Nanaimo author shares love of Canada

Nanaimo author shares love of Canada

Published 5:30 pm Sunday, June 28, 2026

Don Ravensbergen holding up his book ‘Country Canada Colour Me Beautiful!’ (Misha Mustaqeem/News Bulletin)

While he started with drawing Vancouver Island’s aquatic life, since then a Nanaimo artist’s colouring books have taken a national focus.

Don Ravensbergen’s Country Canada Colour Me Beautiful!, and British Columbia Canada Colour My Province Beautiful are just two of his patriotic themed art books, with the first featuring Canada, as well as its ten provinces and three territories.

Ravensbergen has been writing these children’s books for around eight years now, as part of his art interest, self-publishing his first art book in 2021, Vancouver Island: Colour my Seas of Green, followed by Pets are People Too later that year,

“When I was still in high school, I was very interested in art, and I had all kinds of art classes in high school, and I just kind of dropped it when I left school, and I think scuba diving actually brought me back,” Ravensbergen explained.

Ravensbergen scuba dives every weekend locally, and participates in marine marina cleanups in Parksville, leading to his life of marine life that was featured predominantly in the first book.

“I would have to say diving was what brought me back to the artistic part of myself,” Ravensbergen said.

As for British Columbia Canada Colour My Province Beautiful, Ravensbergen said he views the province as a land that is “so beautiful” with its landscapes. Not to mention the industry.

“Many old industries and new, like light forestry and tourism, to just name a few,” Ravensbergen read from one of his colouring books.

In addition to the art, Ravensbergen tries to make it educational.

At the end of Country Canada Colour Me Beautiful!, Ravensbergen included several pages of information about the provinces and territories of Canada.

“I talked about things like the population, land area, capitals, what they’re known for, what their flower is, population,” Ravensbergen explained.

His books are available through The Children’s Treehouse, Well Read Books, Island-ish, Pumpkin Pie Kids, Sundown Diving, as well as Nanaimo Dive Outfitters.