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

When I have some free time, I like to watch art technique videos on YouTube and one of my favorites is Jane Davies. She offers paid online workshops as well but, her long list of free YouTube videos are extremely helpful and cover a wide range of topics. She focuses on everything from mixing colors to collage techniques to mono printing. Her medium is mostly acrylics and her style is very free and abstract. I like how her videos are simple and easy to follow. Even if your sty

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

I'm taking a break from the portraits because I have an itch to scratch. I've really been wanting to rework some of my old abstracts so, I put the portraits away for now. I started with this original 30" x 35" painting that I did about a year ago. I liked the simplicity of it at the time but, I was ready to change it completely. So, I went in on a Saturday to just play and this is what resulted. It was interesting but, something about the left side really bothered me. I didn'

I'm really excited about my new project. I keep meeting these amazing women artists in the Bay Area that I want to know more about but, feel stalker-like if I ask too many questions. So, I decided to give myself a reason to reach out to them. I started this project because I was curious about the work and process of these really talented artists. The project is really for my own learning as an artist but, it's also a place to showcase artists in the Bay Area that I admire. I

The portrait project is coming along slowly. For the painting on the right I used a black and white photo as a reference. It was a good learning exprience to let my mind fill in the colors. The one on the left was completed using a very small blurry photo for a reference. That was very hard since I think the finished painting has the same blurry quality which, I'm not completely happy with. I am happy with adding the patterned background on these two paintings. I think I'm go