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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Behind the Scenes of Glowing Garden Painting
For several months, Glowing Garden was a big secret – from its owner. She wanted to wait until it was completed to see it! This 36 × 48-inch oil painting was a commissioned piece, and until yesterday, the person who commissioned it hadn’t seen any part of the painting. That made the process feel a little different from my usual work. Although I knew where the painting was going, I was unable to share my work in progress or get feedback along the way. The painting was inspired by a corner of their garden filled with pots of colourful begonias, tucked beneath the canopy of a maple tree. The flowers…
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When Your Art Page Gets Hacked
I got hacked. Lost my art page and a little bit of trust along with it There’s nothing quite like that gut-punch moment when you realize your Instagram art page – the one you’ve spent years building – has been hacked. Commandeered. Taken over. All your efforts in those posts, connections, and quiet moments of sharing your work with people who genuinely care about it… are suddenly out of your control and replaced with spam posts! It’s frustrating, infuriating, and honestly, a little heartbreaking. You pour so much of yourself into your online spaces. It’s not just “social media” – it’s our gallery, our portfolio and often our community. The…
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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 is a lovely new word that often describes my quest as a Master Procrastinator. It describes how you can feel productive in the middle of avoiding work related tasks. And it’s fun to say. All of this supports one of my other claims to fame of getting things done right on deadline as; in just under the wire; squeaking through. 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. …
