Category Archives: Weekly Art Lessons 21-30

The little boat sits on the window sill loaded for departure with a thick twig pencil.   It floats on gauzy waves while out the window sunlight slips through the leaves and illuminates the distant shore.  It’s June in the garden, and I’m lulled into dream time.   Ideas evolve; it can be hard to find balance between the need to stay rooted in our goals and the need to go with the flow of new ideas.… Read the rest

I try to start the day by writing and gazing at the garden.  There is no end to the reverie.  Often my fingers wander from the keyboard to the drawing pad.

In the next few days, allow yourself to be spellbound by the ordinary beauty and mystery of life in your own backyard.   Whether it’s a suburban lawn or city street, I guarantee that you can find magic and beauty. … Read the rest

Painting plein air with acrylics often feels like a battle against their fast drying nature.  In an arid environment they can dry on the brush between palette and  canvas; not the relaxing “one with nature” experience I seek!

After weeks of happily gazing at iris (lesson # 20), I decided to try Golden company’s OPEN acrylics for plein air work by painting the iris fields at  Long’s Garden .… Read the rest

I walk across the open air linoleum on an exposed foundation and exit through a former wall.    

Such a glorious view! With the Green Mountains behind the marina, plenty of shade, and a fringe of daylilies at Lake Champlain’s edge, it makes an ideal painting location.  And the owners probably won’t mind –  since their house  burned to the ground.

I’ve painted there twice already.… Read the rest