Still exploring the shifting personalities of this view.
Here's the bright flashiness before things subdue, little by little neighbors turn out their lights, and the glitter of the city floats into the sky.
“Prelude” acrylic on 6x12” cradled basswood panel, 2024. All rights reserved.
My first go at a snow painting (if you don't count one Sorolla study).
This is largely imagined, too, since there's no snow near me (tears). Based off my "Summer Sounds" painting from last year, wondering what it would look like blanketed in sherbet sunrise powder. Here are the two of them.
A mashup of memories - times spent frolicking around Balboa Park. From sketching to silent movies.
More thoughts on light.
If you want to know a little story about this unassuming scene, click here.
Finished up the last of my summer paintings yesterday. Here’s one of them. A shame you can’t hear the soft symphony of bug & birdsong found here.
When you’re young, there are things in life you take as a given. Because, what reason would you have to second guess them? As I’ve grown, the one thing I long for with an ache that feels like a part of me is missing, is a garden. (Happily, in my current place we’ve worked hard to set up a mini one, but I still dream of acreage.)
This scene is of the first garden in my life, and I’ll always think of who tended to it, what it taught & provided, and how special it is to have a garden.
Sometimes the ocean really is that purple.
& now I’m enamored with light filtering up through tree lined streets.
Whew! Busy.
Between being back in the full swing of painting & getting my newsletter rolling, I haven’t had much time to come up for air. & I love it.
If there’s anything I enjoy more than art, it’s talking and writing about art. Check it out here.
“Lost Inside” acrylic on panel, 2023.
Books, as ever. Here’s a bonus photo of those buttery brushstrokes I’m always so focused on.
See me paint it here.
“After the Rains” gouache on paper, 2023.
An exercise in letting go. Broke my brain a bit, but for the better (I think).
From a time I went out hiking Mission Trails a few years back.
The colors & textures of this field - strewn with decaying logs and fresh sprigs of grass - is a reminder this time of year always brings. Let things change.
“Rhythms” acrylic on clayboard panel, ©2023, all rights reserved.
Vintage architecture being a (lot a) bit of an obsession of mine, it was inevitable I fell into a series focusing on all the magical details. The rhythm of Midcentury Modern roof-lines have my current attention.
I orient my paintings to be a blending of memory and mood rather than a straightforward recording of reality - for me, this one satisfies both so well. I’ll never forget the vibe of this space now that I have it painted exactly as it feels.
“Sunset at the Cove” acrylic on clayboard.
I have a crush on this place. Expect to see more of it.
At the point of quick studies and planning paintings with sketches.
See more of my plein air sketchbook here.
Though really, why not do both.
Ten points if you can name who belongs to this rarest of smiles.
A few new things. A really fun commission and an idea I’ve had in my head for ages.
Note: permission to use these bookplates are exclusively given to the person (people) they were designed for. As the artist I retain all rights to this original design, they’re not authorized to be distributed, copied in any way, or used in any way other than expressly permitted to the recipient for marking out their personal library books.
More no. 2 pencil dabbling.
Back from disappearing for a bit.
Fell in love with the simplicity of a no. 2 pencil recently.
I didn’t think so before I did this study and I’m more convinced after.
Pages in my sketchbook - two color studies playing around with palettes I don’t naturally gravitate to and this study of ‘At The Moulin Rouge’ circa 1895.
Lautrec has made a solid case for bringing black onto my palette.
