In the Studio | House Portraits

I delivered another house portrait to a client this week! Such fun. I consider my house portraits to be little painted love letters. These homes shelter the hopes and dreams of the inhabitants and my goal in rendering them is to honor those dreams. They're are painted in acrylic on high quality archival paper, and they're usually commissioned to commemorate a new home, or sometimes even the selling of a home.  Learn more about my house portrait commissions HERE.

Settling Into My New Studio

It's been crickets here on the blog. I've been single-mindedly moving into my new studio and prepping for my upcoming solo art show. As of this week, I'm all moved into the studio. I cannot quite express the feeling of having my very own space. It has been delicious. Yes... delicious is the word.

Tomorrow, I'll be loading in my exhibition at the Horizon UU Church in Carrollton, TX. But tonight I thought I'd check in here at La Maison Boheme and share some snap shots of the studio and some of the paintings that are part of the show. If you're in the Dallas area, please come see the new work! The church is hosting an artist reception for me on Sunday, May 28th from 2-3pm. Its open to the public and you can read all about it HERE. 

Going Solo

One year ago this month, I joined forces with my friend, Jay Bailey and moved into a beautiful industrial studio space in Deep Ellum, Dallas. It was a dream come true. I was finally out of my house with space to grow. And guess what? I grew.

I'm so grateful for Jay's company, his guidance, and his generosity. He helped me to grow my business and get clear about the way in which I want to work.

After much consideration, I'm taking another leap of faith by going solo. Today, I signed a lease on my very own studio space. I'm still at the Continental Gin Building on the 3rd floor, but now I'm down the hall in my own 467 square foot studio. What a thrill!

Here are some photos of the empty studio. I'll do some cleaning in the week ahead and then start moving in! I can't wait to share photos and updates as I make this huge transition. Thanks to everyone here at the blog who has supported my work over the years. And also gratitude to my patrons on PATREON. I'm so grateful!

8 Must Haves in the Studio

It was almost a year ago that my studio mate asked me to share a space with him at the Continental Gin Building in Dallas. Before that time, I created a studio space in my own home. Having my own dedicated studio, separate from my home, has been revolutionary for my art practice. When I sit down to work now, I'm more focused. I'm able to approach the work with greater clarity. And when I'm painting, I can completely disengage with the narrative of wife, mother, house-manager, schedule-keeper... it all just fades away because I am literally in a different space.

Now that I've been in my studio for 11 months, I've become dependent on a few key elements. For some artists, they need a certain amount of light or square footage or a particular kind of brush. Today, I'm going to outline some things that have become my "must haves" in the studio.

1. White Walls

I only have a couple of windows in my studio and they are covered with vining foliage, so to better reflect the natural (and artificial) light in my studio, I think white walls are best. 

2. Storage

I like to keep things tidy in my studio. I work quickly and I like to have all of my tools within reach. I don't have a fancy set up like the one below, but I'd like to!

3. Rolling work space

The table legs pictured below are from Ikea and they are the same ones I use in my space. All artists need a workspace, but it also needs to roll out of the way for studio visits, classes, and art openings. Putting your work table on wheels is the easiest way to accomplish this.

4. Task lighting

My studio, while well lit, doesn't always fit the bill. I use clamp lights and swing arm lights to illuminate spaces on the fly. My studio mate also uses this kind of lighting to light models when he hosts figure drawing classes in our studio.

5. Protective clothing

I am a super messy painter. I spatter and drip and use my fingers and wipe my hands on things. So, I need protective gear. I use good old fashioned canvas aprons while working in the studio. 

6. Golden Acrylic Paints

I work almost exclusively with Golden Acrylic paints I like both the fluid and heavy bodied paint textures. My favorite colors are always on hand.

7. Dark accent wall

I know, I know. Number 1 above was white walls. But I also like having one dark wall to provide contrast for my artwork. I like placing my work on a dark wall for perspective. I have one black wall in my studio and I love it!

8.  Space to hang my work

Its also really important to me that my studio be a place that clients and students can visit and view my work. I don't need a ton of wall space, but I need at least one clean white wall to display my work. Here's a shot of my display wall in my studio.

A Video About Art Commissions & Process

I just completed a commission for a family who was interested in creating an image of the Milky Way over a mountain pass. They enjoy hiking and getting outside - so I began thinking about the kind of vistas only available to those who seek out isolated and wild spaces. I wanted the piece to match my client's vision, but also to evoke the mystery of a night sky and the luminosity of a deep starry night. Here is the completed piece:

Last month I launched my PATREON page as a way of staying better connected with my community and my supporters. One of the perks of being a patron of my work via PATREON is that I share patron-only posts and deep-dive videos about my art process. My patrons pledge a certain amount per month and also receive art care packages, invitations to art events and more! 

