"Restoration"

This is the latest 20x30 watercolor to come out of my studio. The images below are details of the piece.

Paths

This is a photo I took while on a hike by myself after we first moved to East Tn.

These are two path pieces that I happen to love. I took the photo and painted the piece because to me the path symbolizes life, the road we all travel. However, the view isn’t always so picturesque. Sometimes we encounter obstacles; mountains to climb; things in the way to climb or step over, like fallen branches or trees; a flooded path that causes us to be re-routed; snakes or critters that startle or frighten us; damaged bridges that we need to navigate; and roots or rocks that cause us to trip or stumble. Sometimes we come to a fork in the road or path that makes us make choices we never thought we would have to make. Do we let these things cause us to skip the adventure or to cause us to refuse to “do life”? Well yea, sometimes, but most of the time we just head out prepared and willing to adjust and to adapt, remembering to stay alert along the way. It is always great to have a map or an app that lets us know where we are and where we are headed. It’s even better when we have a guide, someone who’s been there before, someone willing to answer our questions along the way. It’s also fun to go in groups instead of always heading out alone because who knows when we may just need a little help.

So, that is why I always take pictures or paint paths—as reminders (especially of God’s faithfulness along my path). Below are just a few more from my collection.

The online gallery

One day a few years back, I was looking through all of my paintings I had sitting around. I was thinking how nice it would be to just pretend I had pieces in a gallery in some way. There are so many artists that create great work that never makes it to the walls of a gallery. I thought of it like how kids play with cars or dolls or they display their work at art fairs at school. I knew if I had the thought surely someone else had. I was certain I would create something if something didn’t exist. When I was able to do the search, there was indeed a company that does just that. It sells online gallery space for artists to “hang” their work. It is called, Exhibitt. I have created several shows with them. It was especially fun before the first time I actually displayed my work at an art event open to the public. This is my latest show—Journal Notes and Heart Songs. You can see the entire exhibit by clicking on the tab on the main page or above. I love the site because they have so many fun features like the ability to zoom in on all pieces, take pictures of the galleries, inquire about pieces, and navigate as if you were actually in the gallery in person. Click on the link and take a look around. Enjoy!

Roan Mountain Love

I decided to show Roan Mountain some love in this latest post. Why? Because yesterday it gave me lots of joy. Can a place do that? I sure think it can. Have you ever “gone home” or visited your dream location or traveled to an exotic place with friends, or spent time anywhere in nature where you found joy, felt refreshed and come away feeling different and changed in some way? Well, that was the case yesterday on my trip back to Roane which happened to be the third trip there this year. See, I think nature can do that to us and for us. I love it because it can be different every single time no matter how many times you go to one location. There are always so many variables. There is the weather, the atmosphere, the temperature, the foliage change, the new buds and blooms, the people you go with, or those you encounter on the way, etc.. Yesterday it was 81 at the bottom of the mountain and 50 degrees in the gardens at the top. The gates to the gardens were finally back open, so a whole new world opened up to us this trip. It was also very foggy and very windy and very damp. I could stand in one spot and have fog whipping past while also clouding distance views, at times. We hiked trails and walked along paved paths lined with rhododendrons and massive, towering cedars. There were flowers and the most lush ferns everywhere, but I believe the rhododendrons needed a few more days or a week to be in perfect, full bloom, at least in the gardens which are a bit higher up. They were beautiful and amazing, none the less. I am going to post a few of my favorite pictures. Again, I do not edit any of my photos. What you see is what I saw and what I captured. I took well over one hundred pics. I’m being kind in selecting just a few. That is always the hard part for me. When I visit a place I think is beautiful, I take way too many photos, so the selection process becomes overwhelming. When I see something beautiful, I feel compelled to capture everything I can to share with anyone willing to look. I’m not sure why that is exactly. I do remember the one time I saw one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen, and I was without a camera. Perhaps, that has something to do with it. I was devastated at the time and the memory still haunts me today, especially when I find myself without even a phone or with a phone with zero percent battery. I know how to enjoy the moment without capturing every second, but I feel like I “owe it to the world” to share what I see. It is a chance to share my gifts. I know I notice a whole lot of things that others have admitted to never even noticing. It is a blessing and a curse, at times. I also want to share the joy and beauty with others who may not get a chance to go and see for themselves or to share with others, even those within my own family, who just might not notice all of the wonders nature and creation has to show us all.

