The personal side. Musings on the creative process and developing your unique creative voice, tips for creating more personally meaningful work, peeks at work in progress from initial idea to finished artwork, studio visits and blog posts about living the artists’ life, my studio practice and my travels.
I’ve been presenting my watercolors without glass for quite some time. I love the clean look! Here’s everything you need to know to present your watercolors using this method. In the video, I demonstrate one way to do this, using the method (and products) I use myself. Below the video is a description of other…
Do you ever make mistakes when you’re working in your journal? Or doodling? Ever put down a wobbly line? Smear some ink? Drip watercolor where you didn’t mean to? How does it make you feel? Perhaps a bit aggravated or disappointed? Do you ever want to tear a page out of your journal because it…
Did you enjoy following along on the “giant” painting? I’m in the planning stages of another large multi-panel piece like that. We’re still working out the details, but I’m very excited to have been asked to do another one! I’ll tell you more soon, but I can tell you that I’m busy studying koi, getting…
I want to talk to you for a minute about mindfulness. Wait! Before you hit “delete”, please hang in with me for just a little bit. I promise I will get back to art and creativity in a minute. Mindfulness is trendy. Everywhere you look there are articles on the health benefits of a meditation practice….
I may not post my painting for the 30-paintings-in-30-days challenge until this evening, or maybe tomorrow. While the first few days of the challenge have been going on, I’ve also been completing this second large triptych for Lakeview Hospital in Stillwater, MN. The three panels are 24×18″, 24×12″ and 24×12″. Both triptychs are for the…
Ulp! It’s a scary moment when I finally make the decision where to divide one of these “starts” into the individual panels. No going back! But, I’m happy with where things stand. Even though the paper edges weren’t square, so I’m going to barely have enough height on the first panel to mount the work!…
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…
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…
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…
Well, actually, I think pretty much everything is sacred. But, even sacred things can evolve, develop and transform. So your journal pages certainly can! In fact, if you don’t transform certain journal pages, they become the journal equivalent of that mysterious plastic container at the back of the refrigerator. The one that you know you’d better throw away…
It seems we’re all busy these days. Often, too busy to take time for things that we know would really enhance and enrich our lives—like journaling or art-making. We long for a creative outlet, and every day we wind up scrambling just to get through the necessary tasks of the day before falling into bed…
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