Category: Various

Titling abstracts is a dilemma. Should I call this “Abstract #134”? or “Red and Turquoise on Yellow”? or “Sunset with Turquoise Moonrise”? Your advice welcome.

Acrylics, watercolor and pastel.

I painted this in the fall, inspired by a neighbor’s bush and all the shades of the ripening blueberries. I post it now because having cataracts is like wearing amber sunglasses; after mine were removed last month, the blues especially seem more vivid.

Over the last three weeks I have had cataract surgery on both eyes at Chapel Hill Ophthamology. It’s amazing — the world is so much crisper and more colorful! The photo below is like my vision before and after; before, it was like looking through a used plastic glass, and now looking it’s like looking through real glass.

Below that photo is a painting of my current 16-color watercolor palette.

This sketch was fun to do. Try it yourself? Hatching and cross-hatching are good ways to show a shadow and make a object feel “grounded.”

Here’s a link to a 4-minute video of Jane Fonda, age 86, with secrets of living longer and happier, including taking art classes.

Patchwork fields are so appealing, like those found in the British Isles. I saw a painting similar this and decided to try my own version. This was done with ink and black watercolor paint, diluted to produce a range of grays.

For the New Year, I’m doing a series of ten minute exercises: bubbles, grids, shapes and spirals. Try setting a timer for ten minutes and see how it feels!

Bruce and I wish you and yours a happy, healthy year ahead!

Wishing you and yours a blessed Christmas and Hannukah!

This “Christmas tree” is covered with monarch butterflies emerging from their chrysalises in the forest in Mexico. I painted this a decade ago when I visited this site; it came to mind when I read that monarchs are now considered a threatened species. Monarchs need milkweed to reproduce, so we are planting some in our backyard. See this link for how you can help.

Red and green are my favorite colors, which is fun at Christmas time. Here are two versions of the same cyclamen, painted in an acrylics class taught by Lisa Daria Kennedy. She taught us how to use thin layers of paint to produce a more luminous quality.

How often do we buy, cook and eat vegetables without really seeing them?

Research increasingly shows that, even though we have problems, counting three gratitudes each day makes us happier and healthier.

Watercolor on yupo paper.

At times when some are distressed, and others are relieved, the wisdom of the Serenity Prayer is universal.

77% of Americans on both sides say they feel election anxiety. At times of personal (and national) anxiety, deep breathing helps. In ocean breathing, we visualize a wave hitting the sand as we breathe out, and receding as we breathe in. Try a few breaths like this and watch your body and mind relax.

Kosher salt dropped into wet paint created the sand effects.

This painting took just four strokes. Then, wisely, I stopped.

This watercolor was painted with only one red, one blue and one yellow. Any other colors you see are because of colors mingled with each other. Fun to paint!

Sketching is a great alternative to impatience. Next time you’re kept waiting, grab a napkin and a pencil and sketch what’s around you. Don’t worry if it looks terrible, that’s what wastebaskets are for. Stay away from facial features — they’ll mess you up every time.

It’s your last chance to reserve a pet portrait during my election sale $250 $195 and have 100% of your money help to “get out the vote” in a top swing state! I have just completed five pet portraits including Baxter (below), and sent all the money to Down Home NC, which empowers and protects rural Black NC voters when they face voting intimidation from white supremacists like the Proud Boys. Your painting can be done now or later, for the holidays or a future gift. Reply to make a reservation now while your money can make a crucial difference.

Researchers say the intelligence of crows rivals that of a seven-year-old human child. “Crows and ravens are the only non-primates capable of making tools. They are capable of abstract reasoning, complex problem-solving and group decision-making.” To learn more, click this video.

Watercolor on Yupo paper, which creates unusual textures.

This Sunday 9/22 was the autumn equinox. Fall is many peoples’ favorite season. The heat of the summer is over, the air is cool and crisp, and the colors of the trees can be magnificent.

For the last seven years, I’ve meditated almost every morning for ten minutes, using an app on my phone (Headspace, Calm and recently Insight Timer). Quieting and centering helps start the day well. A small altar in the corner of the room helps to focus.

Gouache, watercolor, pen, iridescent gold ink.

On Friday night I was stuck in the Philadelphia airport, on a connecting flight from Vermont to North Carolina. All the flights kept being delayed, so instead of getting cranky, I decided to sketch the scene outside the window. I had just finished this sketch when I looked up to see a big jet labelled “The United States of America” landing on the runway. It was Air Force Two bringing VP Kamala Harris to Philadelphia to prep for Tuesday’s debate.

How many of us feel a bit sad when Labor Day comes? Perhaps it’s the echo of all those years at school when we faced months of sitting at our desks all day. Or a wish that we had savored more of those long summer evenings. I sketched this while visiting a friend at her lakefront cottage. Like many of our summer memories, it is a bit idealized.

The contemporary coffee shop is one of the best inventions of the 21st century, don’t you think? Dozens of people sipping lattes while working on their laptops, reading and chatting. This week’s sketch is of a guy sitting at the table next to me. His shirt wasn’t actually orange, and there were no paintings on the wall, but hey, this is sketching, not photography. Do you notice the “lost edge” on his face? Lost edges allow us to use our imagination to fill in the rest.

Looking for ways to fight voter intimidation in November’s election? I’m commissioning pet portraits (election sale $250 just $195) so you can do just that in the critical swing state of North Carolina. I will donate 100% of proceeds to NC Black Alliance, which stands up to groups who are notorious for their scare tactics. The white supremacist Proud Boys and Oathkeepers park big pickups with racks of guns near the polls, and engage in hate speech to scare Black voters away. Examples of pet portraits are here; reply if you’re interested.

