06 Dec, 2018

My art career began like most, with simple drawing.  It is naturally the most immediate way to capture any subject, outside of course, photography.  Painting includes drawing and then making decisions on color, which is one step further.  Also, the application of paint can be accomplished in many ways.  Is it with a brush?  A palette knife?  An aerosol?  Lots and lots of choices.  With drawing, it is all very basic.  I should not forget to mention colored pencil, but even so...usually there is a

26 Sep, 2018

If you've been following my FB page (that is, if you even know where to find me on FB, which is Wilderness Creek Creations) you will have seen the progress on my latest work, the pumpkin. I don't do what I call a LOT of pumpkins, because they are so challenging for me as far as composition.  How do you make a pumpkin look interesting in a way you have not seen before?  A lot of pumpkins have a very smooth texture, which, for a painting...is not really a plus.  Smooth textured pumpkins can come

18 Sep, 2018

Aspens are changing!  If you've never seen these in their natural setting....by all means put it on your bucket list. I loved being at our cabin in the Fall of 2016 and watching them change from day to day.  The brilliant yellows, the pale yellows, the brilliant orange, and occasionally...calico colors of all three plus black. I will be painting a series of these, 12"x12" for an upcoming exhibition the week before Thanksgiving.  More info on that later, because hey...FIRST thing on the agenda

15 Sep, 2018

Please come see me and my work at Westward Gallery on October 5th,  at the corner of 44th & Tennyson in Denver, Colorado I am humbled and honored to be able to participate in this event, among other incredibly talented artists.  Westward Gallery does a phenomenal job of making fine art feel approachable.  Even if you are new to art collecting, owner Michelle Courier will make you feel comfortable, and aims to find pieces that everyone can afford. From Colorado Homes & Lifestyles, August 25th,

11 Sep, 2018

So today I finished a little study of a pumpkin and the labyrinthian vine that is part of it.  I will do a larger version once my canvas arrives (supposedly this Friday).  In the interim, I have an 18"x36" canvas to use, and I want to do it vertically.  I don't do many of these, and I should...because you can fit these vertical paintings in tight spaces much more easily than a horizontal version. These are my choices, which are cropped from photos I have taken (with the exception of the

04 Sep, 2018

Why would a person repaint something they've already done? Actually, there are a lot of good reasons.  For me, this time...it's because a painting I loved was destroyed, called "Kiss of Life."  More on that just a bit later. But yes, here are just a few good reasons to paint the same thing again.  1)  Monet would paint the same scene at different times of the day so that the light would affect the scenery in different ways. 2)   It leads to heightened observation skills, a deeper

31 Aug, 2018

Hey y'all, I placed in a recent online competition with Fusion Art.  I find out tomorrow as to which one. The top five award winning artists will have their award winning artwork included in Fusion Art's gallery on Artsy.net. Artsy is the largest online database of contemporary art online and receives an average of 2.5 million visitors a month from 160 countries and has become the "go to" place for collectors to find and buy art online. I actually won Best in Show with them recently in a

30 Aug, 2018

I've not sent out the cards yet, but if you're on my mailing list, you'll get one soon.  These are Save The Date cards for the open studios tour in Stapleton, which will be held September 29 and 30th.   If you're unfamiliar with how it works, in a nutshell....the artists of Stapleton open their home studios for a tour.  You travel from one house to another and view the work.  We call it "open studio" but in some cases, you will see the work in another part of the home.  Because...as in my

29 Aug, 2018

New painting in the works. This is a succulent.  From my original photo, the light was low and I got a blue tint on it.  And yes, it WAS blue-like, but the light intensified it.  There will actually be a tiny bit of green making itself known in the lower right hand corner eventually.  This is a little bit larger than my norm of 20"x20" square paintings.  It is a rectangle; 28"x22". The large scale of the composition makes the actual painting look larger than it is.  It's a type of optical

