Art by JPL

Because my life wasn't busy enough, I signed up for another painting challenge. This one is called #28FebruaryFlowers and was started by Amanda Evanston. I decided late in January to do this challenge and at the art supply store I could not decide between acrylic and watercolors. So I ended up doing both. I've been painting the same flower in both mediums! It's fun and I'm learning a lot. Watercolors are challenging because I find it hard to control the values - the lights an

Here's a peek at my painting process. I begin by painting in layers. If I get stuck, feel nervous, or don't want to mess anything up, I remind myself that every layer is an underpainting. This helps me stay as relaxed and loose as I do when I painting my underpaintings. And then as it gets more finished I get tighter and tighter. Sometimes too tight! I'm always at war with myself trying to walk the line between loose and tight. This first layer is the underpainting. I use pri

I have been painting plein air this spring while the kids take horseback riding lessons. Plein air painting means painting outside. It's a French term that we have adopted (mutilated) into English. Their horseback riding lessons are at such a gorgeous location and I have an entire hour to myself! I bring my tiny watercolor set, just one brush, and a little cup. The kids learn assertiveness, they gain self-confidence, and they have so much fun. Meanwhile, I get my painting tim

I completed my 30-paintings-in-30-days challenge this week!! I had so much fun painting flowers for 30 straight days. What a fabulous painting challenge. I painted several in watercolor while on vacation at the beach in Sarasota, Florida. I ended up using my palette knife a lot in the second half of the challenge and I had so much fun experimenting with keeping things loose. I'm going to be popping these in my online shop in the next week or so. Send me a message if you're in

This month is flying by!! I am working hard on my 30-in-30 challenge. You can see the paintings daily on instagram or facebook. I've been painting a day or two ahead so that each morning I start by posting a photo. It helps to keep me organized and energized instead of feeling like I'm behind or playing catchup. I started trying to keep things loose and messy. As you might know if you've met me, it's not easy for me to paint that way! So around the half-way mark I started usi

It's half-way through October and I'm still recovering from September! What a month. I completed 30 small watercolor paintings in 30 days and several of them have found new homes. I had a great time working in a new medium and really pushing myself to stay loose. Now that it's October I am working on some larger pieces and I'm getting ready to re-work or paint over some older pieces! Exciting!! Here, in no particular order, are my favorite paintings from September. If you're

When I decided to do another 30-day painting challenge I chose to switch mediums. I had never used watercolors before in any consistent way. Why would I do that to myself? Because they don't call it a challenge for nothing! And a challenge it has been. I'm not through it yet, I have 9 days left, but I have learned so much in the last few weeks. And daily painting is so good for me! The biggest lesson so far is how to loosen up. With watercolors, things happen that are out of

This month I am working on another 30-day challenge. To make it interesting I chose to switch to a new medium - watercolors! This has been fun and challenging so far. I'm getting used to not being able to fix things as easily and just go with the flow. Often I paint a few practice paintings first to get my jitters out and then things start happening. Here are the first 6 days. I'm posting them daily on instagram and facebook if you want to follow along! These aren't available

I completed my 30 day painting challenge. It did end up taking me longer than 30 days but life tends to get in the way sometimes! I had a ton of fun doing it and I definitely plan to do another challenge, maybe in the fall. I started out with seascapes, pivoted to flowers, floral landscapes, landscapes, went back to seascapes and ended with flowers. I'm so excited to have so much new work! I'm varnishing them now, and soon the best ones will end up in my online shop - $156/ea

Remember when I started the 30 day painting challenge and I called it a seascape challenge? Well, things changed. On day 14 I didn't want to paint a seascape! So I painted flowers instead. Flowers led me to fields of flowers which led me to landscapes. Here are some of my favorites so far. These will be varnished and available in the shop in early June ($156/each). Two have already been reserved! #painting #flowers #fields #landscape