New Style Explanation

Here is the latest completed example of my new style. I will try to offer some explanation for those interested. As many of you know, my previous abstract pieces, in both oil and watercolor, contained many lines, vertical and horizontal. This new style has curvy ones. I explained how I arrived here in the post, “Why Watercolors”. The feel of this style is all about fun, joy and lightheartedness. It looks like balloons or rocks or gemstones connected by strings. The string represents a person’s life journey. The larger attached shapes are representations of the big moments in our lives —the “big life moments” or the little moments in life that change us in a big way. Everyone has these. These are often illustrated with a timeline. I don’t like to think of things in linear form much anymore, so I’ve chosen to paint them with twists and turns and ups and downs which I find to make much more sense. Sometimes these moments overlap or touch in some way like the big black shape and the teal one in the image below. Sometimes those big or small monumental moments in our lives “spill over” or “go over the line” and affect not just us, but those around us. I will also attach a pic below to show an example of how I paint this.

The journey or path our lives take is rarely, if ever, a straight shot or smooth sailing the entire way. If you notice, the lines representing the string are rarely straight and smooth or uninterrupted. Sometimes they are thin, and sometimes they are thick. I also, at times, paint lines next to the shape or place dots along the lines or outside the shapes to represent the fact that sometimes we take the pain or joy of one life event into the future as we move from one phase of life to the other. There was a time in my painting history where I could never have “gone out of the lines” or not had a line look absolutely perfect. I intentionally make the lines look this way now. The old me would have never ever made this choice. It is an intentional choice that has a purpose and a meaning. (This is just one example of how an artist’s choices should never be judged as right or wrong, especially if a person doesn’t understand what was intended. Whether a person likes or dislikes an artist’s work is really what matters, not the judgement of right or wrong. Not every person is going to love the art of every artist. )

I have included picture examples of pieces with the shimmer I add to each piece. It is truly difficult to capture this in any straight on look at a piece. I add this shimmer because, of course, I love it so. But I do it for a another more meaningful reason, as well. The shimmer is throughout each piece. It represents joy and happiness and grace and hope— the “sparkly” aspects of life. Those “big moments” can be filled with all of these things, even if they are painful. When we look back on our lives, I think or I hope we can all agree that even wtihin the hardest of times, if we look close enough, there are beautiful parts that help get us through, help make us who we are, and help keep us going (a kind word uttered, a listening ear available to listen, something as simple as a smile shared, or grace offered). Sometimes the “strings” are shimmery and sometimes they are black or another color. This is because the roads, our roads, the journey of life can be complex and difficult and amazing and mind blowing and precious all in one. We must embrace this! It is a fact. It happens to each of us. I’ve created this collection to remind us to enjoy it all, ever moment and every person we are blessed to meet along the way. Here’s to the journey, fellow traveler! May you be blessed and filled with joy, hope and love!

"Oughta Do"

Before I explained my new style, I thought I needed to write this post. When an artist does work, he/she has many choices to make and many questions to answer. I wanted to take some time to explain why I paint and why I paint what I paint. When I began painting eight years ago, I painted with oils. I love nature, so I began painting pieces of places I had been and places I wanted to document and to remember because of their beauty. It was enjoyable, but it played into my perfectionism and my drive to try to make things look perfect. My style was tight and almost photographic in style, or at least that was what I was shooting for. I thought it was a good thing because I was doing what I loved. I would quickly find out that it didn’t sit well with some people.

People told me I “oughta” loosen up to have a more painterly style. I struggled with that because it wasn’t what I liked or what I loved in the art I had studied and loved in art history or like any work I loved in museums or galleries at the time. I prefer very realistic pieces if they are going to be representational. I didn’t understand the concept of having to do art a certain way. That seemed to take the artistic originality out of the process and work. I didn’t love the thought of changing to meet someone else’s qualifications although I had done similar things my entire life, but I also wanted to listen to the advice so I could receive the approval from others I thought I needed.

Having to struggle with this concept was unusual for me. My whole life, up to that point, had been filled with people telling me what I “oughta” do and then choosing to do it. I’m not saying I never did what I wanted, but I certainly listened and assumed someone must have cared enough about me to give the best advice and the advice that was best suited for me. What I learned as I got older and by being a parent, is that some people tell you what you “oughta” do because it fits better in the box, it meets their criteria and it happens to most often be what they like or what better lines up with their beliefs. In other words, the advice of others is often shared because it is related to what they do, what they like, and it makes them more comfortable or if it helps them get what they want. What I mean is that some advice comes from a somewhat selfish place with no concideration for what advice is best for the person on the receiving end. Since I began painting, people have been saying, “Now, so what you ‘oughta do’ is….” I’ve been told I “oughta” paint larger pieces, florals, horses, umbrellas and rainy scenes, only landscapes, and only pieces that “glorify God”. I’ve been told I “oughta” paint things that make more sense. I’ve been told I “oughta” paint scenes from the towns we have lived in with popular landmarks, so people will buy them. I’ve been told I “oughta” paint exactly what someone tells me to, and then I’ll sell my work. I’ve been told I “oughta” go to a workshop and watch videos of great artists, so I can be better and again, sell my work.

