Nelson artist Abby Wilson has donated four of her paintings to Kootenay Lake Hospital, one for each of its four staff rooms, and each depicting one of the four seasons.
She delivered the paintings on Friday.
“They were so grateful,” Wilson said. “They were super stoked and excited to get them up in the staff rooms. They said, ‘It’s been extra hard here with some of the staff absences. It’s been extra challenging.’”
Wilson is also running a fundraising campaign on her website at abbywilson.ca where she is selling fine art prints of the four paintings mounted on stretched canvas. After printing costs, the remainder of the proceeds will go to the Kootenay Lake Hospital Foundation.
There are three hearts hidden in each of the four paintings.
“The hearts are a way of showing gratitude and they stand for being kind, being calm, and being safe.”
Wilson’s inspiration for these donations came last summer when her child was born in the midst of wildfire smoke and a heat dome, followed in the fall by protests against public health measures.
“There was just a lot of tension in our community,” she says.
Wilson had several interactions with the hospital for tests, ultrasounds and the birth itself.
“Everyone was so wonderful and kind and compassionate and working so hard over there. And as a new mom at home, with my art supplies, I thought, well, this is something I could kind of do, to say thank you … and bring a little more colour into their world.”