November 2025
Things are different. It took nearly 10 years for me to feel this way and honestly, there have been many, many times when I thought it would never happen. After throwing pebble after pebble after pebble after pebble, something finally shook loose. The last few months have been amazing. My painting is on Peachtree Street in the heart of Midtown. Palmetto Bluff was a dream. I crushed it at New Smyrna and now, an acceptance into the American Impressionist Society. Seeing my painting in a show with artists I’ve taken workshops and classes with? Wild. I’m still on cloud nine.
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| My painting at the intersection of Peachtree and 13th Street |
No one is born with painting or drawing skills. You just have to work your tail off. Robert Greene says no one wants to hear that, but it’s true. I refuse to quit. My sights are set on specific goals I want to accomplish and I will not quit until I get them.
Before Palmetto Bluff I thought November would be a month of quiet, an opportunity to rest and catch up on life. I never expected any sort of continuing relationship with PB, but things have changed and I’m still pinching myself. I have a year contract with them, and hopefully it lasts longer than that.
I’ve had time to reflect on everything that’s happened, all of the unsolicited criticism of my work, my mediums, my signature (yes, a fellow artist criticized my signature), my prices, my frames, my style and it’s been eye opening. I’m going to be very honest about some things …
1. If I posted a painting to social media and it didn’t get the likes I thought it should get I thought - well, this must be garbage. Guess I’m doing it wrong, so the next time I did something different. That meant I was abandoning my own intuition, style and preferences … not good.
2. “Friends” and artists who have painted longer than I have (this doesn’t mean they are experts) told me my style, my way of painting was wrong, clunky, too bold, too graphic, a host of criticisms. And that caused me to question myself. Now I’m gonna let you in on a secret … the reason I was chosen for Palmetto Bluff was BECAUSE I was doing something different. BECAUSE it was BOLD. Don’t abandon who you are, your voice, your style … and it’s easy to do because honestly, being different ain’t easy.
3. Every time I submitted a painting for a juried show and it didn’t get in I thought, again, this is shit. It’s not good. It’s wrong, etc. Just last month I submitted several paintings to the Southeastern Pastel Society show. My coach in France said one of the paintings is one of my strongest paintings - it did not get juried into the show. Just because someone is a judge in a show and your work isn’t selected doesn’t mean your painting stinks. Now, it might stink — but I’m just saying you should get a second opinion from someone who can be objective. And those objective people are probably not your friends.
My fear, my hesitation, my lack of belief in myself … no more!!
Just a few weeks ago someone that I thought was a friend told me that my signature is terrible. “Can we talk about your signature?” And then this individual proceeded to show me how I should sign my paintings. Who in the hell do you think you are telling ME how to sign MY paintings? I’m still stunned.
Be careful who you listen to, who you take advice from and what their intentions are. Stay true to yourself and your own voice.
Enough of that. Let’s get to the good stuff.
As soon as I got home from NSB, I took Monday off for docent training and then went right back to work on Tuesday to fill orders for FLOW Gallery. Not sure how many Hush paintings are in my future, but I hope it’s a lot. Also filling requests for May River Chapel and a few other scenes from the property.
TEACHING
I was asked to lead a pastel painting workshop at Acworth, which went really well. I’ll have another workshop in early January. Private lessons continue and Drawing Fundamentals picks back up in January at Acworth.
BIRMINGHAM
Scott and I drove over to Birmingham this month to check out the Birmingham Museum of Art. I’m taking a group of artists there in February to see the Monet to Matisse exhibition and I wanted to see their permanent collection so that I can prepare them for what we’ll see on our visit. We had so much fun walking around the downtown area! We had lunch at Bayonet, cocktails at Bygone’s and dinner at Helen. Amazing! The food, drinks and service were outstanding. Everyone was so friendly. And I was very impressed with the museum: John Singer Sargent, Bougereau, de Kooning, Frankenthaler, Joan Mitchell and more. I’m so excited about our February excursion.
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| Got to meet the artist painting this mural! |
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| The most spectacular Joan Mitchell abstract at BMA |
My focus for 2026 is to get better, significantly better. I haven’t taken many workshops over the last few years, but it’s time for that to change, so I gave myself a birthday gift … a workshop with Don Demers. Don paints nothing like me, but he’s smart and knows more about plein air painting than almost anyone I know. He’s a student of nature. Lucky for me, there were only 5 of us in the workshop so we had him all to ourselves. What a kind, decent, sincere, humble gentleman he is.