This makes me so sad because I do not paint to sell my work or to be like any other artist. In fact, I have personally chosen to not follow other artists so that my style always stays, my style. As an artist, of course I want to be the best I can be. Of course I would love to sell my work, but the motivation has never been money. That totally takes the joy out of the process if I paint each piece just to make a buck. I want people to buy my art because they feel moved by a piece I paint, because they love the subject if its representational, or if they love the colors, or because it makes them feel a certain way, or because they want to look at it every day, or because it would look great in their favorite room, or just because they want to support me. The reason I paint is because I HAVE to. It is a part of who I am. It brings me joy unspeakable. It relieves stress and helps me process life with all its ups and downs. And, it makes me feel a little child-like in a crazy grownup world surrounded by a whole lot of too busy, too stressed, too anxious angry people who have lost their peace and wonder.

Part of me, the art historian part, feels the need to explain a little bit here to those that do not know a whole lot about art. Many, many artists that paint abstract pieces are actually trained and can paint beautiful landscapes and realistic pieces that make better sense to a wider audience; however they choose not to do so. A choice to paint big large squares of blue and orange or splatters of black and white are most always purposeful choices and are not choices like those made by children because of a lack of skill. Although many people think and believe that to be the case. “My four year old could do that” is a very popular phrase uttered in front of abstract masterpieces in museums all over the world every day. And the thing is that it might be true. A piece might look just like something a child would do; but I can assure you that if it was created by an adult the meanings, thoughts, motivation, inspirations, emotions, stories, and possibly prayers behind those pieces are far more intellectual, more meaningful, and dare I say, more spiritual than what any four year old could possibly do. An abstract piece can also “say” far more than any traditional landscape could ever “say”.

Below, I am attaching five pictures to prove that I, like most artists that paint abstracts, have indeed had a past of painting other things. I am to the point in life where I “gotta” do what I “gotta “do and not what others think I “oughta do”. And for now, I am choosing to paint abstracts because I’ve got a whole lot of things to say and just like Georgia O’ Keefe said, “I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way—things I had no words for.” I hope you stick around to follow my journey, and if you see something I blog about or something you like on the website, please do not hesitate to comment or send me a quick note. Artists, or at least this one, could use a whole lot more encouragement than advice these days.

New Style Transition "Explained"

I like the first picture because I took it just after painting all four pieces on the left. The 9x12 on the right is one of my favorites in the older style. I painted the four pieces one Friday night in my studio with a fun movie playing in the background. What makes this shift in styles interesting and noteworthy for anyone who cares about art at all or about getting to know more about my painting, is that the style came out of nowhere. It is not something I decided to do. And the timing was interesting. During lockdown, painting was never something I did. I was happy to stay home with most of my family here under one roof. I set up a home gym and began exercising and running again with great passion. The time I used to spend painting and reading was filled with getting fit and logging lots of miles while watching great tv. The minute things began to move and open again, however, I felt the desire to paint. And, I do not think it was a coincidence that the style shift occurred after the lockdown and after that break from painting. Like I said, I decided to paint on the floor of my studio that night because during the lockdown I had ordered really large watercolor paper which I had yet to use. Nothing about any of this seems unusual other than the fact that during a time many people began tapping into their creatve side for the first time in a long time, I refused to access mine and chose to rest from it and began doing something I used to love. All of the other times I had ever painted in abstraction, I really was never able to curve any lines. I just could not! Although I certainly can appreciate pieces created by other artists with all types of shapes and curves. For me though, the curved lines and designs felt forced and weird, and I always threw away anything I painted with curvy lines. This time was different. As an artist, I have never sat down to paint with a plan, and I have also never drawn or sketched first. With oils it just was not necessary and with watercolors the sketching is visible underneath light colors. I always viewed it as cheating for me. But for some reason, this night it felt right. I got out the only sketch pencil I could find in my studio which happens to have a brush on one end. It was a souvenir from a famous museum I adore. I used that pencil to begin to draw out curvey lines which completely shocked me. I added color, of course, but as you can see in the first picture below I had to add some elelments of my old style in the mix. At first, It felt essential. I have added pictures below to highlight the elements of the old style I included and some more of the first pieces I did in the new style.

