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

Painting Chattanooga with snow, among other things

I have a lot of different things going on in the studio this week: some paintings of the view out my window, a self portrait that I need to finish quickly for an exhibition, various mixed media experiments, and a small pile of daily paintings I want to re-work. Every single surface is covered with … 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

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

Day 25: Highland-like

Less than a week to go in the month, and then I will probably go back to painting larger pieces. So what do I want to create in these last few days? I decided I need to push myself a little more – to make images that are unexpected, not my usual creations. One way … Read more