When I’m at a creative block, there’s no way I can be loose in my art. A few days ago I was painting and I started to feel like I’d never get my painting right. I just couldn’t loosen up and let go. Everything looked too rigid and tight. Everything felt like a struggle. That’s when I take a step away and start to play.... Continue reading

Whenever I’m struggling to be loose in my art, I have to take a step away. I often look back at my past paintings and discover little things I love: a stripe of fluorescent pink oil paintstick beside a fingerprint of pyrrole red, a splash of pink ink in the corner, or a rainbow of water soluble oil pastels. Then I repeat those elements in... Continue reading

I’ve always loved art and have been creative. But I stopped painting and creating for years after college. I didn’t want to do anything creative if I couldn’t do it for a living. It was just too painful. So I hopped from job to job to job until I was fired from my favorite job as a landscaper in 2008. I started painting again to... Continue reading

Whenever I reach a creative block I need to take a step away, but that’s so often easier said than done. If I try and push to finish a painting or any creative project, I get so wrapped up in where I think it should go, so focused on the future and intense about the doing, that the painting just ends up in a big,... Continue reading

Do you struggle to be loose in your art? I do (all the time). I take photos of my process to remind myself there’s always an ugly stage. But recently I’ve also liked taking photos at stages of a painting where I’m happy with it, but still feel it’s not finished. That reminds me that it’s okay to let go and paint over something I... Continue reading

A few years ago I wrote a 300 page manuscript about enchanted fairytales. I wasn’t painting at the time. In fact, I hadn’t painted in years. All of my artwork from college had ended up in the basement. I didn’t see any point in painting anymore if I couldn’t do it full-time. I locked away that part of myself. Yet my creativity bubbled inside. So... Continue reading

I used to be afraid to cover up my art. I didn’t want to ruin a painting. I feared I wouldn’t be able to create anything better. Having photos of my art in progress helps me understand what works and what doesn’t, where I’ve gone too far and how I got to a finished painting I love. It reminds me there’s always an ugly stage.... Continue reading

Do you ever find it hard to paint eyes and faces? I do (all the time). One of the hardest things for me to learn as an artist was that I always get stuck. I got so frustrated with getting stuck, I began photographing my paintings at early stages in progress. That’s when it finally clicked. I realized every painting has an ugly stage. Every... Continue reading

My characters begin with the eyes, but they’re always the hardest thing to paint. Oftentimes my character looks nothing like it did when I started. It takes lots of beautiful mistakes and so many ugly stages before I can even begin to figure out the best posture, profile and facial gestures. Yet whenever I start a painting, my mind tells me I should get it... Continue reading

Whenever I get stuck with my art, I go back to painting whimsical animals. Sometimes I start to feel like I’m painting the same owls or bears that I did before. It feels like I’m not trying anything new. But this is part of my creative process. It’s a place to begin. The owl I create in my Free Painting Workshop has closed eyes, which... Continue reading