Below are the first four larger pieces I created in the new style.

The next piece was the fifth piece I created that kept pulling me back to the older style. It is wild and busy and full of color. I think it really represents the merging of the two styles. It is interesting to me how much attention it has gotten. and it was the third piece in the new series that is already sold.

I have continued to love the new style. I’ve painted and painted.

On the next blog I will be explaining all about the meaning behind the new style.

Why Watercolors?

These are two photos I took while painting with watercolors on a trip one year ago. We were in our RV, and I decided to paint with watercolors for the first time in years. I had previously been so fascinated with oils and what they could do for me with both landscapes and abstracts, that I had never been interested in watercolors. Watercolors seemed simpler some how, easier to clean up, and the artist really needs to have a plan because they aren’t forgiving and one must move quickly and confidently when using them. However for this particular day in the rv and stuck inside on a rainy day, they were exactly what I was looking for. I had all the supplies on hand. I didn’t need to wear gloves, or have the windows open for correct ventilation. I just needed to grab some water and to pick up my brush. The watercolor effect was different, but I liked it. I loved how they interacted with the paper and the water. It was like they had a mind of their own. I loved what my brush did. I loved the colors, the pieces, and most of all, the freedom I felt while painting. The funny thing was the first style was similar to my abstract oils (like the above pieces). But then, I painted a few fun landscapes and then I found myself painting what would be a new style—more free, but still so many lines. See I’m an artist with an art history degree. I never painted more than two watercolor pieces as an adult. I did, however, paint my fair share of pieces as a child. I knew artists have styles and artists shift styles. I could feel the shift and it felt fun and just right. Below I’ve included just a few pics of that first watercolor style.

My Little Studio

What I’m going to share with you today is a fun project my husband and I worked on just before Christmas. We have worked together on several dollhouses for gifts for Christmases in the past. I think we must have been remembering those days because we got the idea to make something new this year. I’ve recently been working on my own modern art museum dollhouse, but my husband thought it would be fun to work on a project for me while he watched football. We came up with a mini studio/gallery idea after seeing a raw version of a storefront at a local dollhouse store. I thought it might be fun to share the progression of the project that turned into my little mini dream come true!

A not so great pic of the raw start with my reflection, of course, because it’s the only picture I have.

A little first coat!

Starting to put things in.

A night view.

A little nightime window view.

The 2019 photo in the studio.

From above.

Another from above.

The little guy on the shelf.

Decorated for Christmas.

Abstract Advent

This year for Advent I decided to go quite small. For the last several years I have chosen an Advent theme and painted one piece per week for each of the four weeks leading up to Christmas. As the years have gone on I have chosen to go smaller each year partly for space and partly for fun. This year I went all the way to a 2x2 canvas because I thought it would be challenging, and it gave me the idea to also paint ornaments in the same size for fun inexpensive gifts. Pictured above are the four paintings—”Rejoice!”—”Expectant”—”Love, Actually!” and ““Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace!” The fun and challenging part about these pieces was the abstract depiction of quite deep and grand words. The titles kind of chose themselves, meaning as I sat painting the titles just came to me. The excited part was choosing how to share them on social media. I wanted to do something different than I had done before. Because Jack and the kids and I brought out a dollhouse decorated for Christmas as a decoration, I thought it would be the perfect sized place to display these tiny paintings. I even found lighted brass easels that created the perfect mood for the pieces and the house. What a fun activity each week this was! It certainly brought out the little kid in me. Below I will attach of few pictures from my Instagram posts as well as a few more images of the pieces on the easels.

Just me painting through the years!

I wanted to blog about my advent pieces before we got too far away from Christmas, but I am waiting on them to be completely ready before I blog about them. So, I decided to do a little picture blog of me painting. I usually paint in solitude, so I rarely have someone to photograph me. Jack has taken pics a few times. I’m going to share a few of those here. I have been painting in oils since 2012. I was always creative, but not always artistic as a kid. After running across this first pic, I realized I grew up watercoloring all the time as a kid. I loved it. I also loved spin art and, of course, coloring.

This is me coloring on a camping trip with my brother by my side. As much as I grew up wanting to be just like my brother and sister, this (painting) was my thing. After seeing this pic for the first time this summer, that became clear to me. I loved to paint! I did it often! But I also remember that most of the time I was doing it alone while others supervised or just watched. I’ve learned a whole lot realizing all of this.

