Blog

I started my first garden in a patch of dirt behind a shared rental house in Jamacia Plain, Massachusetts while a law student. The same year I bought myself a small portable watercolor set to record my first trip to Maine. Since then I've been painting outdoors and planting gardens each place I've lived (seven gardens so far). My growth as a gardener has paralleled my growth as an artist. Both involve learning from others and from experience, trial and error, successes and failures. [...]

Still life painting is a wonderful way to enjoy winter. It allows us to contemplate past gardens and dream of gardens to come. [...]

"In the Garden" expresses the joy we feel when outdoors in nature and reminds us of our connection to the earth. It speaks of our collective memories of past, perhaps simpler, ways of life. It serves as a tribute to gardeners and reminds us of our shared sense of beauty and color harmony across cultures and continents. [...]

For years I've struggled with this question: Is it best to paint landscapes exclusively outdoors and on site, or can they be painted successfully in the studio? [...]

If this painting makes you want to soar, if it pulls you into the landscape and makes you want to fly over the fields to discover what is in the distance, then I will have succeeded. [...]

I was “seeing” the flax in my mind day and night for the next two weeks as I returned on the #54 bus to paint there. Each "painting day" was filled with the beauty and serenity that only a blue field can provide. [...]

Returning on the second day, I immediately saw the completed painting in my mind.It would be a painting about hope after the fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral. [...]

I have fond memories of eating flan...I've eaten it on train trips and on painting excursions in many parts of France. It was only after I finished this painting that I realized why I was so drawn to this subject - painting it connected me unconsciously to so many of those happy memories. [...]

This night-to-dawn bike ride through Tours was an inspiration for more still life paintings. [...]

Why am I obsessed with painting French desserts, bread and cheese? What happened to the plein air painter whose mission was to brave the extremes of weather and capture the immediate impressions of nature outdoors? [...]

Right here in my cozy studio, surrounded by beautiful objects, is where I want to be. [...]