Welcome to Victoria!

I’ve lived all over Canada during my military service (12+ yrs), but Victoria has been my (favorite!) home for since 2018. I have a BSc in Biology and am nearly finished a second BSc in Psychology.

I love creating a memorable narratives from key moments in the history of Victoria and sharing incredible local stories with visitors from all over the world.

Looking forward to sharing and meeting with you!

I look forward to sharing my passion for Victoria’s rich and colourful history as well as its dynamic present.

I love BC history so much I wrote a Giller and BC book prize nominated novel, The Reckoning of Boston Jim, and set it in Victoria and BC in the tumultuous year of 1863. I also have an MFA from UVic in screenwriting and have filmed on location around the Great Victoria area.

In my writing tour, I help you bring Victoria to life with a variety of writing techniques that I look forward to sharing with you!

Rose Cowles is a Governor General Award-nominated artist who creates full-time from her rooftop home studio in Esquimalt, BC. She earned a three-year diploma in Illustration from Sheridan College in 1990 and has won many awards for fine art, illustration, and design over her 30-year career as a freelance artist. Acrylics, watercolours and oils are most often her mediums of choice. 

Rose is often involved in leading groups of plein air artists to sketch scenes of the city as well as teaching online and in-store at Opus Art Supplies and as a member of GAGE Gallery Arts Collective. She offers lessons and advice to those that seek it.

If you were to ask Rose what she is all about, she would tell you that she is in the business of simple pleasures that provide the viewer with brief and positive experiences. Rose’s work portrays everything from realism to the whimsical and everything in between.