This is a picture of the very first time I ever painted in oils. A friend, who was an oil painter, invited me along with a few other women to paint together one Saturday in October 2012. I walked in late because of my daughter’s soccer game. I sat down to an easel, a palette full of paint in all the colors I needed, and brushes in multiple shapes and sizes. I had this sunflower arrangement and a blank canvas in front of me and as I picked up my brush covered in the paint I mixed, I couldn’t make it touch the canvas. I held it within an inch of the umber tinted surface and cried. I was stuck in time and couldn’t move. The other women stopped and looked while speaking words of encouragement. I couldn’t even speak about what I was experiencing. I wasn’t afraid. I was emotional and taking it all in because deep down in my soul I new that the next moment would change my life forever. See, I grew up going to art galleries in every town and city my family visited. My family had artist friends whose work we admired and whose paintings hung in our home. I grew up admiring artists and being intrigued by them. I would go on to get my degree in art history and to visit some of the best galleries in the world. Using a brush on a canvas was what others did, not me. In that moment the perfectionist little girl in me knew that putting my brush strokes on a canvas meant stepping into a field I had never entered and I wanted to do my best. I wanted to paint something worth painting, and I wanted it to reveal something about myself in the process. I wanted it to matter. This felt bigger than me. It felt bigger than a girl starting a new hobby. Since that day, I’ve come to realize what the tears meant and why it felt so big. The lessons I’ve learned along the way have been priceless and the woman typing this now has been changed, truly transformed from the inside out.

This is a pic early on painting a Texas farm scene. I had a lot fun painting this piece because it reminded me of so many wonderful childhood memories.

This is another older picture of me painting a special Vermont farm scene for my parents.

This is an image of me painting one of my abstract pieces.

This is a fun one of me painting a type of autobiographical piece.

This is me starting one of my larger beach scenes.

This is me with my favorite larger beach scene. I had never painted a large representational painting before. What occurred that day was nothing but magical. I was in the flow. I would have chosen a more flattering photo, but I kind of like this one because it is very similar to the childhood one because of how I’m holding my mouth and tongue while painting. Maybe some things haven’t changed. HAHA!

This is one of my all time faves because it was taken by my photographer son and because I’m pictured here painting in my parents’ garden.

And last but not least, a pic of me painting smaller pieces in the studio. Thanks for making it to the end of these. I thought it might be fun to share a little of the unpolished behind the scenes aspect of my art.

My Pantone 2019 Painting!

“Living Coral!”

I chose to paint another of my MMMO sized pieces for my 2019 Pantone painting. It is a small 3x5 piece. I wanted to create a small piece that I could sit on my desk or bookcase. I chose the Pantone Color of the Year, Living Coral as the inspiration. I mixed that color and then chose coordinating colors to add into the piece. I chose to leave the white space as I often do in paintings, so the colors would stand out and create a design that speaks for itself. I hope you like it and if you don’t, as with all of my abstract pieces, I hope you will sit it a bit and see if it moves you or bothers you and why and see what parts stand out to you and why. Also, I have attached what I wrote when I revealed the painting on Instagram. No need to read farther if you already follow me on Instagram. “Introducing “Living Coral” for 2019.  Here it is!  I could not be happier for this color choice.  I’m a huge orange fan.  Last year was a purple which combines red and blue symbolizing the need for opposing political parties and views to meet in the middle and find common ground.  This year it’s all about joyful pursuits, optimism, life, and the importance of authentic connections in our age of a technology driven society. I’m all for lighthearted joyful experiences!  In fact, I think we need to stay connected to that little kid inside us all. May it be a year where we dream big, play hard, have fun, and do more of what we love! Cheers to a great year! Blessings to you all!

A new blog and what it's going to be about!

Well I may have had multiple reasons to start painting, but one thing is for sure and that is that I started painting because I was meant to and because I had so much to learn.  Those things I learned and am still learning were and are about painting of course, but most importantly they were/are about love, hope, peace, God, forgiveness, judgment, passion, purpose, community, acceptance, ego, fear, beauty, friendship, mistakes, hurt, second chances, spirituality, religion, kindness and joy.  That is probably too many for one sentence and most certainly too many to explain in one post, but no worries because I'm just going to touch on these topics as I progress through posting.  I'll come back to the topic often in between posts about special paintings or commissions, explanations of abstract paintings, and sometimes just silly studio news or announcements. I'm moving most posts and images of my painting to this format because it includes not only images, but gives me a chance to use words to explain what I do. I do have some friends that want to know a bit more about what I paint and not just see an image of a square ready version of what I've spent hours creating. So, this is how I'm choosing to start and to share.  Come along for the ride and the read if any of this is of interest to you!