Blog

"How the Light Gets in"  12x12, oil on canvas When you buy canvas, it sometimes comes with these little pieces of wood-- stretcher keys. They are there to strengthen the canvas if it begins to sag. Never having had a need for them before, I typically throw them away. ...

 "Break Free" 16x20, oil on canvas I decided to start working in pairs of paintings-- two on the easel at the same time. And even if one of the two was my primary focus, I’d let the knife run over into the other on occasion just to get the second started. There’s...

"Slow Down" 16x20, oil on canvas For someone who slings paint around just to enjoy the drips, blobs and imperfections, I am often hopelessly neurotic. I take our puppy out every ten minutes for fear she will have an accident. As for my human children, I am not the...

Recently, I woke up from a nightmare-- the calendar said January 16, and I had yet to start my annual 31 in 31 daily painting challenge.  In the dream I was in a panic-- was it too late to start? What about everyone else who joins with me each year? Had they been...

"Piece of the Continent, Part of the Main" 24x30, oil on canvas I got the title for this painting from something I learned when I was thirteen. My seventh grade reading teacher had a couch in her classroom-- a throne individual students got to spend class in as a...

I’m reading this book called “Think Like a Monk” by Jay Shetty. He describes an encounter I keep thinking about: One day at the Ashram, Shetty sees a child no more than ten years old teaching a group of five year olds. When he asks the child what he’s doing, the child...

  About a month ago I painted live at a gala for St. Tammany Parish Hospital Foundation. They had asked me to do an abstract-- something I love but had not done in quite some time. The morning of the event, I took to my easel to try to work out what kind of painting I...

  "Maybe our world will grow kinder eventually Maybe the desire to make something beautiful      is the piece of God that is inside each of us" --"Franz Marc's Blue Horses" by Mary Oliver     My first art lesson was in a small second...

I’m sitting on a row of raised seats in a small hallway looking through a large, glassless window at a group of kids kicking and punching into the air.  “Repeat after me!” a booming voice demands.  “Failure!” it says. A chorus follows: “Failure!” “Is my friend!” and...

Since I’ve been painting less and less at weddings and events, I’ve changed the model for my at-home painting. This marks the third month in a row that I’ve put out a small series of paintings on my website. It’s a change and sometimes a challenge, but I firmly...

I used to spend nearly every weekend celebrating someone’s wedding. I’d paint, and they’d dance. I’d mix colors, and they’d clink glasses. I’d watch happy couples dance and relatives tilt their heads to the side as they looked on and smiled.  Most of the weddings I...

I heard some commotion on the screen porch the other day and went out to investigate. Apparently I’d left the door propped open the last time I was photographing my paintings, and a bright red cardinal had gotten inside. What I heard was the sound of him throwing...

I have been working hard on a particular batch of paintings-- a triptych for a nursery for a very dear friend. My paintings have been less than inspired lately. The strokes feel labored, my subjects tired (gee, I wonder whose energy they could be reflecting?) so when...

"From Shadows" 20x20, oil on canvas I’ve been MIA on my blog. On May 28th, surrounded by family in a small ceremony, I got married to the love of my life on the steps on St. Rose de Lima church in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The next day, we jumped in the car and...

Coronavirus time reminds me of when my son was really little and I would sneak in painting sessions when he napped. I never knew exactly how long I would have. I just knew the time was small and precious. I gave little efforts that somehow, miraculously, added up. ...

"Muddy Waters" 10x10, oil on canvas, $300.00 Today’s painting is of the Tchefuncte River-- that special place where cypress trees reach their long trunks into the muddy waters that hold a mirror up to them. Form and reflection touching where land meets water. It is a...

"Magnolia Melodies" 10x10, oil on canvas, $300.00 I typically like to paint flowers with less specificity-- roses and ranunculus in particular. Flowers whose petals all kind of blend together, and I freely apply the palette knife to the canvas to create bumps...

Today’s painting is the second part of a small commission I shared on day 48. The setting is the Mandeville lakefront, a place I’ve spent my fair share of days.  Looking forward to more of these kind of days-- footloose and fancy free.

"Celebration" 16x16, oil on canvas I used to see a lot of arrangements like these at the weddings I would attend almost every weekend. My weekends now are slower-paced and with fewer flowers.  We got the go ahead yesterday to have our "micro-wedding" (just...

"Rest Here Awhile" 4x4, oil on canvas, $80.00 My mother's day was so good yesterday I decided to give myself the day off from both painting and posting. Now that we're up into the 50s, the little breaks are becoming more and more essential. We spent the day at the...

"Uplifted" 6x6, oil on canvas What's that saying? The only things we can be certain of are death and taxes? I'll add one to the list-- children interrupting you.  I can't keep track of the days anymore. Edit: I don't care to keep track anymore. At my house, we are...

"Onward" 6x6, oil on canvas    What advice would you give 2020 graduates? I created this little painting for one. The slightly lavender background is a nod to her going to LSU in the fall. These are strange times, and I'm not sure there's anything we could...

"Breaks" 6x6, oil on canvas, $125 During homeschool, my son will typically ask for a break after brushing his teeth and before any tasks have been assigned. It’s good to take breaks, but, as I tell him, they feel even better when they are hard earned.  On day 50 I...

  I didn’t touch any paint today except that which got on my hands shuffling paintings around in a make-shift garage studio that I haven’t cleared out yet.  I don’t have a finished piece to show for today. What I do have is over 30 paintings, packed and ready to...

"Gratitude" 6x6, oil on canvas, $125.00 I love words, but today I don't have many. I sent a coupon to my mailing list Friday for a mother's day sale, and my inventory is just about all gone.  Thank you for all your love and support. I feel so deeply grateful. 

  I struggle with commissions. It's just a fact. That's why I take them on only sparingly. But this one reminded me of me and my sister and of my nieces, and I loved the landscape aspect to it. The first go at it was all wrong and I'm not sure I could articulate...

"To Begin, Begin" 36x48, oil on canvas I’m “cheating”. This is an older painting that somehow disappeared from my site. I’m adding it back today and calling it day 47. I’m taking a little break from the daily paintings to get organized (ha!) and work on some shipping....

"Is it almost ready? When are we going to be there? This is taking forever! Are we there yet!?" I get these almost daily. About dinner. About the one hour drive from the house we are moving out of to the one we are moving into. About the zoom doctor's visit we had on...

There have been days in the last few years where I've been able to work to live music-- my fiancé practicing classical guitar in the next room. Today is one of those days.  There is a joy to it that I can't quite describe, but, there's no harm in trying. It's not...

Today's painting was a commission I did for a family. It's part one of a three part series that involves an important tree in their lives. I did a painting of each of the children in the tree and one of the tree by itself in all of its glory. I don't usually include...