The art of James Rizzi (1950-2011), which I recently discovered among some used art books, is fanciful and reminiscent of the “Where’s Waldo?” books. It looks fun so I decided to try the style.

$100 original 9″ x 12″ watercolor, 100% to register voters in marginalized communities.

To those of us whose birthday candles are getting crowded …..

What a magical season to cut flowers in your garden or buy them at the local Farmer’s Market.

At our family cottage in Vermont, this morning Lila (age 18) and Maggie (age 6) had a wonderful time painting together. Such blessings.

My first day experimenting with soft pastels, which are fun and easy to use.. A frame of artist’s tape until you’re finished keeps the edges clean.

Soft pastels, white acrylic paint, india ink, artist’s tape.

Watercolors, diluted acrylic paint, water-soluble crayons, india ink. No pressure, just playing and watching it flow. The only questions are: When is it finished? And which way is up?

May this month offer you some well-deserved rest.

Isn’t it interesting how a bunch of dots can come together to make a believable scene? The Impressionists discovered this.

The longest day of the year is this Thursday, June 20. Here’s hoping you have lots of sunshine and nature in your life this summer.

Your dog or cat can help you make sure all humans who want to vote can do so! In North Carolina (where we moved 3 years ago), if you are a person of color, it can be scary to register and vote — from restrictive voter ID laws, to Proud Boys’ pickups trucks near the polls with shotguns in their gun racks. When you commission a pet portrait, 100% will be donated to fight voter discrimination. Election season sale: pet portraits are not $250, but $195. Yesterday I finished this painting of Zeke, a long-haired dachshund, commissioned as a Father’s Day gift.

For the first Monday in the seven years since I started this blog, I forgot to post my weekly painting on Memorial Day last week!

Drawn by the variation in the fields and sky, I snapped a photo of this view and painted it later in a wide sketchbook. It’s a good example of one-point perspective, as all the lines converge on a single vanishing point in the middle. I find the scene appealing and hope you do too.

Our Farmer’s Market is starting to sell zinnias in many colors. I began to paint these from the standard side view of the tops of the flowers, the stems and the vase. But that didn’t show much of the flowers so I switched to an aerial view. Isn’t it amazing how intricate and almost mathematical the petals are?

Look out your window right now. How many greens do you see? It’s a challenge for painters to portray the many greens of nature: new leaves, mature leaves, evergreen trees, deciduous trees, all sorts of plants, fields, lawns, the effects of light and shade, and more.

Here’s a landscape of patchwork greens followed by a green color chart.

This started with three shades of red acrylic paint (magenta, alizarin crimson and cadmium red) on paper. I made different rectangles, combining reds and diluting some with white. At the end I added some green and white colored pencil. No plan, just following what looked appealing at the moment.

People who love color are drawn to abstracts because they celebrate color without being tied to reality. I discovered the work of Evalyn Boyd recently, and now I’m excited to learn more. Here’s my first.

Acrylic & graphite on 9″ x 12″ canvass, $95. All proceeds to color-blind voter registration.

Lila has come a long way since I snapped a photo of her learning to read, from which I painted this picture. She’s graduating from high school in June, and has decided to go to North Carolina State University in Biomedical Engineering next fall. Hooray for women in science! Then and now ….

Lila was eight when I took the photo on which this painting is based. She was walking in the woods with her brother Soren (our step-grandson). Now Lila is choosing a college. A magnet on our refrigerator says, “Cherish family, the days are long, but the years are short.”

These figures were my final assignment for a class I just took on sketching people. It’s challenging, but art comes alive when you populate your scene. Sketching moving people is too hard, so I snapped photos on my phone and drew from those, first in pencil (making corrections, especially in proportions), then in pen, finally adding just a few colors, mostly magenta and turquoise.

It’s funny (and sad) how often you see paintings of scenes that look great except that everybody has left town. I’ve been taking a Zoom class called “People Alive!” with the goal of populating sketches with casual figures, and also better understanding how the head changes with different angles. Here’s some of my homework. Not easy! Art is fun and frustrating because you’re never as good as you want to be, and you can keep learning for the rest of your life.

Hibiscus are such beautiful plants, with flowers that only last a day. Is this a metaphor for cherishing the days of our life? Though watercolor is my primary medium, I also love the fluidity and brightness of acrylics. 100% of sales go to voter protection this election year.

6″ x 6″ acrylic on museum board $75. Frame available.

This election year I’m offering my art for sale to fund the fight against voter intimidation in North Carolina. Unfortunately, efforts to prevent African-Americans from voting are still common, especially in rural areas of the South.

Original watercolor 8″ x 10″ (fits an 11″ x 14″ frame), $225, 100% to fight voter intimidation. Tax deduction available.

A unique feature of watercolor is that, if you pre-wet a shape with clear water before the dropping the paint in, the watercolors will run together and mingle. The paint won’t go where the paper is dry, like the spaces between the tree trunks. Only three colors (red, blue and yellow) were used here, but they mingled to create purple and other shades. That’s one of the reasons I love watercolor.

The daffodils are starting to bloom in North Carolina. Can you tell I painted this quickly? The pencil lines of the sketch (which I didn’t always follow) were left. The background was painted after the flowers, including the negative spaces between the stems, and colors were allowed to run together and form “blossoms.” Watercolor is the only medium which can achieve some of these effects.

Years ago, when we were both volunteering in prison, I gave this quote superimposed on my painting to Don Miller and others. Last week Don wrote to me saying, “That quote has changed my life.  Thank you so much for giving it to me.” He is now reprinting it and giving it to others. Feel free to do the same.