December 2022

This year has flown by. So many great things have happened and I’m grateful for every single one of them. I wore myself out but it was sooooo worth it. My paintings improved. My plein air group grew beyond our wildest dreams. Sales are brisk. I won my first award in a plein air competition. I’ve met SO MANY new people … so many kind, encouraging, inspiring artist friends. Gosh, I feel incredibly lucky. 

My word for 2022 was “experiment” and I think I did a really good job of experimenting. I played in gouache, painted in new spaces and places, got my art into new venues, competed in competitions, played with all kinds of underpaintings and ways to start a painting, I played with new brushes, new sizes and formats, experimented with new subject matter and upgraded to a new easel. I learned so much. Of course, there is still so much more to learn. 

I think about the 10,000 hour rule a lot lately. Essentially that means if you work on your craft around 40 hours a week you can master it in about 5-6 years. Of course, time at the easel is critical for success, but you can also count hours in a museum, hours of instruction, drawing practice, color chart mixing, etc. I began painting full-time in January 2017, so next month I’ll hit the 6 year mark. Have I mastered painting? Heck no! It will take many, many more years, but I do think I turned a huge corner this year. Something’s different, better, and there’s no doubt about that.

Sometimes people tell me I’m talented. It’s a very nice thing to say, but spoiler alert - I am not talented and I have a huge stack of crappy paintings to prove it 😂 . 

I learned a lot in this stack of paintings, but it’s time to let ‘em go 

No one is born with a brush or a golf club or a violin in their hands at birth. You have to work at it, doggedly, obsessively, fanatically, religiously. Do I take a day off here and there? Yes, but even on days when I don’t paint I’m reading about art and artists or watching how to videos or I’m in a museum looking at museum quality work. Obsessed? Yup. Talented? Nope.

Onward!

While plein air season is sort of in hibernation until spring, I’m working on abstracts, still lifes and a few plein air pieces I started but never got around to finishing. Ventulett Gallery at Holy Innocents Episcopal Church is currently showing a number of my abstract pieces through January 23. It’s a beautiful, light-filled gallery and it’s incredibly rewarding to see my collection up on those big white walls. So cool!

You never know when you might find fresh peonies at Trader Joe’s, but I got lucky the other day and snagged a nice bunch. I’m working on that piece now.

The Virginia Highland Plein Air Painters (VHPAP) group is now more than 140 artists strong. Wow! Due to the yucky weather, we’ve been working on drawing and that has been a lot of fun. My friend Barbara hooked us up with a 24th floor view at Lord Aeck Sargent so that we could draw from a sky high vantage point. That was a blast. 

 

We also drew in the galleries at The Carlos Museum on Emory University’s campus. The museum has an outstanding collection of works from ancient Egypt as well as Greek and Roman busts and sculptures. 

  

I had a free Saturday so I drove down to Senioa, Georgia, and painted with the Southside Sketchers. Super nice folks and it was nice to leave the planning to someone else. I turned off my phone for two hours and painted in peace and quiet. 

 

If you’re a fan of The Walking Dead you probably know about Nic and Norman’s restaurant. I wasn’t aware of the connection until I googled it. I just thought it was a pretty little scene with warm, twinkling lights inside. 

PERSONAL

Scott and I went to the SEC Championship game. We scored some sweet seats and despite the LSU loss, had a great time. Yes, I’m still a Gamecock, but as long as we don’t play LSU, I’m all in for the Tigers.

        

I had the thrill of getting a flat tire on the downtown connector on a cold, rainy Wednesday, which was TONS of fun. 

 

While we waited on the technician, I found a scrap piece of paper and did a quick drawing as a fond memento of the day’s adventure. GOOD TIMES!! (Hey, it counts towards my 10,000 hours!)

And last but certainly not least, we celebrated Christmas and our anniversary in Paris! I have a separate post (or several) on that coming soon, so stay tuned. In the meantime, here are a few photos.

Lunch at Georges

Place de la Concorde

Sacra Coeur in the distance

Monet - Mitchell Exhibition at Louis Vuitton Foundation

Edouard Manet’s “The Lady with Fans” at Musee D’Orsay
(one of my favorite paintings from our visit)

OTIS and JULIUS

They’re not as innocent as they look

Look at those neck rolls :)

JANUARY

Coming up next month: more drawing sessions at area museums, more still lifes, more abstracts, maybe a master copy???, a 5K road race and much more. Come back and see me!