"Daddy, I want to be an Artist when I grow up!"

Given that today is Father's Day, I'd like to devote this post to the wonderful man who helped shaped my life and make me the woman I am today. So about my dad... What can I say? Bruce Holsclaw is a father of six, one of the most hard-working people I have ever known, a man of integrity and conviction, humor, and faithfulness. In each of his children he has identified and cultivated our unique gifts and talents. He pushes us to pursue excellence and never settle for mediocrity. He loves us enough to know when to let us make our own mistakes. He leads by example. He practices what he preaches. In spite of some of the terrible things I did as a child who had not yet learned to control her "creative" impulses - like scratching Mickey and Minnie Mouse into the back window of… Read more »

"Daddy, I want to be an Artist when I grow up!"

Evolution of an Oil Painting

People are always asking me to post progress shots of my work. My method of working, though, is to not have a method. I approach each painting differently than the last, because usually EVERYTHING is different: the model, the lighting, the pose, the environment, and my frame of mind. The one thing that IS consistent from painting to painting is: I set a goal to learn something new. Here are a few recent paintings (all unfinished except the last) that I managed to get progress pictures of. The first will be a series of two paintings exploring the figure from the back, one with a high-key background, the other with a black background. This one isn't quite done yet, but I'm happy with the progress so far. High key back study - 16x10" (unfinished) The second is a head study I star… Read more »

Evolution of an Oil Painting

Painting SoCal

Steve and I recently spent a week in southern California, stopping in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Malibu, Laguna Beach, La Jolla and San Diego. I've always heard good things about the light in SoCal, but, armed with some fresh knowledge and a decent amount of time on my hands, this was my first real opportunity to try and paint it! Note: I have to give a big shout-out to my sweet hubby for taking all these photos. He made me look way cooler than I am in real life! :-) The first part of our trip was in the L.A. area. We visited the Getty first for some inspiration (I spent the most time admiring this gorgeous Sargent portrait, above). Below: there wasn't a whole lot to paint in the Santa Monica/Venice area where we were staying, except for some cool street scenes, especially around … Read more »

Painting SoCal