maryland public TV pop up gallery

Last night the Maryland Public TV displayed a small pop-up gallery of my work. What a nice surprise!  I found out when I received an email to my website... a new collector!
 Here is the link if you want to see it.http://video.mpt.tv/video/2365484282/
It truly is just a notation in the program...still I am delighted!

a painter's best friend

small detail of large oil 33.5x48, still in process

Who is the painter's best friend? What do you think?
 For me, it is my trusty razor. Each day I am at the easel I wipe away about half of what I do. Maybe it's too sharp, too thick, too descriptive, too purple, too dark, any of the many toos we can have. Say more with less.
For pastel it's easy, before I leave the easel I wipe with my palm or a tissue. With oil I often go into a scraping frenzy with my trusted razor or give it a rubbing with a paper towel or tissue.

here she is, the well used worker

turn off the lights

A gallery owner once said to me that so many paintings are hard to light because the painter works under too much artificial light.That lack of inner light makes them hard to be in a collector's home without special lighting.
Think about it. When we use more light "to see" (we can all be guilty) then the colors need all that light to "be seen." I am fortunate to work in north, natural light...but there are times when it is dark or rainy that I turn on my lights and know what he means. Therefore, when a painting is coming to completion I always finish it in dimmer light.
This is one that celebrates the wonderful color - gray.

P.S. Yesterday I was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and was delighted by a Civil War exhibit. All previous unseen Sanford Gifford, Frederic Church, Eastman
Johnson and Winslow Homer. These paintings normally reside in either private collections or museums I have not visited (ie the Military Museum)  Here is a link to the exhibit.

Eastman Johnson

5 years blogging and mistake making

Opening yourself up to mistakes can lead to better things. Last week, when going to location, I forgot my pastels I painted only the watercolor underpainting and memorized the rest. Now I found a new way to paint that I love.  It combines my love of plein air and memory painting.

On another note, today I celebrate 5 years of blogging and 1195 posts. As I enter my 6th year I confess that I have learned more from my 4 years of daily plein air painting, than I learned in my entire art school education- BFA and MFA. Year five was more about using that experience and transferring it to memory painting. What will come next???? Come on back for year 6 to find out.
If I could give one bit of advice to anyone wanting to improve and find themselves it would be to, without fail, paint outdoors everyday. Don't wait for that silly thing called inspiration. She rarely comes knocking. When you ALWAYS create she WILL find you. Time and time again.
Onward.