Bamboo Sketches
by Charity Lee Jennings
Very Beginner Watercolour (Row of Poplar Trees)
Painting a 'Row of Poplars' in Watercolour by Charity Lee Jennings Have you ever wanted to try watercolour? Here's your chance. I love painting with watercolour so much, I want to share it with you. So I've created this very beginner watercolour demo. Pause the video...
Painting A Kingfisher (with watercolour)
Painting A Kingfisher by Charity Lee Jennings Hi, I'm Charity. I love capturing life with watercolour and ink - to highlight the beautiful and redeem the painful. And I help others do the same. If you want to create or collect art that tells a story of hope, you've...
The Weight of Gold (The Value of a True Friend)
True friends accept us in the midst of our messiness, and today’s story shows how I learned this. This is the last in my series on grief and it ends with a showcase of artwork - the fruit of a painful yet beautiful season. When I came back to Canada, overwhelmed by...
A Hundred Good-Byes – Part 3
The kingfisher now guides me, as he rises and dips along the side of Bear Mountain. I grow stronger with the rhythmic move of the kayak paddle in my hand. I grow stronger as I dip my fingers into cold March waters, and watch buds appear on April trees. The...
A Hundred Good-Byes – Part 2
I was tucked away, beneath Bear Mountain, gaining strength. The Lake House was the perfect place. People were few but the birds were plenty. We watched their migration over the lake, as they headed farther north than we’ve ever been. But the eagles...
A Hundred Good-Byes
The Canada we arrived to wasn’t one I recognized. We entered an airport full of masked faces, forms to fill out, and for some of us, Covid tests and quarantine. Dad J waited outside in February cold, for the hours it took us to navigate our way through...
A Star-Filled Sky
I've told you the stories I’ve told you the stories, how our oldest couldn’t renew his visa, how our boys left home, how we followed not long after. How our life was turned upside-down. I’ve told of the sadness of saying good-bye. Of the weight of grief that...
A World Away
Their healing scent has filled these lands for a hundred years. As I reach the bridge, they’re in full view. Rows of massive eucalyptus trees following each side of River Pan Long far into the distance. Leaves and pods litter the path that lines the...
A Race I Didn’t Want To Win – Part 2
Original Artwork by Charity Lee Jennings Read Part 1 of the story here. “The taxi driver dropped us in the wrong spot,” Brian said over the phone. I glanced at my watch. They’d already had one Covid test that day but couldn’t get the results in time. The second...
A Race I Didn’t Want To Win
It was meant to be Malachi and Zachary’s last day in China and Brian was in search of a restaurant. “Cheap,” he thought, “we’ve already put so much money into plane tickets…but special.” Beef Noodle Soup was the perfect choice. It was a dish he’d come to love...
Liberation Tower
“I heard back from the Consulate,” I told Brian. “Either the boys or one of us needs to be there in person, since they’re switching from child to adult passports.” “What! Travel to another province? With all that’s going on with Covid?” “I know! I don’t...
A Promise To Myself
It's lockdowns and stay-cations and heartache. My family is on the other side of the world, and friends, who were once neighbours, are scattered around the globe unable to return to the place they call home. It felt strange to bring in a new year with...