I find it interesting that the majority of the friend requests I receive on Facebook are from other artists. I suppose artists feel like they should stick together as a group or a community. While I understand that, I wonder if they are trying to build their art business, or purely just a community of like-minded individuals. Either is OK, but the approaches are different.

The question I hear most often from students and from the YouTube crowd is “What kind of brushes do you use?” While it does get old after hearing and answering the question several hundred times, I understand that people want to know.

I get asked all the time how to properly dispose of acrylic paint water. There is no single answer for what is best, and there are many ways to approach the disposal. There are also lots of YouTube videos that show those different approaches. Many of the videos show the same approach with slight variations, so I didn’t want to cover all the same ground in this video.

Pretty much ditto from last week’s post, “The Painting of Uptown Jukin’ 1.” The two paintings were painted one after another using the same colors on the palette.

Sometimes I get in a painting rut. In 2020 I hardly painted at all. I was so busy trying to make a living through online workshops, I didn’t have lots of time (or motivation) to paint. Lately I have felt that everything I have been doing is the same, or starts the same, so I decided to use a different approach. Sometimes the only way to get out of a rut is to do something different, or approach it in a different way.

Another abstract(ish) landscape painting inspired by the landscape of Sedona, AZ. While this is inspired by a place, it doesn’t copy or match a certain place. I didn’t paint it from an image, but rather an image in my mind from Sedona. When painting landscapes, there really is no need to copy what is there, when you can communicate a feeling for the place.

I, like so many other artists I know, am fascinated by, and in love with the desert southwest. I have painted many abstract landscapes of the area, but until now I have never used local color. Local color meaning the actual color of the scene. This painting is a certain view in Sedona, Arizona, but is not done to mimic, or really even resemble what is there, but rather to provide the “feeling” of what is there. The reddish- orangyness (I think that’s a technical term) of the soil and the cobalt blue sky on a clear day.

In this COVID age everyone has been Zooming - you know, using the Zoom platform to conduct live meetings, conferences, and yes, even art workshops. Maybe you’ve taken a workshop or course on the platform, or maybe you’re thinking about teaching a workshop on the platform for your students. It’s easy to get started and I hope this video gives you the information you need to move forward.

Finally we are moving into a new year and leaving 2020 behind us - can I get an Amen! With a new year comes lots of promise for can happen. If you’re thinking of making a change this year, maybe you want to pursue an art career full time or maybe you’ve decided you’re going to pursue art as a hobby or a side hustle, then I hope this video will help you move forward in a way that is uniquely “You.”

If you’ve followed me for awhile, you know I like to try new things within the basic structure of what I do best. In this week’s video, I am painting again on raw, unprimed canvas (an experiment on it’s own) and using a color combination that I rarely use - and now I remember why!