Fire and Fog It’s January 4, 2020. A deep fog envelopes our house and garden this early morning. Outdoor sounds are muffled. Tiny tree branches blur against a wet sky that closes in like a blanket. It’s the way the artist in me feels when one train of thought ends and another seems so vague…
As cooler weather comes our way I am trying to shift off garden design to designing works in the studio. I often start with something already in progress and go from there into a new series. In January and February I made 20 small “portrait”collages formed from a composite of features. They are all 5…
The bees coming to my yard are attracted to blue flowers: Agastache (hyssop family) and Leadwort (plumbago) and the chaste plant (Vitus agnus castus). Only the chaste plant has a strong scent which is kind of nice. The bees are flying right by red cardinal flowers, yellow/orange coreopsis, Echinacea (red, orange and lavender) and hot…
I’m often asked, “How long does it take to make this painting (or collage or drawing)?” The answer is complicated, because each piece may take merely days or weeks. But sometimes years are spent putting together a single piece of art or a series of related pieces. And, even though a composition…
Collecting materials, tools, and ideas is the first step. Whether an artist’s studio is neat as a pin or heaped full of brushes, tools, clay or wood, disorder characterizes the creative process. A chaotic jumble of ideas spill out of the brain and become organized in drawn or painted forms. Tubes of color sort themselves out,…