I got further than ever with this painting that I’ve freshly begun  six times over. None of the preparatory sketches or pre-paintings were quite right, but I went forward anyway believing I’d resolve it along the way.   There’s a point in every painting when you know you missed the mark and can decide to...

You’re almost never as limited as you think. And they’re almost never as capable as they claim.   I thought of that this afternoon after receiving word from a photographer whose work I’ve admired. She’s won awards in her field and her public face via the web appears very confident. Sort of like the front...

Lately, I’ve taken to posting art progress photos taken with my camera phone for the convenience. The picture quality is inferior enough that the final photograph, the one that shows the finished work in high detail, doesn’t get ignored because of image fatigue on the part of viewers who followed the painting progress. My daughter...

Maybe I can keep this now, fragile thing that it is, and stay in the game permanently. I’ve been through the cycle again and again and still fall for it. The top side of the cycle is a productive series of very pretty or particularly nice artworks. Taking them from concept to finish is intoxicatingly...

I told myself that it would be wrong to go straight into the arts because life experience was crucial both because if I succeeded well as a painter it could not be said that I was a prodigy with no other talent and  I would have a demonstrable skill pool “to fall back on”. Education...