New Painting - Bridal Portrait

Painting is an exercise in problem solving. There are countless things to keep in mind: choosing an overall design, deciding whether to block in with paint or do a simple line drawing first, choosing and mixing colors, putting down accurate shapes, values, and color temperatures... Oh, and then figuring out how to express a certain mood or idea--in paint. The list of important things for an artist to remember can seem endless, and if you are working from photos, which most of us do at least part of the time, the problems are compounded. Eight years ago when I started my professional art career, I did not have the experience or wealth of acquired knowledge to really understand both the pitfalls and the true potential of reference photos. I had to learn a lot of things the hard way, and I a… Read more »

New Painting - Bridal Portrait

Painting from Life: My Toddler

Someone sent me a gentle reminder this morning that while it may be worthwhile to fight for my painting time, it's more important to be spending time with my daughter and enjoying every second, especially while she is young. I completely agree. And I suppose for my blog readers it does seem like I often complain about lack of studio time or not being at the top of my game. Since this is an art blog, I try to post things that are relevant to art, so it can be frustrating when I don't have any new work to post. In truth, I am enjoying every moment with my daughter while she is young, and painting is all part of my desire to capture that. In my life, creating art has been my way of "possessing" or capturing moments. For example, as a young girl, horses were my favorite anim… Read more »

Painting from Life: My Toddler

Emerging from the Fog - Painting Trip to Telluride

Last week our little family went on a spur-of-the-moment trip to Telluride. It was no small thing, packing up and making the 6-hour drive, but we had already lived in Colorado for a month and still hadn’t been into the mountains! And those mountains… well, they were the closest I’ve ever seen to Switzerland in the U.S. They were breathtaking. It was just what I needed to help spur me back into painting, after taking over a month off for our move. I couldn't wait to do some plein air painting, even though I was really out of practice. I am most happy with the two paintings I did from our hotel balcony (below). I caught up with some Texas artist friends,  Carol Devereaux and Suzie Baker , who were painting in the Telluride plein air event that week, and I made some new friends, too. Arkans… Read more »

Emerging from the Fog - Painting Trip to Telluride