Art for a cause

If you subscribe to my newsletter or follow my Facebook page, you may already know that my husband’s leukemia has recently returned. The first time he was sick, in 2013, I really struggled to keep making art during his treatment and recovery. This time around, I am trying to make art a priority as much … Read more

Sketching outside

Aided perhaps by the long days and sunny weather, I’ve been getting back into sketching outdoors recently. It helps that I’ve finally sorted out my sketching kit. For the longest time I was unhappy with my options, and could never quite work out how to improve things. I love sketching in charcoal, but don’t like … Read more

Painting the Isle of Skye

It’s a busy week in the studio, as I’m finishing up some oil paintings and framing some works on paper for the 3 Harbours Arts Festival. As I was cataloging my new landscapes, I realized that a fair number of them were inspired by the Isle of Skye, a beautiful island off the west coast … Read more

Highland landscapes show, and getting organized

Feeling a bit more organized this week. On Monday my new Scottish landscapes went on display at Bistro Provence, a French restaurant in Leith (a neighborhood of Edinburgh). They look good on the walls, and people had lots of nice things to say at the opening, so I’m starting to believe that landscapes and I might … Read more

January landscapes

Happy new year, my three readers. It’s cold and drafty in my studio, but I’m pretty sure it’s building my character, or something. This month my art has mainly focused on Scottish landscapes. Landscapes are a new challenge for me. How to create paintings that are interesting? Communicating an aspect of the beauty of a place … Read more

Getting bigger

Now that that’s over, I’m moving on to some larger canvases, and now suddenly I have too many options. Do I focus on cityscapes next, as I had planned? Pursue Highland landscapes a bit more, as they turned out to be my favorite new subject last month? Go back to the Edinburgh pub and restaurant … Read more

Day 29: paint like frosting

Stepping away from the smooth white skies of yesterday, I decided to play around with some thick impasto abstract skies today. Which do you prefer? The paint on these reminds me of frosting, like what you would put on Christmas cookies. Mmmmm frosting. Maybe I should go back and paint another cupcake or two. It … Read more

Day 28: white skies

In my mind’s eye, when I think about the imaginary landscapes I want to paint, they almost always look like a variation of these paintings: white skies, low horizon, dark land, sometimes a strand of bright color in between. I’m very compelled by this basic structure. Is it interesting enough for an entire series of paintings? … Read more

Day 26: painting Plockton

I love these tiny little 10x15cm canvases – I can easily paint several of them in a day. Right now I seem to be a little obsessed with Plockton, a Scottish Highland town we recently visited. (Yesterday I wrote about our trip to Plockton on my travel blog.) Going back through the dozens of photos … Read more