to rest your soul a little. And maybe my art will help you remember you aren't alone in this world. You are deeply loved.