Blog

Start with four days of crisp, dry weather and a cabin in the woods. Add starry nights, a stream with rapids to lull you to sleep, vistas, forest trails, waterfalls, a swimming hole, and a great blue heron.... [...]

Sharing a common appreciation of beauty gave this day meaning beyond the paintings themselves. [...]

Have you ever been asked to close your eyes and picture yourself in a beautiful place? Where do you go in your mind? The place that often pops up in my mind is Black Moshannon State Park, an endless source of imagery and inspiration for me as an artist. [...]

The minute I arrive in Big Valley and start to see sights like this, my brain switches into an alert and energetic mode and I start designing paintings. [...]

I’ve been experimenting with various types of native wildflower mixes. Initially the goal was to help the bees and butterflies but now I’m having so much fun painting the flowers that I can't stop planting more each year. [...]

As I get older I realize how much painting and gardening have in common. Both involve inspiration, imagination, planning, designing, creating, observing nature, learning from experience, dealing with challenges, and accepting imperfection. [...]

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. [...]

The smell of the salt air, the cries of the seagulls, jumping and diving the waves for hours - these are memories that run through my dreams and have inspired my art since I started painting. [...]

We are tiny specks of stardust living on a small planet in an immense universe. Something about this awareness frees and inspires me. It certainly underlies my art. [...]

I’m going to the top of hills and mountains whenever I can to paint vistas. Why? [...]

In these difficult times, it can be hard to fend off fear and worry. But there is good news to be found and, if you think about it, you might just discover silver linings to the pandemic cloud. Here are are a few I've found. [...]

I sometimes wonder if depicting beauty is enough for my art. There are so many alarming environmental crises surrounding us now. More than ever, I'd like to spotlight subjects of beauty that also benefit the planet. [...]

I rarely start a painting without thinking of Lois Griffel and will forever be grateful to her for giving me such a good start on the path of impressionist painting. [...]

I felt a strong pull to stay put, to get organized, and oddly felt the urge to open up the dreaded cupboard where I had stashed many unfinished paintings over the years. The time was right to give those another look. [...]

I never tire of seeing the transformation a snowfall brings, turning the familiar to the unfamiliar, the mundane into the beautiful. [...]

Someone recently asked me: What do you most want people to notice about your art when they see it in person? Here's my short answer [...]

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. [...]

My heart jumped knowing I would get to witness a phenomenon I had seen here before. [...]

I knew “Windthrow” was one of my favorite poems and that I wanted to "paint it". What are the odds that she would be taking photos of windthrows on the day I decided to ask her for help finding some? [...]

Katie Hays was invited to read from her three books of poetry at the Unitarian Church in Northumberland in 2016. This was how we met. I had that “oh yes” feeling as she read the first poem, “Arrival.” [...]

Ankle deep in snow at 8 a.m., ankle deep in water at 4 p.m. [...]

I was looking for the "gotta paint" moment, the moment when you feel your foot pressing the brake even if you aren't driving the car. [...]

The trains obliged me by coming every thirty minutes or so and kept me smiling as I did this painting. [...]

There is a gem of an art museum in Toledo, Ohio. [...]

One of my primary subjects has always been forest streams. The coolness of the forest, the smell of the damp earth near a stream, the sound of the water, make me want to stop and paint. [...]