About Canada

In about 4 weeks, on the 12th of May, it is Mothers Day in North America.

We have put together a page of Mothers Day gift ideas, just click here (If your Mothers Day falls at a different time then have a look through and bookmark the page for later).

There are lots of ideas but I picked 9 that I particularly like. These are:

I hope you find these ideas of interest, please share the images if you like them.

We have a three popular artists retiring this year.

Though their work has been very successful it is no bad thing for change to occur. In addition it frees up space for new artists and lines.

Where possible we have purchased a decent amount of run off stock.

The first retiring artists are Buzz and Dody, of Art In Iron, who make the neat continental trees. These trees come in large medium or small.

The powder coating makes them visually striking whilst the subject connotations of “one natural world” give a strong emotional connection.

The stand slides off, meaning that they can be free standing or wall mounted.

The next artist, who went to live in Turkey in January, is Alaine Faivre.

Alain\’s work has proved very popular over the years and is collected by a number of our customers.

We made a large order just before he retired and, though we have far more than is shown on the website, it is going quickly. I am happy to send more information about current stock upon request.

And finally the acclaimed blown glass artist Robert Held has also decided it is time to step away from the furnace.

Again we have brought in a number of the paperweights, to keep us going, but the larger pieces are in short supply.

Let us know if you would like more information. In the meantime we wish the artists well in their retirement.

We will advise you as we get new lines in and we refresh the store.

Of course one is a bear and one a moose… its Banff, what do you expect?.

Let me know if you like them.

We have had a busy week at the annual trade show. That is one of the places that we go to try and find this year/’s neat new products.

As the new lines that we have ordered come in, then we will tell you all about them.

This month we have a bit of a treat for fans of local artist Mark Sharp.

Mark has given us access to the last few of a limited edition of two prints. There were 100 prints made of each and originally a section of the prints were sold through Alpine Canada National ski team at $1000, each. They were a donation by Mark towards ski racing development (Mark is also a coach for the Canadian ski team). The originals sold at auction.

Mark is now letting the remaining few go on sale through us at $400, we expect that they will go quickly.

Start House looks out from the summit at Lake Louise, across the valley to the lake.

The piece is powerful and draws you in. When I stand in front of it I get the feeling of being in the start house myself. This is of course helped by the large size of the print (26.5×35.5 inches).

We supply the print in a tube to make shipping easier.

Victory depicts the finish line at Lake Louise. It is an interesting story.

Mark finished the painting a couple of weeks before the world cup. That year was the first time ever a male had won the world cup at Lake Louise since the beginning of the world cup decades before.

Supplied in a posting tube. Print size 22.5 x 34.25 inches.

I hope you like these new pieces, share them if you do

By the way. The trade show is in Toronto. I made use of the 4.5 hour flight to write some updates to the web pages. One feature that had been asked for was to be able to retrieve the last basket made. So now if you log in you can go to the basket page and click on the link to remake the last basket. Also, when logged in, you can view previous orders and shipping information. The site is under continual rewrites.

Check it out regularly and let me know if there is a feature you would like to see.

Finally as per last months newsletter, to try and help you find the perfect gift for your loved one we have a special page of Valentines gift ideas. There is a large range of both choice and price and I hope you find it of use.