For the piece above, I decided to film my first day of painting to share with my patrons. If you like the video below and want to see more like it, please come join me via PATREON! 

In the Studio | I Work In Layers

I paint in layers. And recently, a client who was watching me paint asked that I stop after the first layer because she liked the way it looked. I had just started, but to her eye it was finished. I had to agree with her.

My first layers are always highly intuitive and tend toward the abstract. It's mostly a simple combination of color choice and line quality. So I thought it would be interesting to share the four layers of my last painting so that you can see what happens in each stage.

With the second layer, I like to cover more of the canvas with color. And I also like to come in with white paint and block out some of what I painted in the first layer. I also start to use my fingers in creating the little circles of paint that show up in most of my paintings.

In the third layer, I like to come back with some of the colors from the first layer and build up the structure of the image I'm creating. I also add details that appear in the foreground - if there are any such objects.

And the final piece usually includes all of the little finishing touches and detailed mark making that help to bring my vision for the work into focus. Sometimes this means calming the piece down with lighter colors to create a sense of space or sometimes it means adding more marks. (I'm a hopeless maximalist when it comes to pattern.)

Here is a detail shot of the lower part of the painting.

Here's the original photo I used as inspiration for the painting. 

Oh... and surprise! I made two!

Investigating the Muse

I've been a painting machine these past few weeks. And I've been thinking about the nature of "inspiration" and the concept of "muse". Of course I'm familiar with the nine muses of Greek mythology. I remember as a young woman praying the to goddess Erato, the muse of lyric poetry, while writing a letter to someone I loved. I mean, how was I going to be persuasive, if I didn't invoke the muse?

I think every artist (writer, musician, etc) has their own muse. And at the rate that I've been working lately, I wondered if my muse might be tired of me. I began to think of her as overburdened, weighed down. So she showed up in a painting this week.

But no... I've changed my thinking about my muse. I don't think inspiration is exhaustible. I think more is better. One thing begets the next and begets the next and the next. There is always more to draw from. The artist need only show up for the moment, approach her canvas, and invoke the muse. Showing up is my responsibility. What comes next belongs to the muse.

The painting below is available HERE.

Exhausted Muse  |   24 x 24 inch acrylic on canvas

You can see some footage of me painting this piece in the video below:

New Work & Art Influences

My work often looks like other people's work. And I'm okay with that.

I am influenced by everything I read, see, hear and experience. But I'm also heavily influenced by other artists. This is not a bad thing. In fact, I think its the nature of the process. Nothing ever happens in a vacuum. Everyone has influences.

Some of my influences include Expressionists from the beginning of the last century: Pablo Picasso, Franz Marc, and Paul Gauguin to name just three. My influences also include modern abstract expressinists from the midcentury period: Cy Twombly, Joan Mitchell, Lee Krasner, collage genius Conrad Marca-Relli, and in her own category, portraitist Alice Neel. I also love the work of my contemporaries like Michelle Armas, Cecily Brown, Jenny Andrews Anderson, Marta Whistler, Gwenn Seemel, Flora Bowley, Jackie Leishman, and most recently my studio mate Jay Bailey. The artworks created by these lovely people are always a part of my inner landscape.

These artists are all very different from each other. But they all end up in my own work in one way or another. Every time I step to the canvas, I feel them with me in some small way. This gives me courage. Am I borrowing from them? Absolutely. Am I copying their work? Absolutely not. I understand it as a time-space-warp-dialog. They are my helpmates.

Here is my latest piece from the studio. The image is from a live model I sketched two weeks ago during Jay's bi-monthly Drawing Club. Its entitled "Liminal" - 36 x 36 inch acrylic on canvas.

With this post, I simply wanted to acknowledge that I come from a 

lineage of art makers who keep me engaged and seeking as I make my own work. 

I am always filled with gratitude that I live in a world filled tip-top with art.

Who are your influences?

Who keeps you hungry and engaged?

Sketchbook

Last night I attended another live drawing session with my studio mate, Jay Bailey. I cannot express how much I love drawing from a live model. It's really a beautiful and rare experience. When I started, a few months back, I had absolutely no training with the human form. But I'm starting to get a handle on it - mostly by watching the other artists in the room render the same model in such different and effective ways. Here are my best three from last night's gathering:

You can see the progression of my work HERE.

In the Studio | Work in Progress

I've been having a difficult time processing the presidential election and inauguration. So, my prescription for handling anxiety, disappointment, and fear of the future is to paint and to read. Ive been in the studio all week working on the lovely ladies below. These pieces are still in process and part of larger compositions. I've also been reading "Meditations", by Marcus Aurelius. Both are helping.