I like this video that friends and family unveiled at the recent 83rd birthday party for Canadian artist Robert Bateman (Bob to his friends). His wife Birgit Bateman has been a dear friend of mine since we attended high school together in West Vancouver in the Sixties. Bob & Birgit met while teaching high school art in Ontario. They are a wonderful couple who love their kids, nature, wildlife, especially birds, and care deeply about the environment.

If you’re headed to Victoria this summer, visit the Robert Bateman Centre to see a collection of Bob’s artwork. It opened a day after Bob’s birthday.

Birgit is also a fabulous photographer. You can see some of her work below, which is currently being exhibited until Sept. 15 at the ArtSpring gallery on Salt Spring Island, where Birgit & Bob live. The exhibit includes 23 other photographers in a show titled Photosynthesis (info at http://www.photosyn.com). She took this photograph in the old town of Cáceres, Spain:

You can view more of her work at http://www.birgitbateman.com/

The most prestigious exhibit of her career opened in June 2011 at the Stroganov Palace in St. Petersburg under the auspices of the State Russian Museum; it was slated to run for 3 months but was extended to 4 months due to the high interest. Here are a few of the images from that show:

Victoria band Jets Overhead

And here’s a music video of the Victoria-based  band Jets Overhead, which features Birgit’s niece, Antonia Freybe-Smith: