As we hiked up the Pyrenees on Day 1 of our Camino pilgrimage, I found myself in awe of both the peaks and the valleys ... rolling hills ... pastoral countryside ... mountains near and far.  God's incredible handiwork.  Here's the original photo, which I then cropped to a 1:3 proportion to emphasize the vastness of the landscape: This is the work in progress stage.  My glass palette is below the painting and you can see the limited number of colors that I use -- two blues, two reds, and two yellows (plus white).  For each hue one is transparent and one is opaque and one l ..read more

As we descended the Pyrenees on the early part of our Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, we were greeted by this peaceful trio of Camino cows watching yet another day of pilgrims heading west. Here's a behind the scenes peek as I began the painting process: And the finished piece: "Camino Cows", 9x12 Oil Join my monthly newsletter here. See my retired blog (2013-15) here ..read more

This little study represents day two of our Camino de Santiago pilgrimage last summer.  It's amazing how dramatically the landscape changes in the first two days of hinking.   After reaching the peak of the spectacular Pyrenees, with treeless, windswept terrain, we descended into this lush, dappled woodland.  So lovely! This is the reference photo I took, before cropping: Here is the beginning of my painting process, laying in the dark underpainting: And a little farther along: Dappled Tree Trunks, 10x10 Oil: Join my monthly newsletter here. See my retired blog (2013 ..read more

The second day of our Camino pilgrimage dawned with spectacular beauty and I found myself completely mesmerized by the light and shadow patterns on the many hay bales that we ambled past.  To me, it was a study in both simplicity and drama.  Lovely! Here is the beginning of my little series before I start my larger paintings.  Stay tuned for info about my upcoming solo show ... a pilgrim artist paints the Camino de Santiago! Reference Photo 1: "Hay on The Way #1", 6x8 Oil   Reference Photo 2: "Hay on The Way #2" 6x6 Oil   Reference Photo 3: Step 1, under-painting ..read more

At this time last year, I was totally focused on being a pilgrim.  My husband and I were preparing for a two-week, 150 mile pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago with some dear friends and I had begun to realize that our true pilgrimage actually began long before the first step would be taken.  To prepare for the Camino, I researched, purchased, and returned more "hiking" items than I care to remember.  Why is it so hard to keep things simple??  We joined the local "American Pilgrims on the Camino" (APOC) group and attended many meetings as well as hiking adventures (which ..read more

What does it mean to "travel at the speed of life"? To me, it is really more about being still than moving; taking time to be present to the small things; being touched both by beauty and by needs; being in wonder and in awe; savoring each moment. These are lessons that we learned on our recent Camino de Santiago pilgrimage and it is what I hoped to capture in this painting, "Season of Grace". As we begin this new year, I have spent much time contemplating my reasons for being an artist and have decided that it is because creating art requires that I travel at the speed of life. As an artist ..read more

This is the view at sunrise from the house we rent in Nags Head NC each year. Often, as I look out our bedroom door (with bleary eyes), I see my early-rising-mother already walking the beach for her quiet time of morning gratitude. There's no better way to start the day. Knowing that I wanted the sea oats to greet the sun with a rim of its radiance, I intentionally intensified the colors of the warm morning glow in my first layer of paint. I then moved to the sun, sea, and sky and found myself almost having to squint at the sun's brilliance as it came to life. In this final step, I worked ..read more

For this lively poppy scene, I chose an 18x36in canvas to emphasize its landscape nature and cropped the sky so that the largest poppy would be above the mid-point, allowing the eye to move around more easily. As usual, all of my first layer is created with three transparent colors (permanent rose, ultramarine blue, and Indian yellow). I left the sky unpainted for awhile because I wanted to start working some opaque paints into the first layer while it was still a bit wet. This is a big canvas for me, though, so I didn't get far before it tacked up! Several days later (okay, more than a wee ..read more

Each morning as I rise I try to remember that this day is a gift, not to be taken but to be gratefully received. This sunflower seems to have that same understanding -- gently opening its petals and receiving the day. I chose a 20x20in canvas and decided to focus on the sunflower's happy back-lit "face" :) This is halfway through my loose, transparent layer. I really like the abstract shape at this point and almost wish I had stopped right there! I continued until the whole canvas was covered and then gradually began thicker paint application, using the under-painting as my guide. Ready t ..read more

After painting several small studies for my upcoming "Flowers of Italy" show, today's blog post is the first of the larger paintings I plan to paint. Here's my 20x20in canvas with the landscape elements lightly sketched. I decided to start from the top and work my way down to the brightly colored field of lavender. I also decided to include the peaks of the mountains, rather than shroud them in cloud cover, because I felt it made the background shape more interesting. This image shows the set-up that I used to guide my painting. On the left you can see the reference photo on my i-pad (attac ..read more