New Work and a Short Video



A change of plans yesterday meant that I was able to spend some time in the studio working on a 24"x24" painting. I had started the background a while ago, and I had planned to create one of my radiating line designs on it. Yesterday was a perfect time to dive in.


It was daunting to draw on such a big surface. All of my previous radiating designs were on much smaller paper, but once I got into it, things began to roll. I didn't finish it, but I got a good start on it. I was even able to take some video of myself working.



Big Face Revisited


I've been working on this 18x24 inch painting in the studio over the last few days, and it's close to being finished. I am quite pleased with how it's turning out.

I used my Golden High Flow Acrylics to build up the background texture, and then I drew the face with my paint markers. I'll share when I finish it up. I'm looking forward to doing more paintings like this.

It's Official


Well, it's official. I'm taking the leap!

With a little trepidation and nervousness, I put in my formal resignation yesterday, so at the end of my contract, I will no longer be a teacher for Loudoun County Public Schools in Northern Virginia. I'll be a full time artist.

Up until this point, I have only declared my intention of stepping away from teaching, but now I have begun the actual stepping away process. Although I have six weeks left in the school year, my contract is officially up in mid August, which means that I'll have a couple of months over the summer to get adjusted to the idea of being a full time artist. It hasn't really sunk in yet. It's such a monumental decision for me, but I don't think it will really hit me until the fall when the new school year begins, and I won't be going back.

I just have to figure out a way to make a living at it.

Dave and I already have a number of things lined up for the summer and the fall, including teaching workshops at Art Unraveled in Phoenix at the beginning of August and Art and Soul in Virginia Beach at the end of September. We'll also be keynote speakers at a couple of different state art education conferences.

I've also got ideas for some local workshops and events, and I have some notions for more online workshops. I would love to travel and teach at other venues, so I definitely need some help in finding studios and art stores where I can teach workshops, so if you know of a place, let me know.

I guess there's no turning back now, and I would't want to even if I could. Here's to taking the leap and taking flight.

The Child Within


I have been experimenting a lot lately with techniques and images, and I feel like I'm at a very unsettled place with my art. At times, I feel like I'm all over the place with things, and that's perfectly fine with me. It's giving me the opportunity to try out all kinds of things to see what sticks.

I have noticed that my work has been getting more representational - more figurative - from the monsters to the faces that I've been pursuing over the last few months. In a small way I've been trying to move my art back toward the recognizable, but I haven't gone back to the highly accurate renders that enthralled me long ago. I don't seem to have the patience anymore to try to make something "just right" with all the complex shading and detail. I'm more into simplifying my approach, and I'm liking the direction the art is taking.

Over the last couple of weeks, two things have inspired a move into yet another experiment with a style and imagery type. I've been trying to tap into the child within and just let the drawings flow. The first source of inspiration came from reading Gordon MacKenzie's book Orbiting the Giant Hairball. The book is about the things he learned during his 30 years at Hallmark cards, and it is a very inspiring read. But it wasn't so much the words that have inspired my art, it was the illustrations scattered throughout the pages. These simple line drawings are reminiscent of the way little kids draw, and they intrigued me and mesmerized me. I knew that I need to try something like it in my own art.

The second source of inspiration has come from watching several of my students draw. As an elementary art teacher, I teach about 630 students a week, and some of my students amaze me with their confidence when they draw and the whimsy and character of their drawings.  These students have yet to be tainted with the "is this good" bug. They draw and create with such pure joy and spontaneity, and I've been trying to capture some of that with my latest experiments. I'm trying to connect with that simple and joyful quality, and I've been greatly enjoying myself.

So, when you start to see more works like the one above, you'll know why.

A Big Face



I found some time to work in the studio tonight, and I decided to attack one of my larger panels. Back in February, I built and gessoed a few cradled panels including this 18"x24". I applied several layers of Golden High Flow Acrylic, and it sat for a couple of months. My plan was to do one of my faces on it, but I had simply been putting it off.

Tonight, I decided that I had put it off long enough, so I dove in with my thick, black paint marker and drew the face. It's a different experience drawing on on this large surface than it is drawing the face on the smaller 4"x6" pieces I have done before. After the black lines, I wanted to pull the face out from the background, so I laid in a layer of alizarin crimson in the negative spaces. I still want to play with the line thickness, and I want to add some patterns with black and white paint marker. It's a ways from being finished, but I am liking how it's turning out so far.

The High Flow Acrylic has quite the gloss when it dries so I had to shoot the photo at an strange angle.

Monster in 3D



This little guy came into being over the last couple of weeks. My students have been working with clay, and I just couldn't resist making a little monster. Although, I consider myself a painter, I love working with my hands to create three-dimensional pieces.

Spring Has Sprung


Spring has sprung in Northern Virginia, and that means lots of outside chores, which has taken me away from the studio. I've still been experimenting with some small pieces here and there. Today, though, I was able to make it into the studio where I experimented with my Golden High Flow Acrylics. 


A while ago, I created the 4.5"x6" painting below. I really like the jewel quality created by layering the red High Flow paint, and I wanted to see if I could create a similar feel with other colors. I'd like to do an entire series of small paintings like this. So, tonight I tried blue. The blue is a little dark, so I need to see if Golden makes a blue that is a little lighter and a little more transparent.



It was just nice to be in the studio.

Graphite Face


Over the last few days, I've worked on a graphite drawing using one of my stylized faces. It was nice to simplify my materials and try an image in a different media. Graphite will always be a specialty me. As a young artist, graphite pencil was a convenient and cheap material. I have always enjoyed being able to create that illusion of depth and three-dimensions. It's always been quite magical. I may be a mixed media artist, but I love going back to my roots every once in a while.