My Painting Process
My Painting Process presents insights, techniques, materials and behind-the-scenes looks of how my artwork develops and comes to life.
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The missed shots
Thinking about all the bird photos that weren’t meant to be This post is a tribute to all the photos I meant to take, the ones that got away, the ones I thought I actually captured – because those might be some of the best images that I imagined i could translate onto canvas. What I managed to capture are images of the feeder swaying after a take off. Bird rumps and tail shots. Blurry birds and fuzzy feathers. Innumerable bad shots. The ever elusive blue jay. I’ve missed the blue wonder countless times, and with every miss I had to laugh a little more. I mean what else could…
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Playing with ChatGPT
I’ve been thinking that I should be more open to new technologies and decided to play with ChatGPT. I was working on a painting of a lupin with a bee and frankly was stumped how to describe my work. I was looking for prompts – sometimes when I am painting my energy is all about how I want the painting to look not necessarily on how i’m going to describe it. Quite often I have a notebook where I write down my thoughts as I paint for this reason – sometimes not always and definitely not in this case. So I turned to ChatGPT for inspiration. The result was superfluous,…
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Well, I’ll be spuddled
Well…I’m a thinking that I’ll be Spuddled Definition: to work ineffectively: to be very busy while achieving absolutely nothing Spuddle. A lovely new word that often describes my quest as a Master Procrastinator. Makes one feel productive in the middle of avoidance. And it’s fun to say. All of this supports one of my other claims to fame of getting things done on deadline – just under the wire – squeaking through as the saying goes- some of us (namely me) apparently work better under pressure. The desire to spuddle often hits when I am about two thirds done a painting. In this case two of them. Close enough I…
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And that went fast
And that went fast – Summer. What the heck happened? How is it possible you are leaving us so soon? It seem like you were only a blur this year. Anyone else feel this way? Oh, I know we can all be too busy – but this time of year I stop to smell the roses. Literally! I always say that is the sun is out…I’m out. Only this year the sun was elusive, the weather was wet, often smokey and incredible humid! And a lot of the blooms literally rotted on the bush. Yes, I know you know but I feel obligated to complain a bit more and remind…
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Dancing With the Sun
I love it when paintings name themselves. Quite often as I am working on them, the name just comes to me and it almost always is the right name for the piece. This was one of those times. Dancing With the Sun. Just feels right Were you aware that sunflowers move so that their “face” follows the sun? I think that this was so cool. So the flowers really do a slow dance with the sun each day and I danced under the sunflowers. It’s no wonder this flower makes everyone feel so much joy. The beautiful complementary yellow flowers against summers cobalt blue sky – so beautiful. Here are…