This may sound silly to some who know me, but I regularly forget how to paint. Silly, right? But it’s true. And it has to do with confidence. My confidence gets tested more often than I’d like to admit, but it does happen, especially when I run into a painting project that does not go […]
I had a painting opportunity this fall that I’ll long remember. I was at an event over the summer and bumped into a couple whom I have known since I was a child. They had two children who were also in my 4-H club, both a few years younger than me. I also very literally
Laurel Mountain Reverie Read More »
In the few posts I’ve made on this blog, I’ve been an advocate for plein air painting — which is painting on location, rather than working from reference photos. I think plein air and “from life” work is important because of the advancements I saw in myself and in my work once I started painting
Trusting your senses Read More »
One of the critical elements of painting is, of course, the paint. But let me help novice painters and save them some money — you don’t need nearly as much paint as you might think. What I mean by that is you don’t need a rainbow of colors packaged in tubes or pans (dried cakes
Materials – choosing the right paint colors Read More »
“Plein air” is a French term, loosely translated as “outdoor” and refers to the act of painting on location. The notoriety of plein air painting is most often attached to the development of French Impressionism in the 1870s as painters such as Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Edgar Degas, and Alfred Sisley eschewed the Classical conventions
Why paint plein air? Read More »
I fell in love with watercolor the moment my high school art teacher introduced it. Our lesson was to take a pile of cardboard boxes, draw them, and paint them in watercolor, using just one color: brown. This seemingly simple lesson taught me these basic watercolor principles: Depicting values is critical You have to reserve
