For some people, gardening is mostly aspirational :-) 

Happy summer! You know, I was lucky to inherit a flower bed in front of our house that with verrrry little effort, by adding just a little of this or that shared by a good friend or two, has managed to expand just a bit. The truth is, I love to look at the flowers. They give me great joy every spring and summer! But I don't actually get to dig in there very often. Between allergies and ticks and some crickety body parts, there are often too many reasons for me not to partake.

So I enthusiastically enjoy the beauty of others' labors and then now and then create my own fantasy flower garden like this one, a case of flora to the max. 

Abundance is a collage made of hand-printed papers over archival marker. What does that mean? It means initially, in order to sort of break the ice on the canvas, I used archival markers to draw a very, very loose idea of a garden. Then barely following it, I used tissue paper and regular paper I'd hand-printed to grow a more complete picture. 

While the bold colors and shapes of the flowers are the main thing you see, along with the rooty earth, I decided to use a tissue paper sky that allows a hint of the marker drawing underneath. I'm always excited by what might be seen underneath the surface of a work, whether it's through tissue paper like here, or by pulling back or scooping out paint to reveal collage underlayers, like in some of my other recent work. 

Here's the initial freestyle marker drawing that got me started..

Each of my large collages takes quite a while to create from the initial concept. If you'd like to see more of them, please explore here.  And if you'd like to see these kinds of posts in your inbox every so often, before they show up on my website... sign up for my newsletter!

​"Individually, we are one drop.

Together, we are an ocean ."—Ryunosuke Satoro

I recently joined a local art association that newly offers a monthly Artist's Circle, among other programs. I've never really participated in a sharing/critique group before, though I have looked for opportunities to join one. So after feeling out how this kind of art sharing works, I brought along two paintings to get some feedback. One of those I'll share with you later, but the other one you can see above, now named Journey through Memory. 

I learned a potent lesson about directionality when I told the group that I thought this piece was done. I presented a vertical piece to them and one artist, Barbara O'Brien, said that her Irish background made her wish I'd turn it on its side to look like the beautiful landscape she remembers.

When you're working on a piece, even an abstract, you do sense a directionality to it and it's hard to unsee that and imagine it otherwise. Barbara and another artist both saw the potential for this piece to "lie down" and how it could transform it into something much more wonderful.

"Now it tells a story!"

They were so right! I knew instantly that this was how the painting wanted to be seen. I was so glad I'd been open to a new perspective on this piece I really loved. Barbara said: "Now it tells a story," and she was right again. Whoever looks at it can imagine a voyage, a village, a road or stream through rolling green hills, with mystery and memory lying in the hint of an ancient tree. ​

To sit in the shade on a fine day, and look

upon verdure, is the most perfect refreshment.  

—Jane Austin, Mansfield Park

We've had some gorgeous days lately! Whether you're a fan of shade or strong sun, I'm sure you've gotten to see some lush beauty in recent weeks. Rolling In taps into that feeling, with waves of grasses and flowers and a hint of wetlands. You can almost feel the soft earth under your feet.

I hope you're having a lovely summer wherever you live! If you'd like to see the rest of this series, you can step over to my Wave Series page here. And if you'd like to see this verdant landscape in your home or workspace (even in winter!) just reply to this e-mail and we can chat about it.

As always, thanks for supporting all the arts with your encouragement, purchases, and attendance. You're making the world a better place!

"Art is the only way to run away without leaving home"

— attributed to Twyla Tharp

"A painting is never finished—

it simply stops in interesting places."

— Paul Gardner

On the Way to Becoming. 51" x 51" x 2" on end, 36" if squared. Acrylic on cradled wood panel



Created in fall of 2023, On the Way to Becoming is all about color and movement. I'm not sure if its name tells you more about how I feel about my art process, or about the resultant upbeat, evolutionary vortex of a painting. Maybe a little of both!

I think sometimes abstract painting is similar to how some writers talk about their fiction works — and actually how some people think about child raising. There's a painting waiting to emerge, and the trick is to get out of the way and let it become what it needs to be. Which isn't to say we have no hand in it...

On the way to becoming itself, On the Way to Becoming went through quite a few stages — I'll share just a few here:

So I worked to add richer color and more white, and to bring everything together. I was almost there!! But which way to turn it? It actually took a few weeks of turning it around daily to figure out what really worked. But with the help

of a friend...

​Voilà!