My Process...

It's always fun to get inside an artist's brain. See where they get their ideas and get a perspective as to what goes into their creative process. That said, I decided to share my story about a recent painting, .


It started with a recent trip to our friend's ranch near Medina, Texas. Because of the drought the cacti were thriving. One day, while driving the property, we turned the corner and they were EVERYWHERE. I took a lot of pictures but my all time favorite was this one... I think I was drawn in by the smokey blues and greens. The overlapping form of the plants were equally as beautiful. 

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The cactus in the middle had an amazing "sticker" pointing toward the camera. I've never seen anything like it. It's a little hard to see in this picture...

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Whoa! There it is...

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Looking at the photo, I came up with this drawing. But I really wasn't happy with the composition. I wanted to show off that wicked sticker a little more. So... I decided to moved things around a bit .

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Much better...

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Using pastels, I drew my idea onto the canvas and made a few minor adjustments within the composition.

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I wanted the focus of the painting to be the plant, so I painted the background a pale, pale blue. I was happy I chose pastels as my drawing medium because it mixed into the oil paint and became part of the painting.

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And ta-da... Here is the finished piece! I work in layers.... Let things dry, (busy life goes on...) come back, and add more detail. Unfortunately, this painting is taken but I am working on another cactus painting very similar to this one (24 x 24), again from a photo. I'll post when it 's finished. But not until I finish the lovely commission I'm working on.

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