Not only did he let me paint like me, he was so complimentary and encouraging of my style, especially my brushwork and mark making. We painted en plein air for two days and spent the last day wrapping things up in the studio. He went through a list of “rules” that have been traditionally passed down and said it’s all baloney. Put the tree in the middle of the composition. You don’t have to gray out structures in the background. Those are just two examples, and my French coach agrees with both of these, by the way.
On the first day Don walked up to my easel, not knowing what to expect, of course. He jumped back and said, “WHOA! You’re good! You’re really good!” It made my day. He called me accomplished. He said things no one has said to me before - except my coach.
I’m never going to let anyone ever make me feel shitty about my paintings ever again.
This month I learned how to make my own pastels!!!!!!!!! Ahhhhh!!! More to come on this front!
THANKSGIVING & A BIRTHDAY
If you’ve been reading my blog, you know that Thanksgiving is my least favorite day of the year because that’s the day my dad died. 28 years ago, 1997. I recently turned 59 and to be honest, I never thought I would live longer than my father. I try not to think about him too much. You’d think 28 years would cure a lot of sadness, but it hasn’t :( Thankfully, the annual pilgrimage to Louisiana makes it a lot less sad. A cup of turtle soup, a walk down Magazine Street and a visit to Mike the Tiger help.
This is a painting by Margaret Taylor Burroughs, a self portrait. She included the African mask as a reminder of its influence on modern art. Picasso was heavily influenced by masks which led to the development of Cubism. This painting is rightly adjacent to a large Picasso.
Our last stop is La Petite Grocery for crab beignets and turtle bolognese. It *never* gets old. There are so many great restaurants in New Orleans, but LPG is at the top. Jacques-imo’s is probably second.
PERSONAL
On a personal note, I met my second cousin once removed this month. Paul found me on Ancestry and emailed me a very nice note asking if we could exchange emails and chat. My family is very dysfunctional, so I was worried about all kinds of possible outcomes. However, we have been chatting for a few months now and he seems extremely kind and sincere. When I saw his photo I was stunned by his resemblance to my grandfather (on my dad’s side). Anyway, Paul and his wife drove to Decatur and met me at my studio - his request. We talked for about two hours and I enjoyed every minute. His early family life was as dysfunctional as mine.
Not many people in my family leave the state of South Carolina (pretty sure I’m the only one living out of state), but after my father died, I knew I had to get out. My family members are unreliable, not supportive, not helpful and in some cases can barely take care of themselves, so in order for me to build a stable life and get away from the dysfunctional psycho manipulative bullshit, I moved to Atlanta, didn’t know a soul and somehow figured it out. For many years I’d leave my job at a real estate developer, work at Pottery Barn until they closed, then go home and make jewelry for Lucky Drops. I worked like a dog, but I was independent, could pay my bills and had ZERO drama for the first time in my life. And I’ve never looked back.
Paul appears to be a good man, an honest, hard working guy, and his wife is just as sweet and gentle. I gave up on trying to make things work with family members, but Paul might be the exception. We’ll see.
DECEMBER
Hopefully I’ll have a quiet December. I’d like to work on some pen/ink and charcoal landscape studies. We also have a little trip planned. I’ll fill you in on that in a few weeks.
OTIS WINSTON and LOUIS
Otis and I have our routines. He snuggles with me on and off at night until Winston hops in bed. Then Otis goes under the bed and waits until I get up and we snuggle again. He still hisses at Louis a lot. I think he’s less pissed off than he has been, but he’s still not thrilled that he has kitten company.
At the risk of jinxing us, I think Louis is a little less of a nutjob. Maybe he’s realizing that he doesn’t have to prey, catch and kill for the rest of his life. He can take his foot off the gas and let us baby him. Maybe? Oy vey, I hope so.
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| Lou-Lou helped me open birthday presents. He loves playing with pencils. |
And Winston is still the cutest Winnie Bo Binny, Winnie Chicken Dinny on earth. Precious boy.
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