Everyone has a spirit animal, why not capture the essence of yours?
We will start with a guided meditation, and after paving the way with gentle coaching you will create your own artistic version of your spirit animal. If you have never held a paintbrush or drawn before now is your chance for a fun and insightful experience.
Did you know we may have as many as seven different Spirit Animals in our lifetime? They may appear during different times or events in your life to guide and protect you.
Create your own Spirit Animal Workshops can be tailored to groups from adults to children.
Your instructor and Guide:
Louise Lambert, a Métis Professional artist, will be your guide.
Her works are well known in the Okanagan Valley, selling internationally. Owner of Wine Country Studios, she has conducted over 200 workshops throughout North America.
Love to have your own personal Spirit Animal but not able to make it to a workshop? Here is a solution…
Why not Louise Lambert paint your very own spirit animal for you?
Louise will help you to discover your own Spirit Animal, through a personal fun conversation. Once the animal is revealed, she will show you possible images of the Spirit Animal, where you will provide your input such as your favourite colours or theme.
You can select what size you would wish your Spirit Animal artwork to be. Sizes start at 8” by 10” and up.
Pick up your artwork at Wine Country Studios, or we can ship it to you.
Learn more….
More about Spirit Animals
“Create your Spirit Animal” is a unique, guided mediation and painting workshop run by Wine Country Studios. The owner and workshop facilitator is a professional Métis artist, Louise Lambert. The program draws on the Métis understanding of ‘spirit animals’ as life guides and symbols of qualities and values that each animal holds.
Louise draws upon her forefathers the Algonquin people who believed that nature was inhabited by spirits intermixed with the physical world. The Algonquin were deeply spiritual and had a religion founded on animism, the belief that a spiritual world animated and interacted with the physical world. Instead of believing in one god, the Algonquins believed in an essential spirit present in all living things and embodied in Kitchi Manitou.
Historical evidence of the Algonquin settlements, dates back to 4280 BCE and possibly earlier. Their tribal lands were largely found in the areas of the Ottawa River valley. Their first known meeting with Europeans occurred in 1603 when they encountered the French explorers. Later they were exposed to the influx of French trappers as the region was rich for the fur trade.
Many European settlers married Algonquin women, as they provided comfort as well as acting as guides in the new territory. The first inter-mixed, as they called them back then, became known as the Métis which translates in French as a ‘Mixed.’
Interested in learning more about Métis people? Check out our blog.
Create your Spirit Animal – Experiences
As I transition to retirement after a challenging career in the military, emergency nursing, and teaching, I have found my protector in the Create your Spirit Animal workshop.
When I paint, I usually paint whimsical flowers, so it surprised me what emerged on the canvas. A fierce wolf stared back at me. Telling me that characteristics and behaviours that no longer serve me are being culled from my consciousness.
The wolf is a protector and it spiritually and physically protects me at all times.
-Wendy M, Kamloops, BC
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When I was a child, I spent my hours creating many forms of artwork with my favourite aunt. When I became an adult, now with kids, working full time, and responsibilities, I lost this precious chance. Being a mum, a caretaker for my family and the pressure of making money took over.
Over this last period of time, during COVID, I found the urge to reconnect with myself and my true inner spirit.
Part of that true inner self was returning to creating art. However, I was conditioned not to do something just for me, because the demands of being a mum, wife, and work took priority – everything felt like it needed to serve dual processes. Doing it just for myself didn’t feel like enough of a priority.
Now I have the urge to do something that reconnects me to myself.
When I saw the opportunity to come to the “Create the spirit animal workshop” it aligned perfectly with my inner soul and my creative urge.
It was meant to be. It has opened an opportunity for me to create more and enjoy my spirit. Doing something for myself is important, and felt amazing”
-Sheena S., West Kelowna, BC
Beautiful Story of how Spirit Animals Came to Be
The Story
“ Spirits of the animals can teach us, guide us, empower us and help us heal …Spirit Animal guides, why would I not want to share that with others?”
Louise’s passions that held her steadfast in life were her love of art and her admiration of animals. Guiding her through triumphs and life challenges. By four years old, she was drawing, encouraged by her mother mainly because it kept her occupied, and by eleven, she was composing with oil painting mentored by her uncle in Vancouver, British Columbia, many of the images were of animals.
She painted whenever she could. Until she eventually was able to do it full-time, producing commissioned work, creating originals, and conducting workshops and classes at Wine Country Studios in the Okanagan Valley, B.C.
The meaning of animals’ significance came early to her.
“I recall my mother looking up at the sky and remarking about birds, their wisdom, their expanse in the skies, … “All those birds, so many more than I knew’ -We must come back as birds, touching the heavens and earth.”
Years later, after the loss of her mother, Louise was grieving. Walking towards the lake during a chilly March afternoon, she heard a clatter in the sky. Directly above her were the fluid but resilient Canadian geese, with one of their members trailing behind. Louise intuitively knew the geese, lagging was her mother’s spirit touching the heavens.
About that time, a Métis community leader, an elder, petitioned, “You are an artist… we need an event that holds the interest of children and elders alike, weaving our heritage and permitting us to be creative.”
Create your Spirit Animal was born…and the workshop was a hit.
Since then, Create your Spirit Animal has been reviving souls and spirits. All it takes is curiosity and willingness to begin the journey.
Create your Spirit Animal takes on a life of its own. People who have never picked up an art brush are creating compelling images.
Everyone’s image is as distinctive and unique as their soul.
The paintings are created without hesitation because their internal compass is guiding them. They begin to trust their instincts… a guided meditation invites them to visit their spirit animal and then to create it on a canvas with paint.
Create your Spirit Animal workshop is deeply rooted in the collective heritage of our ancestors. The creative form permits everyone to enjoy and benefit from it.
