About two years ago, on a family vacation to Rosemary Beach, I was looking for some "escape reading" and stumbled upon Jessica Swift's ebook. My husband and I call this particular vacation "the vacation from hell", as the entire family came down with the stomach bug and it rained the entire vacation.  Let me be clear, we LOVE Rosemary Beach and look forward to another vacation but just not under these circumstances.  

Jessica Swift's message is inspiring. The openness she shares about her journey of being an artist and surface designer is refreshing. 

I'm currently taking an online class from Make It In Design. I started with Module 2, Creating Your Professional Identity, where I will learn to make repeat patterns. (In a former life, I was a graphic designer before I was an art and preschool teacher and with this prior knowledge of Illustrator and Photoshop I skipped Module 1.) I'm already amazed at what I'm learning. This weeks focus is on trends and for me personally the color research I'm doing is incredibly fascinating. 

These photos are my daily doodles, from week one. (Did I say I'm a bit behind. Really love this - work at your own pace thing.) Thankfully, I have three months to complete the five week course.

I really believe the experiences we have in life, wether personal or within our industry, mold our work and can make us better. I'm truly excited to see how this course impacts my work (especially my abstract work.) 

This doesn't mean I'm not painting. To be honest, the inspiration I've gained so far has already sparked all sorts of color ideas for future paintings. I look forward to sharing this experience with you in the coming weeks.

What started out as a color study became a series of works on paper titled, Go For The Gold. These minis allow me to explore color combinations I might use in a larger scale work. I look forward to see how this exploration of color transfers to canvas.  I recently add minis in various sizes to my shop. (Some are even framed.) 

Now that the kids are back in school after Christmas break,  I'm enjoying regular time in the studio, catching up on some projects, and planning for an exciting 2015. A new year always brings the hope of possibilities and a chance to reprioritize our goals and aspirations. Over the holidays, I read several art related books, which included valuable information on how to create a career as an artist. The business side is a bit mind boggling and to be perfectly honest it is more than I expected. I read Show Your Work by Austin Kleon in a day and I must say no mater where you are in your art career... it's inspiring. I am also reading Art Inc. by Lisa Congdon and found it to be helpful as well. One big take away (from both books really) is to share more. Not too much more, but more... One resolution I'm making is more blog posts. It's hard to believe I've been writing on this blog for two year! So much has happened in that time and I look forward to the adventure that unfolds. Thank you for reading!

I'm excited to offer limited edition prints of my four original cactus landscape paintings. Here's the deal... Once you place an order, I call my local printer and they run your print, I sign the print and include the number of the print, and title. Then it's ready to ship. Prints are offered in various sizes and prices start at $45.00. They do not come framed but I can offer suggestions on framing. Now head on over to the store section of my site and get ya' one!