teacher teacher

I was once talking to someone about my art classes and how important I thought finding the right teacher was. He said: if you want to be a real artist, shouldn’t you get rid of the teacher altogether?

Ah. No.

The myth that creativity springs fully formed from the [...]

little miss L

When I got to the studio this week I pulled up the photograph I have been working from, ready to start mixing paint and actually add color to canvas. My first thought was that there really isn’t much color to the photograph at all. My second thought was that my first logical step was going [...]

little by little

Sometimes life and the world seem out of control. Strike that understatement. Life and the world are out of control. They just are – in the little ways that affect only me and in the big ways that make headlines and leave us all groping for words and meaning. For me the only way through [...]

bouquet

in the clouds

In December I did some charcoal value studies for a new painting I’ve had in mind for a while. All that was left was to build the canvas and get started. I build the canvas in January but since it is 48″x16″ I had a tough time getting the tension taut enough. With the help [...]

gazing upward

That woman behind you at the stoplight, the one fiddling with her phone? She is not talking or texting. She is taking a picture of the sky. For her painting reference files. Of course.

My favorite part of the reference file photos? Pop up the contrast and zoom in, you practically already have a painting.

[...]

it is finished...

…finally

complete. done. fini. excuse me while I dance a jig.

one year later – a finished painting

 

I may have jumped the gun on photographing this. The paint on the trees is still wet and reflecting light. Still, I’m so pleased to have finished I couldn’t wait to post it!

[...]

not done

…blasted trees…

…blasted lack of skills at painting trees…

…not done…

<sigh>

one. more. week.

stormclouds over marion

nearly done

nearly done

nearly done

(I keep chanting this in order to believe it).

Tonight I go to painting class. Provided my daily frustration at work doesn’t deflate me so much by the time I can go that I just don’t have it in me to make it. (Ever notice how the very things [...]

what color is the sky

the clouds begin to come to life

Apropos of nothing – as I write this – the evening before it gets its automated posting time – I have just discovered that it is not, in fact Tuesday evening. It is Wednesday evening. And the deadline for something I was supposed to do is not [...]