Original post and event details below:

A Wildwood Ecoforestry Experience/Fundraiser

Saturday, April 6 and Sunday, April 7
Noon – 4 pm at the Wildwood EcoForest and Homestead in Ladysmith, Southern Vancouver Island.

Join me for an incredible soul-charging weekend (or day program) guaranteed to leave you feeling lighter, happier and fully inspired.

Through laughter, movement, journaling, photography, collage and creative exploration, participants will enjoy a fun, deeply grounding and relaxing experience.
No art experience is required.

The incomparable beauty of Wildwood will form a stunning backdrop for this wonderful opportunity to unleash your creative genie, relax and have fun!
Be prepared to enjoy yourself!

Warning: Participation may cause euphoria!

Retreat Details

Surround yourself in the glory of a 77-acre private nature reserve and feel yourself uplifted by the fresh fragrance of a spring forest, light sparkling and dancing on a pristine lake surrounded by majestic trees swaying to the rhythm of nature, songbirds singing in delight, spring flowers emerging and emerald green mosses begging to be touched.

Let the worries and weight of the world go as you joyfully immerse yourself in these beautiful surroundings and experience soul charging at the deepest level. Enjoy relaxed time in nature and the opportunity to explore your creative genie through mixed media and collage, photography (phone or camera), journaling, connection and laughter led by Frances, a Wildwood forest lover and creativity expert.

Here’s your chance to immerse yourself in the beauty of Wildwood’s stunning surroundings and try new and fun approaches to expressing yourself through a variety of creative explorations and reflection.

No experience is required. The only prerequisite is an open mind and willingness to enjoy yourself. Each day will provide unique feel good experiences that will leave you both relaxed and recharged.

Indoor activities will take place in the property’s Homestead, a beautifully renovated log home filled with natural light in the middle of this private sanctuary.

Playshop Fee
$165 per day or special weekend pricing for both days $295
Supplies, snacks and beverages included.
Limited registration for a unique experience so be sure to book now!
A deluxe three night on-site accommodation package is available (see below).

Artist Statement

My intention is to provide a deeply satisfying soulfully enriching experience that brings joy and peace to each participant. This retreat is an opportunity to deepen or to begin the journey to reconnect to your innately whole inner self.
I believe everybody is creative at some level of their being. Given the opportunity to express it can be a wonderful journey of self-discovery. I can say this because I never knew I was creative until I explored art and photography in my twenties.
Ever since then, I have blossomed into the individual I was meant to be, not who I was brought up to be. I have been fortunate to make a 35-year career from my creativity and want to share it.  – Frances Litman
For my bio please click here.

About Wildwood

Wildwood is a 77-acre ecoforest nestled along the shores of Quennell Lake just north of Ladysmith, British Columbia.  It lies in the traditional territories of the Stz’uminus and Snuneymuxw Coast Salish First Nations.

A rare and unique working demonstration ecoforest, Wildwood is home to a good many old-growth Coastal Douglas-firs, representing a vanishing ecosystem once abundant on Vancouver Island.  These ancient trees stand among a profusion of western red-cedar, bigleaf maple, flowering dogwood and arbutus trees, and bring an amazing presence to the forest, stately in their towering height and size.

The trees of Wildwood have been selectively harvested since 1945 in a manner that respects the needs of the forest and its species.  Yet, Wildwood represents a fully functioning ecosystem that provides purified air, water filtration, carbon sequestration and other services in an ongoing cycle of life. There has never been a need to plant replacement trees for those that were harvested –  enough seed trees are always retained, and natural regeneration is another one of those free services offered by Mother Nature.

Wildwood also boasts a richness of wildlife, including a rare and protected colony of Little Brown Bats, giant anthills, banana slugs, eagles, osprey, pileated woodpeckers, great horned owls, great blue herons, wrens, warblers and towhees.  Many indigenous plants also enrich the forest, including coralroot and rattlesnake plantain orchids, wild roses, oceanspray, salal, Oregon-grape and salmonberry, along with myriad mosses, lichens and fungi.