28 Aug, 2018

It is amazing to me how, whenever I am doing research for a painting or drawing, how that turns into a trail of discovery.  And the kinds of things I discover add so much depth to my days as an artist.  For example, the artist Tamara Lempicka.  I'll get to her in a second. Just this week I was asked to do a graphite portrait of Mae West.  In looking for what photos I would use to form a composite image, I realized that she very often had very ornate hairstyles.  Some of this was because several

24 Aug, 2018

Pictured:  A portrait I did back in 1999. As you may know (or maybe you don't) I don't do a lot of portraiture of people.   Reasons:   #1.  I used to do them and got a lot of 'baby' requests.  I know babies are beautiful; nothing wrong with wanting one.  It's just that for me, that kind of portrait is better suited for photographs.  Because in two weeks, that baby is gonna look different.  Do you really want to shell out dollars to capture an image of your baby, when he or she only looked

22 Aug, 2018

This morning I had miscellaneous errands to run, one of which involved going to a lab to do a breath test to make sure an infection was over and done with.  Is that TMI? Anyway, once I got back home, I had bunches of paintings to upload to a new site (I'll reveal that one later in the week after I get more images there).  So basically, no painting is getting done today.  And actually, I have no clue what I'm going to paint next.  Perhaps a pumpkin.  Not sure. So the not knowing, and the

21 Aug, 2018

I am so antsy to show you the dog portrait I just finished.  It is nothing short of adorbs.  The one featured here on this post is an older one of our longhaired dachshund, Toby.  But, for now, I can't show you the new one, as it is to be a surprise gift, and that is all I can say about it.  I don't always do dog portraits.  That is, I do them, but only during a few months out of the year.  So I'm available for a bit, if you want one!  They are $175.00 for an 8x10.  And for a 9x12, those are

20 Aug, 2018

Monday!  Some may have a romanticized view of what my life as an artist is like.  And I will confess, it is nothing short of awesome, but like anything, there are ups and downs. I am so thankful, so grateful for every day I have to create.  Let me get that out of the way right now.  And still...in the back of my mind...I think, "There is not enough time."  If I live to be 100, there is not enough time.  So I have to remind myself to simply be grateful for every moment I DO have, and to use it

19 Aug, 2018

By "new leaf," I mean this:  I will be updating this blog on a regular basis.  I have been very lax, and my last post was in May.  Yikes. I am sure you've seen this kind of thing on many blogs, but (not to brag or anything) I really really mean it!  That's okay if you are skeptical. Time will tell. You see, I have always regarded my blog as having to be more 'professional' and a little more aloof.  I didn't think I should mix 'personal' with 'business.'  But what I have found is that many

11 May, 2018

You may not know it, if you are not an artist yourself…but in the past couple of years, with the huge surge in the popularity of plein air painting (painting from life, outside) there has been a bit of a backlash against studio painting. Let me say, right here, that I love and admire plein air painting.  I am not going to take anything away from it or criticize it in any way.  Because the artist is outside, in the elements (good or bad) and because the light is constantly changing…it affects

05 Apr, 2018

I was recently struck (pleasantly) by a comment on one of my paintings, from a dear friend.  She described the mood of it as "eerie, yet hopeful."  Those two things don't seem like they could refer to the same painting, but that is what I love about art, and emotionalism in art. Below is the painting, called "Whistle Down The Wind," that she referred to: Her comment rings true!  It is both.  There is a storm in the background, which can be interpreted as incoming or outgoing, and in the

08 Jan, 2018

Being a self-trained artist, sometimes I get a little self conscious when someone asks me about technique, or the nitty gritty of how I make a painting happen.  I mean, I want to preface anything I say with, "Well...this is how I do it, after a lot of trial and error."  For real, I never ever took a beginning painting class.  There may be some things that go against the grain of the official "how-to" principles.  I wouldn't know! My painting career began in 2000.  I had been a graphic artist

20 Dec, 2017

Recently I was accepted into an online art gallery, which basically functions the same as a brick and mortar gallery, with the same commission structure.  There are many of these online galleries, all with different ways of conducting business and selling art.  However, a large proportion of them are not juried, which is both a good and a bad thing.  In fact, this applies not only to galleries, but art shows and competitions in general. So, for the good about non-juried:  Obviously, it is an