Happy Mother’s Day! Thank You to all the Mothers who devote their hearts, souls, lives ensuring their children are loved and know it! When your children are little, they may not tell you but your love means more than anything to them. Thank you. Mother’s Day is a celebration, a remembrance, a memorial. Mother’s Day […]
“Foulweather Bluff,” Kitsap County painting was inspired by a simple morning walk along the shoreline with my dog Laura when we lived in the Pacific Northwest. We lived on a small hillside overlooking Admiralty Inlet and the Olympic Mountains with the beach a mere half mile away. I’d taken several photos which I’d tucked away […]
Watercolour, oils, encaustics and mixed media were used for the four paintings featuring types of forests from around the world. The watercolour painting was a small miniature only 1.5 inches by 1.5 inches and the location was the Pacific Northwest near Bainbridge Island, Washington. The next forest painting A Golden Grove had a watercolour […]
People scan images constantly. Looking for pathways of least resistance. The easiest routes have no hard sharp edges that act as ‘shut gates’. Upon A Hill has several “open gates” Soft Edges that allow the viewer’s eye to easily travel up and through the image. This painting is very easy on the eyes […]
A lovely small watercolour landscape using just 3 colours – prussian blue, permanent brown, yellow green. These created quite a great range of natural foliage greens, fiery reds, yellows – perfect for autumn colours. Limited Palette I usually try to use just 3 – 4 colours in my paintings, as this will help me […]
The humble honey bee, attracted to my lavender was a cheery, busy little thing inspiring me to get busy myself and take some photos. Which in turn gave rise to the bee inspired semi abstracted prints. Taking the actual photos this close to the bee was just a bit daunting, without my telephoto I […]
Paints are the artist’s words. Express your Self! Yesterday, it was brought home to me just how desperate we are to paint like someone who is ‘famous and well regarded.’ Halfway through teaching my class, a man pops into my classroom out of the blue and asks me where he can go to learn […]
One of my favourite vases caught my eye today. Its deep indigo, ultramarine, cobalt teal, yellow green seemed to call out to me to look, to pay attention. The vase had been tucked away behind many of my art supplies for a number of months, but today I saw it with new eyes. As I […]
The Masters knew. Make every brush stroke count. Each should sing! It should be easy, painting a single brushstroke onto a canvas creating a mark that is luminous and clean, fresh and lively – not boring! Full of texture, color and of course, with a good tonal range. That doesn’t sound too difficult, but it is […]
Zen of Art. How to tame the Dragon called Perfectionism? In search of perfection. A tantalising empty promise. An Illusion. “How Good” does my art have to be, before I’m satisfied? When will I be content and not frustrated? What does it actually take? And hey! why should I bother thinking about this anyway?! […]