Pondside Reflections
It was a very cold day in the winter of 2024, probably November, and I was warming up in the women’s washroom trailer of the frozen construction site I worked at. As it happened, I would go in there a few times a day when it got below -25ºC just to thaw out for a few minutes. In one of these defrostings, as I was listing product and collection ideas as I often did, the idea for a full pattern collection came to me: ponds. I wanted to paint all of that life at the edge of the water, in the water, on the water. Even the name Pondside came to me in that instant. I felt so much excitement for this idea, and it has gripped me ever since. I started in on the project in 2025, but my attention seemed always either pulled by art calls or other commitments. So when the opportunity arose to create a wallpaper collection celebrating boyhood, I jumped at the chance and Pondside was born.
All of the paintings filled my dining room table!
Since I did create all of the patterns for wallpaper, I do have some patterns to modify for fabric as well as additional patterns to create for a fabric collection (check here to see more of the collection), but I am so pleased with the current collection and feel these patterns would make the most perfect wallpaper for boys and girls alike who enjoy adventure, exploration, and nature, and for those parents who want to encourage a love of God’s creations, who want to preserve childhood and allow for its return to slowness, wildness, and wonder.
Most of the patterns are available in full colour as well as more neutral and monochrome options.
Where possible, the patterns are also available in light and dark variants.
I live in a very special place, right between a river and a pond, and there is so much life and beauty around me. I witness it while walking with my dogs every day, while I paint and look out from my art room window, while I kayak on the river, while I rest on the grass. In the spring and autumn, Canadian geese fill–and I mean fill–the bay below my home, using it as a stopover on their migration routes. Hundreds of geese honk, fly, and float right outside my door. In the summer I watch as the pond hosts individual ducks, then courting ducks, then strings of following ducklings. I spot herons and king fishers hunting fish patiently. I hear red winged black birds and warblers and chickadees, and feed blue jays from my deck. The evenings are full of croaking frogs, the bay is home to loon families. My gravel road is lined with a variety of ferns, the forest out my door carpeted with moss and little mushrooms. There is so much magic beyond the screens, beyond the doors, and I want so badly for the young people in the world to remember that. Even better, actually, is realizing that it is not magic at all. Every living thing, from the grass to the heron was created intentionally, and I believe that one of the intentions of God’s creativity was to beautify the earth. How blessed I feel to believe in a Creator who designed everything out of love for us all collectively, and out of love for us all individually. I like to think that He knew that Bevin Campbell would be brought to tears from this beauty, and that it made Him happy.
The pond I walk past every day.
I thought it would also be fun to show you a bit of the process of the collection...not in the way you might expect though. The following picture is a compilation of a bunch of very quick, very imperfect sketches from over the last two years of living here. Anything that becomes easier–whether that is painting, drawing, or even noticing–only becomes easier through practice. These sketches are from my year long daily sketchbook practice (read about it here) and looking back, some of the pages make me cringe. However, the process has been the best teacher and I wouldn't be where I am without it, nor would I have intentionally spent so much time noticing and appreciating the world around me. It helped me improve my art, but also improve my attitude and the way I see the world. I look back on those sketchbooks and realize I gave myself such a gift. This riverside, pondside home has really helped shape who I am today, and every one of these paintings prepared me for this collection.
Paintings from my year long sketchbook challenge.
I am so blessed to be absolutely surrounded by life and to enjoy a life that permits me to spend time noticing it. I wanted to put as much of that life as I could into these patterns with my watercolour paintings as well as with scans of the leaves and ferns, cedar and moss growing right next to the pond. It is my favourite collection to date, and it will always remain special to me as it is truly a reflection of this beautiful place I get to call home; each painting is wrapped in memories and each pattern is truly a labour of love–love of nature, love of art, and love of God.