Accommodation Booking Details

Get Fully Immersed
BOOK NOW! Only two on-site rooms available, one twin and one queen.
Enjoy the convenience of a three night stay at this incredible property.
Friday-Sunday, April 5-7, 2019
For information on this and nearby accommodation, please contact: info@ecoforestry.ca

About The Homestead Accommodation
The Homestead sleeps six in three themed bedrooms with premium mattresses and soft, organic bamboo sheets. In every room, you’ll experience a showcase of innovative design and value-added wood creations – from hand-built bed platforms using lumber milled on site, to live-edge headboards, arbutus branch legs on the kitchen island, an arbutus chandelier and tree slab table.
Check in: 4 pm Friday. Check out: 11 am Monday

Booking Fee
$400 per room for 3-night stay, includes full kitchen and cleaning fee.
Added bonus (optional): Morning and evening light yoga stretching time with Frances, plus shared evening meals.
(Bring your own food, beverages, journal and yoga mat.)

Click here to book now!

The post Soulfully Inspired: Forest Bathing & Creativity Retreat appeared first on Frances Litman Multimedia Productions.

What an incredible experience to come back to the high school I graduated from and be in the same classrooms that I had known 39 years previously. I can say with certainty, the Grade 9/10 students I had the great pleasure of meeting and working with, were light years ahead of what I remember of high school and my former peers.

I can also attest that I’ve never seen teachers so dedicated as those that I collaborated with. Here is one example of how the time spent with these amazing students blossomed into a magazine cover coming to life, featuring the art of Hailey Macpherson.

The inquiry-based program I developed and led, explored the connection between health, happiness and the environment. This program gave Grade 9/10 Reynold’s students an opportunity to work with and mentor kindergarten students from Braefoot, culminating with a school-wide display of their projects.

I look forward to posting more images and some video in the near future.

The post Artist In Residence appeared first on Frances Litman Multimedia Productions.

Creative in-camera photography is essentially sculpting with light. Working with flash requires an understanding of the desired results before the shutter is pressed. Our eyes can’t perceive the different lighting ratios that create these results, but experience can give the maker a vision of what to expect.

I found great joy in creating these images in my studio as each one is truly unique and captures the essence of my client in different ways and has an energy that is authentic because the art of the moment was captured in-camera as it happened.

The post Dancing the Light Fantastic appeared first on Frances Litman Multimedia Productions.

The World Photographic Cup was founded in 2013 as a cooperative effort by The Federation of European Photographers (FEP) and Professional Photographers of America (PPA). Its singular goal is to unite photographers internationally in a spirit of friendship and cooperation.

A Governing Committee from seven different countries conducts the ongoing affairs of the competition which is a multi-level process which begins with each country choosing 18 images (three in six different categories) to represent the country.

The post World Photographic Cup Finalist appeared first on Frances Litman Multimedia Productions.

The post Loving Where I Live appeared first on Frances Litman Multimedia Productions.

The post Sooke Fine Arts 2016 appeared first on Frances Litman Multimedia Productions.

One of the highlights of my 20+ year career as a professional photographer is to have my personal work on display at the Robert Bateman Gallery.
The display is themed around the sea with World Ocean’s Day in mind and will be up until June 15th.
Please be sure to drop by and see all the beautiful work in the gallery.

The post Held Over – At The Robert Bateman Gallery appeared first on Frances Litman Multimedia Productions.

Thanks to CanvasPlus for doing such a fabulous job in printing the canvases I had on display at the 5th Annual Creatively United for the Planet Sustainability Showcase this past April at both Royal Bay Secondary and the Royal BC Museum.

Jan Dong was a total pro in how she hung the show and to be in the company of so many talented artists was a real highlight.

The post Creatively United Art Show appeared first on Frances Litman Multimedia Productions.

The post Creatively United Art Showcase appeared first on Frances Litman Multimedia Productions.

The post Nature Challenge Day 2-4 appeared first on Frances Litman Multimedia Productions.