Blog

Day One.   So hard to be still When all i want is to check Stillness off the list   One year ago today I sat down, much like I am today, and wrote those same two words: day one. I usually spend the first day of any new year thinking about all the things I...

I have taken to  Writing haikus with coffee Morning ritual I wrote that one a couple months ago when I decided it was time to give that little fire inside me room to grow. Here it is: I’m thinking about doing something scary.  But first let’s talk about the...

“I have already settled it for myself so flattery and criticism go down the same drain and I am quite free.”  ― Georgia O'Keeffe I’m reading a biography of Georgia O’Keeffe right now, and I have to take it in small doses because she blows me away. I cannot handle her...

Truth be told, and I hate to admit it, but I don’t really know how to buy art. I’ve been on the other side of it for a while now, and that I kind of get. So when you buy something from me at a market or from my site, I’m a little in awe. Of all the beautiful art in...

 “Hurricane” Barry was a non event. There’s still a twig in my yard that blew off the sycamore tree, but other than that, there’s no evidence. And the twig wouldn’t hold up in court because even the slightest rains bring down branches in my tree-happy yard.  But...

I’m still pissed.  As though it were a bad show on Bravo or the dead possum on the side of the road, for a long time I just wasn’t able to look away even though I know my spirit (and my queasy stomach) deserve better.  It’s about something that happened so long ago....

Every morning last week was the same madness. I’d go into my son’s room at 7:00 am. With a flip of the light switch, I’d tell him good morning. He’d grumble from under the covers, his overgrown curly hair just poking out from the top of the comforter. If I didn’t know...

I'm not a huge fan of before and afters. When people finish a new exercise or diet program and post a split screen, I find myself yelling into the computer: you were also good and beautiful in the "before!" So when I share some before and afters of this month, please...

True confession: when I started this watercolor project on day 1, I was not expecting to actually like watercolor. I was just looking for a way to clean out my painting studio at the same time that I kept painting. I could paint watercolors at the coffee table or in...

  I've been really inspired by some fellow 31ers doing figurative work this month. I haven't been able to get to a figure drawing group lately, so I've opted for some photographic resources online. Working from photographs isn't nearly as good as from life, but...

Final stretch, the last mile.  When I was in college I had the pleasure of attending a literary conference where poet Billy Collins was the keynote speaker. I'll never forget his description of his writing routine: each morning he begins with a haiku as a warmup...

Well, folks, this is my FIFTH cardinal watercolor this month but only the first I'm posting. The others are lovingly resting in the "no" pile. One of my favorite birds has turned my art nemesis, but in today's painting I breathed a little "finally." And it's not...

I love spotting these birds in my front yard where that little flash of red can be seen through the grey of the trees. I’m learning to use more water and let it lead instead of always trying to be in charge-- blurring more edges, washing away what I thought was...

Years ago, I saw a painting of a tufted titmouse by an artist I admired. I'd like to try painting that little bird, I thought, and proceeded to file that thought away only to emerge again today when I finally actualized it.  One of the cutest of birds, this...

Yesterday I got a great suggestion for the name of this month’s watercolor series: Birds and the Brees. All of the original watercolors will be available on my site early February, and since so many of you have asked, there is a print series in the works for the...

This is what I’ve learned so far on my 23rd day of daily watercolor painting. You paint with the water and the paper as much as you do with the actual paints-- this oil painter had no idea. At least I’m not an Atlanta fan I didn’t start out on January 1st with the...

  Yesterday my six year old asked me if the Saints had ever won the Superbowl. It’s a question I can honestly remember asking my own parents at his age, but where I got to say yes, they had to explain the playoff curse-- not only had we never gone to a Superbowl,...

I really shouldn't be painting my favorite Saints players. I paint chickadees and pelicans and hummingbirds-- quiet little things that don't really care much for football or the community it creates. I don't have many words right now, so my truly gifted and wonderful...

Last night I painted at a French Quarter courtyard wedding that I very foolishly did not expect to be so cold. My hands shook with each stroke, and I found myself giving inner Saints-themed pep talks: What would Alvin Kamara do? Just give up? Would Drew Brees stop...

I've been working on that blasted cardinal still, but it's still a no go. I really want to do some more portrait and figure studies, but, well, those are more of a process, and today I only had a brief time to paint. So I turned to my most beloved bird, the pelican....

Yesterday I cleared out three bags of junk from the studio-- almost empty paint tubes, halfway finished paintings that, let’s be honest, I have no intention of working on, one million paint caps, markers I never use, random paper and photo references. It’s starting to...

You remember December me, right? The one who said January me would be cleaning out the studio, getting a fresh start, creating watercolors at my desk so as to leave the studio open for a major overall? Yesterday the date just stared at me. It had been sixteen days,...

As I was skimming through photographs looking for some good faces to practice portraits with, I came across a photo of my nephew Beau eating an ice cream cone in my backyard at my son’s sixth birthday party. I loved the expression on his face, so I sat down and got to...

This little one is an ultramarine flycatcher, a bird you can probably see in India but not so much Louisiana. I typically paint birds I’m more familiar with, the kind that fly into my backyard or wonder near the ditches on the highway en route to the grocery store...

Since day 1, I’ve painted three cardinals. It’s a subject matter I’m all too familiar with when it comes to oil painting-- a real crowd pleaser. But I’ve not (yet) posted any of the cardinals because for some reason I cannot seem to figure out, they just aren’t...

One of the reasons I do these painting a day challenges is because it forces me to fit painting into my life whether or not it is convenient. One painting every day no matter what.  I painted at a wedding in the French Quarter last night (photo coming soon), and...

For today's painting I referenced the photo I had taken at the Audubon zoo that has been the basis for nearly all my oil flamingo paintings. I wanted to see how the image translated into watercolor.  I realize I rely so much on texture. Big globs of paint can...

Well, it was bound to happen-- I couldn’t quite find a way to sneak a bird into this one, but this little guy is my baby bird (don’t tell him, he despises the word baby). He is adventurous and smart, out-spoken, assertive, unafraid to tell you what he thinks. He asked...