“Here Comes the Sun”
– The Beatles

Sometimes I am a day late and a dollar short.

White is Precious. And like Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, I am obsessed with hoarding it, talking to it, and thinking about it in a composition. (Think of me sitting in a corner of my studio with a white, Roche pastel stick in my hands mumbling to myself…

I am back.. did ya miss me?

So over Thanksgiving I was in Baltimore.

I am back. With a vengence.

Have you ever almost run your car off of the road while driving because you are trying to sketch down a new idea for a painting?

Yeah, me too.

This Thursday I will be back on Art School LIVE with Eric Rhodes.

If you are not familiar, IAPS stands for the International Association of Pastel Societies.

I love my French easel.

I have a found a few things over the years that make painting in pastel a little easier.

“Lifes like a road that you travel on, when there’s one day here and the next day gone…”  – Rascal Flatts. 

I have to do the dishes…but I don’t wanna.

Last week I tried to focus on slowing down every once in a while in my life. This week I want to slow down in my work.

I love when my art travels….

As I write this I am flying over South Carolina.

Im back!

I had the honor of being interviewed for the “Women CEO in Reflection” Podcast. Listen here!

Life drawing….like running scales on a piano for a musician, it is crucial.

So every once in a while I play with creating a more radical surface.

This is typically where it begins…the addiction.

This is the only time I believe in love at first sight.

This Friday is First Fridays of Greenville.

There is power in owning a key.

And I am not talking about the ones you fly In…

I’ve never been one to hang awards on my walls.

  Strength. It...

Trust is at the core of who we are as human beings. 

How we see ourselves can change. Either radically through trauma or through time and aging. The hope is that we can come to realize that we are beautiful at every stage. And at every age. 

I love it when new opportunities come my way…

I recently finished a new pastel…

“Standing alone, my senses reeled,

A fatal attraction is holding me fast.

How can I escape this irresistable grasp? 

Can’t keep my eyes from the circling sky, 

Tongue-tied and twisted, just an earth-bound misfit, I”

        “Learning to Fly”– Pink Floyd 

I am still painting bubbles…

I have found that the biggest thing you can do with regards to value is to control the extremes-  black and white. They are your friends… and they can also be your enemies.

It is funny what triggers a memory…

I have been jamming along…

Last Friday I did an interview on tv.

Next week I will be heading North.

I got my tile…

The last thing that I find important for painting plein air and that has become my very good friend is my travel bag.

Ah, here it comes…one of my biggest pet peeves.

I don’t know if you are like me, but I have a ton of sketchbooks.

There are events in life that greatly affect us. They get talked about, analyzed, and then we try to put them on a shelf. But sometimes there are nightmares and the images persist. Then I know it is time to paint my  demons.

When I think about starting a painting, I don’t necessarily think about the image details, but rather what feeling does the painting need to convey.

Today I am hurkle-durkleing…

I am back! Happy New Year.

I am so happy to be included in Greenville Open Studios this weekend!

Light will travel forever…..

So lets chat more about light…

Pool players become good at the game when they understand one thing- the “angle of incidence.”

Some more surfaces…

This surface comes in many colors.

Let’s get technical and talk about surfaces.

Last week I was in Atlanta.

My son likes rap.

This is the sign on the back of my bathroom door.

Life can turn red.

Innocence is perhaps that one element that we can never fully recover. 

Peace…

The opposite of spirituality is the physical body.  And no matter how fit you are, how young, or how invincible you think you are your body can break.  

I have been silent the last few weeks.

My birthday is this weekend….

Being an artist is glamorous….not.

“Came in close, I heard a voice,
standing, stretching every nerve,
had to listen,
had no choice”

             – “Solsbury Hill” by Peter Gabriel

Creating art is just plain weird….

So here is the same apple from last week along with its colorful version. 

Oils are a challenge for me.

So as much as I would love to get my hands covered in dusty, dense pastels, I first have commission work to do in oils…

This Friday I will be doing a live portrait demo on TV!

Last week I was in Art School LIVE with Eric Rhoades…

So I came back from the IAPS convention fired up to use all of those things that I have been talking about for the last few weeks regarding plein air. Now it is just a matter of going out and putting in the time. 

One thing that helps so much when painting plein air is being able to carry things easily.

If you noticed last week, I don’t sharpen my pastel pencils.

Recently I delivered a painting back to its forever home.

I recently came across some very old commissions. Some I looked at fondly, while others I slightly cringed at inside.

“Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.” -Raymond Lindquist

Understanding light is to understand color.

As I write this I am flying over Texas back to South Carolina.

As I have gotten older I have repeatedly asked myself one question- “Who am I as an artist?” 

What is glare?

Last week I was honored to be on the faculty of Pastel LIVE.

Last week I talked about “getting lit” with Eric Rhodes…

“Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone” -Joni MItchell

So if Sennelier LaCarte is the pretty, delicate princess at the ball, then UArt is the party crasher that just showed up on a Harley in black leather.

This weekend my daughter graduates from college.

The new studio space is coming along…

The chin is a golf ball.

Every Thursday night I get to draw the model.

And so it ends with me…

I think Hope is like waiting for a meal when we are hungry. We expect something good to come our way. But our expectations can be shattered like a china plate.

They say that weddings and funerals are the only time when people from all walks of life truly come together. I suggest that art shows do as well…

So for the next few weeks I am sharing an interview I did with the Sewickley Gallery and Frame shop.  

Ever cut a loaf of bread with a spoon?

I have had this book since I was very little…