My creative process revolves around staying loose, playing, and experimenting in my initial layers, then building upon them as I progress with the painting. I often find myself setting aside my brushes and focusing on finger painting. This approach keeps me unattached to my work, preventing me from overthinking how the eyes and face should look. It allows for imperfections and beautiful mistakes. Even after... Continue reading
Lately, I’ve been experimenting with acrylic paints and water-soluble pencil, along with acrylic paints and inks. It’s fun to add acrylic ink and then color with pastels, picking up some of the ink, creating new color combinations, and lots of beautiful mistakes (especially when I dump water on top). Once that dries, I begin to pencil in my face and body. I love to keep... Continue reading
I just can’t thank you enough for all of your support over these fifteen years that I’ve been painting, teaching, and sharing my art and process with you. Your love and kindness mean more than I can ever say and inspires me to create from my heart and keep sharing it all with you every day. Over the years, I’ve talked with thousands of artists... Continue reading
My creative process is all about staying loose, so I always play and experiment in my first layers. I also often find myself setting aside my brushes and focusing on finger painting. This keeps me unattached to my painting, preventing me from getting into my head and “thinking” the eyes and face should look a certain way or be a certain shape. It allows for... Continue reading
I’ve been journaling every morning for years – it’s always been my way to wake up and get grounded before doing anything else. My morning has become a ritual, a moment of quiet reflection, grounding me in the beauty of the changing seasons. These moments often spark unexpected inspiration, especially for new color combinations. The subtle pink of sunrise blending with the celadon blue of... Continue reading
These last few weeks, I’ve been painting a new collection inspired by peace and new beginnings.. This new painting is a small study for one of the larger pieces I’m working on – she’s called Truth Speaks, Mixed Media, 12” x 12”. Autumn is stunning right now as all the leaves are full of color here in Wisconsin, so I’ve kept her color palette vibrant... Continue reading
Every painting I create begins with a few playful first layers. They inspire the direction of my painting. I also paint them whenever I need to loosen up. They’re a reminder that there’s no right or wrong way. And nothing has to be perfect. Once I return to having fun, I let go. From there my creativity is free. I often begin my backgrounds by... Continue reading
One way I have fun when I’m covering up a painting I don’t like is to fingerpaint and drip inks on top. There can never be a wrong way and it’s so fun to just smoosh paint around. I squeeze out 2-3 colors of acrylic inks and paint right onto my painting surface, smudge them together and add extra fingerprints to see what happens. This... Continue reading
Hello, Friends! Someone asked the other day how I came up with the hair for my portraits of women. And, while it started with a few circles in the first layers of my paintings, this hairstyle is actually a dramatization of how I sometimes wear my own hair. Whenever I paint, I like to wrap my hair around chopsticks to keep it up – I... Continue reading
Hello from my studio! I’m in the middle of painting a new collection, inspired by lots of fall color. So I’ve been thinking a lot about my creative practice and how my process has changed since I started painting in 2009. As I’m painting, I always take the parts that I love most from each piece and recombine those elements in new ways. Sometimes that... Continue reading
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