So who else likes attending face-to-face art workshops, raise your hand. Oh good, glad I’m not alone.

Real time art workshops are my favorite. I love being in the same room with the instructor, watching yummy demos, making new friends, and trying out new techniques in paint. I love workshops so much I could go to one every month. But a couple of not so smallish things stop me….can you say moolah….and, you guessed it, time.

Let’s imagine you are working on a new painting you are very excited about. You’ve done everything you can to prepare – i.e. editing your photo reference, doing a value thumbnail, maybe even a color study to choose your color palette. You have blocked everything in. You stand back to take a look, and……blah….yuck…..nothing. It is just not working! It is not what you imagined. You don’t even like it. Now what?

Since January I have been pushing paint to create a group of paintings to show at the spring show of Antique Week near Round Top, Texas. I was invited to display my work by the very kind and talented owner of Loblolly Goods, Marc Elson.

So far this year I have set a record for myself – the most wipers ever! By wipers I mean just what the phrase implies – wiping the paint off the canvas so as to start over. Ahhhhhh. Such a good feeling.

I went through all the steps for the wipers – i.e. value thumbnail, sketch on the canvas, and value under painting. But when the color was on and I stood back, the painting just did not work. Gah. I’m not sure what happened! I could have messed up the values when I added color, totally possible, but I just did not like the painting. So. Off came the paint.

This Friday, February 1st, 2019 is the opening for a group show at the Burkholder Project in Lincoln, Nebraska. The show is titled “Big Land, Big Sky,” and you’re invited! The opening will be from 5:30 to 8:00 pm on the 1st.

I am honored to be part of this show along with these talented Nebraska artists:

I wanted to share with you some of this month’s efforts. And when I say “effort,” I mean this with all sincerity! I have wiped off at least three, ha!

This painting, “Fallow,” is one of my favorites. The sky is what drew me to the scene, but the suggestion of the farm is dear to my heart. Having been raised on a farm, I have such good memories of those growing up years.

My most recent master study is a painting by Alexei Savrasov entitled “The Sea Shore in the Vicinity Oranienbaum.” Oh how I loved painting this!

I like to take at least one great workshop every year and I have been considering several for next year but haven’t decided anything for sure. While I wait, my learning continues in my studio with the selection of several master paintings I want to study. You can read more about the ones I have chosen in this blog post.

I kicked off this series with Isaac Levitan’s “Sunny Day.” I started with this one because I think (I’m not sure though) it might be the hardest one. Why I do that, I do not know! Gah. I think it’s because my dad taught me to do the hard things first, and it is a lesson that has helped me so much in life. Thanks, Dad!

I’m happy to share that I will be leading a painting workshop on Saturday, January 19th, 2019, from 10am to 2pm at the Wild Rose Gallery in Broken Bow, Nebraska. The cost is $35 and lunch is included.

Lately I have been loving the work of a few master artists, long gone from us. Asher and Durand and John William Casilear were American artists of the Hudson River School era. Their landscapes are a wonder. I was lucky enough to see a John Casilear in person recently at the Denver Museum of Art. Wow. I will be studying both artist’s work in the coming months and sharing what I learn as I go.