Isn’t it a wonderful quirk of nature that just as the coldest months are about to begin, the days also begin to lengthen? The winter solstice is this Sunday night. After that, the days start lengthening toward spring. Why not take a little time from the rush and stress of the winter holidays and simply…
Here’s where things stood last time: And now: Doesn’t look much different yet, does it? At this stage, I tread softly, slowly “carving” into the whites and lights so I don’t lose the freshness of the washes. You can probably see some of the “underwater” elements I’ve…
Have you ever noticed the cluster of words that sit in the sidebar of some websites, some of them bigger, some smaller, sometimes in multiple colors? Bloggers often “tag” articles with keywords to help readers search for topics of interest. The bigger the word in this “tag cloud”, the more often the author has used…
I’m working on an exciting commission for Lakeview Hospital in Stillwater, MN. When completed, this piece will be on three large panels, and will be the largest piece in this series to date. This large sheet of paper (about 32×55″) is from a roll—no double-elephant available in time, alas! Just for fun, I left a camera…
It’s Thanksgiving Day in the U.S. as I write this post, and it seems everyone in America is writing about gratitude in some way or another. I’m going to write about gratitude, too, even though you won’t see this post until Friday or Saturday, when the dominant theme will have moved on to “leftovers”. But first, I…
Do you love intricate patterns? The wild popularity of Zentangle tells me a lot of us do! What is the fascination? The soothing repetition? The almost-magical emergence of form from a few simple shapes? The need to pay close attention that blocks out cares and worries? The echo of Nature’s beautiful intricacies? Whatever the reason, winter is a perfect…
I got a new art toy recently. It’s called a Gelli plate, and it makes gelatin monoprints sooooo much easier than in the past. Instead of explaining how to make a gelatin plate for printing, I’m going to point you to a great tutorial on The Sketchbook Challenge site, because there’s also a ton of…
Some days, I wake up feeling the pressure of everything that has to be done that day, and taking time out to work in my journal seems like a luxury I can’t afford. Some days, I am so exhausted at the end of the day, I just want to crawl in bed and sleep. Some…
A couple of weekends ago, we had a beautiful 70-degree day with this year’s glorious fall colors just hitting their peak. On the spur of the moment, I grabbed my backpack and headed out to paint with a friend. I had forgotten to bring masking tape, so I couldn’t tape down my paper to keep…
For those who aren’t familiar with the phrase, painting en plein air is just a fancy way of referring to painting on location, usually outdoors. It’s a challenge! In addition to all the usual problems a painter has to solve (composition, color mixing, brush handling, etc.), there is the constantly changing light, the sun, rain and wind,…
Get out the Crayolas with no apologies! A report in this week’s Huffington Post on coloring as a great stress-buster for adults is making a splash on Facebook and other media outlets. It seems coloring—for adults—is all the rage in Europe, and just starting to be trendy in the U.S. Well, ha! We’re on the cutting…
Who is that mysterious woman peering out of the headline of this week’s post? Read to the end to find out—she has a little magical treat for you! In this week’s post, I invite you to try your hand at cartooning. Wait! Keep reading! I promise anyone can do this kind of cartooning! This activity…
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