Category: Studio diaries

My recent venture into the world of oil painting was a perfect excuse to take out my Rosemary & Co catalog and drain my bank account. Let’s talk about brushes, choices and variety. I have a nice collection of brushes that work well for my acrylic and mixed media work. And I’d like to keep…

It was a nice ride last week; ideas were abundant and all worked out in sketches. Pencil and charcoal give me peace of mind, as colour is something I don’t have to wrestle with. Then a moment of panic washed over me; how in anyone’s name am I gonna translate this into a painting? What…

This summer was 100% about my course, my students and my art school plans. A year worth of planning, writing, recording and creating had to come together in these weeks before my new course “Foundations I” started early September. And now, in the final week of this 6-week live course, I feel like I can…

I owe you a bit of an update don’t I? Over the past few months I’ve been dealing with one of those monster depressive episodes. The kind that start off like a ‘normal’ one, and then simply don’t seem to end. It’s nothing new; I’ve been suffering from depression since my teenage years, but dealing…

It’s been a bit of a strange week of not feeling very productive and at the same time getting a lot done. Some new opportunities came along and I was faced with my old habit of not doing anything when faced with decisions. This might sound weird but when I feel this way, I somehow…

When I started my website I had a goal to write down a blog every week, documenting what I did with my art, resources I found or things I tried out. As with a lot of things I want to do, this small goal turned into a big mountain of stress in my head. Then,…

It’s a wrap for one of my larger works, “Michael”, a portrait of my cat who passed away a few weeks ago. I had a large sheet of Bristol paper that, as it turned out, wasn’t really my thing to draw on. So I used it for this with watercolor and ink. I never really…