Blog

I worry about the Christmas card industry. Everyone this year seems to be sending photos instead of cards. You know. The ones where you have to use a magnifying glass to see faces and even then you don’t know who they are! I do admire the efforts of writers of the traditional letter - that document complete with tiny photos urging us to enjoy vicariously their many trips and adventures. “Wonderful experience seeing the glories ...

Dear Packagers of America. You have taken child-proofing and theft control to such an extreme that most of us - not just the older demographic- cannot open anything without the help of scissors, pliers, wrenches, and in some cases, hammers. A carton of milk has a tab that can almost break a fingernail. A huge impenetrable plastic square that surrounds a teeny camera chip. I know. It's too small so too easily stolen so let’s ...

We recently spent a week in Colorado where, yes, the scenery was beautiful, no, the altitude did not affect us, and yes, the tour of Colorado’s most interesting crop was - interesting; but I have to tell you my moment to remember story. Our Colorado friends found us a second floor room at a lodge right outside Rocky Mountain National Park. It sits on one of those fast moving rocky mountain streams that provide background ...

I have been working on my painting for three days, weeks,months and it still doesn’t work. Why? My sketch was really incredible. My sketch was better. I loved it. But what could’ve gone wrong. This happens to artists all the time and sometimes the error is that you probably never checked to see if your sketch’s proportions matched your canvas. In my case the vertical sketch was thinner than the canvas. Therefore my two lady ...

Although I am a good cook, I do not claim to be an expert on any food much less the undervalued vegetable. But I do have opinions and a blog. I like to cook vegetables. Growing up in a blue-collar urban family , I was exposed to a total meat and potatoes diet which also noodles and very occasionally rice. Most of my vegetables came out of a can. My father demanded they be cooked ...

A few days ago, I made a backwards step in my art journey. The painting on the canvas 24x36 did not work. On the back, I had crossed out no fewer than 4 failed paintings. The first was “Out on the Town.” No idea was that was about. The second was “Follow My Lead” which had been a jazz piece that probably did not work because it required a canvas that was more square and ...

I think there may be a general misconception by the public. They see artists like me, who tend to get involved in what we loosely call creative pursuits, simply plodding along. We go from one brilliant idea with a beginning, middle, and end. We pause. And then proceed to the next brilliant idea. Well, obviously most ideas are not brilliant. However when we are in the inspiration phase, sometimes we feel that it could be ...

Several years ago I wrote down my thoughts on my art process. Much of it is still pertinent so I thought I would share them. Since then, I have evolved some, have made some changes, and will share those thoughts later. Many people have asked me how I paint my subjects and where do I get reference material. Although it would be far easier to have a photo to copy, most of my work evolves ...

I am not unfamiliar with painting in public: courtroom, Virginia Living Museum, art shows, plein aire workshops. But painting the musicians at the Jazz Festival in Duck, NC was a first for me. Even though I was in a more isolated spot near the stage, I later discovered people were watching my art progress from the audience. Many stopped to chat as they walked to other areas of the green. During my time at the ...

I keep a folder of 8x10 and smaller incomplete sketches and carry it around with me. Many times they spark something and I will often paint over them. Over and over. When I am feeling ambitious, I organize them according to category: women, women and the beach, women at a wine bar, women on cave walls, women in cave walls playing musical instruments. You get the picture. I also print out photos of my paintings ...