In the Studio

Your local community art organization is a great resource. Most likely they host classes, opportunities to showcase work and space to meet other artists. Artist work can be very isolating and it's important to get out and talk about your work with other artists as well as be open to what others are doing. The Fremont Art Association is that place for me. I started by participating in the annual art show and then over time assumed different roles that I found interesting and a

I have yet to discover a good, affordable brush. I can, however, tell you what brand NOT to buy. Don't buy Blick's acrylic brushes because they are terrible. As soon as you use them they completely lose shape and the hairs get all frayed and look as if they've been used for years. The quality is about the same as a set of student brushes I bought for a children's party. But the Blick brand was much more expensive. In fact one of my favorite brushes to use is a cheap flat brus

I've been reading Mason Currey's book Daily Rituals: How Artists Work and I absolutely love it. It's a collection of descriptions about the way artists, scientists and thinkers work. Currey compiles a great collection of names from Francis Bacon to Charles Darwin to Maya Angelou and puts them in an order that allows you to see continuities and compare differences in the daily rituals of creative minds. Some commonalities that I've read are that most creative minds work in sho

I stumbled on Heidi Annalise's tiny art out of old Altoids tin boxes and became completely enamored. I was intrigued with Annalise's method because she uses oil which is similar to acrylic, the medium I use. She shows how to make one of these tins in this article, where she also gives credit to the amazing artist Glenn Dean, where she got the idea from. Using an Altoid tin for a travel paint kit is a pretty common concept for watercolorists. You can find tons of information o

If you're thinking of getting your work into an art shows, CaFE is a great website to find one that might fit. It's free for artists and allows you to look through an extensive database for calls for entries all over the country. I usually sort by state because I like to find shows that won't require me to ship my work too far. It helps you keep track of which shows you've entered and which pieces were accepted or rejected. When you submit for a call you upload your images to

If you have a membership to Costco, it's a great resource for artist who want to sell cards of their paintings. I used it to make a batch of cards that I can sell during the holidays as well as at the Fremont Art Association. It's very simple and the quality of the prints are pretty good. Go to Costco Photo Center and create an account. I know, I know, another account! But, it's worth it because you can then save your projects. You can use their service to create a variety of

If you use photos as a reference to paint, it is very helpful to do a little editing with the source before you start painting. You don't need Photoshop to do this, you can use the Photos app on a Mac to do some simple changes that will make a big difference. Start with an image that you are interested in painting and then go to the Edit button on the top right corner. In the editing window, I almost always do three things right away, crop, enhance and filter/adjust. Cropping