A Scene from Childhood

I’m finding that I have an “old-fashioned” spirit when it comes to painting, and that’s how this painting feels to me.

Fun with Figures

I love the looseness and relaxed quality I can get by making these timed sketches, such as this “Weeping Woman” – the final pose of my class today.

I Wish

It’s hard to go wrong with black and white.

What Does It Mean to be an Artist?

Anyone can learn the proper techniques to follow in art, but that alone does not make one an artist.

Will I Ever Learn?

Will I ever learn to create the landscapes I want? Will I ever be able to paint trees that make me smile? Or will it always be a struggle for me?

Turning Heads

The human body — head and all — fascinates me. I’m still loving my anatomy and figure drawing practices, but what’s the point of drawing bodies if I can’t include heads and faces?

Seascape Fantasy

This particular canvas panel has been many things in its short life.

A Milestone on the Journey

As I watched my list of followers increase, I formed an ambitious hope. I wanted to have 500 followers before the blog’s first anniversary. It seemed impossible, but today — months before the celebration — I hit that milestone.

Living Out Loud

I hope you enjoy this fun look back. Maybe it brings back a few childhood memories for you, too.

A Few Bits and Pieces

Although I don’t like the finished painting, I do see a lot about it that gives me hope for my future as an artist. As you know, I’m still trying to figure out who I am and who I want to be, and I think there’s a lot of me in this painting.

One More for the Recycle Bin

The best I could manage was a fairly-decent sky, and from a distance, the tree-covered hills are all right. Maybe. I’m not even showing the entire painting because the rest of it is so hideous.

Digital Fun

I don’t know how to use digital graphics programs like Photoshop or GIMP, so I just play around with them until I come up with something I like.

An Artist’s Dilemma

In many ways, the painting does reflect who I am as an artist, and I like that. At the same time, I want to explore so many other colors and ideas.

Sketchbook Memories

Every artist — and every aspiring artist — should have a sketchbook. Although it might seem like an insignificant little thing, it’s one of the most important tools in our art arsenal.

Next on the Agenda

Recently, I’ve started practicing trees, and while I can do them fairly well in practice, I don’t seem able to get them the way I want when I try to include them in a landscape.

But, It Doesn’t Look Like a Bird

It was about midnight when I suddenly woke up and realized that I hadn’t done anything for the monthly celebration of our feathery friends, so I stumbled out of bed, grabbed a warm robe, and headed to my little art room, still half asleep.

What Not To Do

Whenever we set about learning a new skill, we tend to focus on what we should do. With oil painting, … More

Artistic Frustration

The new painting was turning out better than I’d hoped, and then, at the last minute, I made a disastrous mistake. I wanted to make the water in the lake appear to have a little movement in it, and it all went wrong. I was almost in tears to see what I had done. But I persisted. I could never completely fix the mistake and go back to the serene, placid lake I had before, but I did what I could to salvage the painting.

The Old Gray Mare – Underpainting Value Study

As you know, lately I’ve been studying oil painting techniques, and my assignment yesterday was to take a photo reference and use it to complete an underpainting to show the values.

Die, Mr. Partridge, Die!

I did my best to work around the still visible contours of the partridge body, and finally — after many hours of frustration — came away with a scene that accomplished my purposes.