February 2026

Ft Worth! Birmingham! Another really fun month! 

Cowboy culture is alive and well in Fort Worth, Texas! It was our first trip to Ft Worth and I absolutely loved it. Cowboy hats, cowboy boots, bolos, longhorn cattle, bourbon, country music and world class art!

A Figure in the Night - Frederic Remington  … my favorite painting from the weekend

Sid Richardson, The Modern, The Kimbell and Amon Carter were packed with stunning works of art and all but Sid Richardson are within walking distance of each other, which just makes it so very easy. Loved seeing so many works by Frederic Remington, especially his nocturnes. Did you know that he was heavily criticized for his nocturnes?? People said he didn’t understand light and got the light wrong. Nevertheless, he persisted :)

My other fun trip this month was taking a group of artists (mostly students) to the Birmingham Museum of Art to see the Monet to Matisse exhibition. It was a stellar show with work by Morisot, Sisley, Jules Breton, Cezanne, Gerome, Fantin LaTour, Toulouse Lautrec and more. For many of the ladies it was their first time standing face to face with a blue chip work of art. One artist said, “I’m trying not to drool.” 

We had a docent guided tour then spent the next two hours walking, looking, drawing, oohing and ahhing. They saw their first John Singer Sargent in person and *loved* it. It’s hard to describe how much fun it is to see other artists geek out over art. One lady said at dinner, “Today I realized I can have conversations with you all that I cannot have with other people.” Sitting around the dinner table, sipping on margaritas, snacking on chips and guacamole and sharing our favorite masterpieces … there’s nothing better. I can’t wait for the next art adventure!

PAINTING and DRAWING

Shipped a few new paintings to Palmetto Bluff including a nocturne of Grace, the yacht that was restored by a group of PB members. 

I finished my 4-week figure drawing course at the High Museum. It was fun and I saw improvement. Not sure I’d do it again because there wasn’t much one on one, but it was still a great exercise and figure drawing is important to me. I want to get better.

I also spent a Saturday at the Atlanta Portrait Society drawing from life. Everyone is so nice there. And I recently saw photos of work from their most recent show, and I think I can get there. Probably won’t happen this year, but maybe next year. 

Pastel experiments! I’ve been in a small group that meets every other Friday with a high profile pastelist. She is more on the abstract side of painting and has a reputation for pushing artists to explore new territory, so I tried it. The first few meetings felt painful because many of the artists in the group are just trying to figure out how to paint like her, but that’s not why I signed up. After the 3rd meeting, she emailed me and asked for a one on one. We had a healthy debate about why / how / if something can be different and not be “wrong.” Museums are filled with art that was at one time considered to be “wrong” and I think it’s interesting that this instructor frequently says she doesn’t care about rules, but she gives guidelines (or rules) for composition, color, value, etc. Anyway … I told her I wanted to explore abstracts with pastels and she said, “OK, but don’t just explore abstracts. Explore a concept within that genre.” That was probably the best advice she gave me in nearly two months.

I tried a few different approaches using fixative spray but finally went back to my alcohol washes, which I love. I’m mostly happy with these, and I feel like this is a territory to explore further. The instructor sent back a message in all caps - LOVE, so that’s encouraging. Before receiving her message I sent them to an online pastel call for art, so it’ll be interesting to see if anything is selected. 

Decatur and Acworth classes continue. Several students work so diligently in between classes and they are the ones seeing the most growth. I tell them every week - daily, consistent practice is the fastest way to improve. But I also know that for some people this is just fun, an escape from reality. We’re all on our own path.

Of course, I’m still giving docent tours. I have given more tours this year than any other year, so I’m taking off March and April. If I see a sub request that looks appealing and fits my schedule, I’ll jump in, but otherwise, I need some time off to work on various projects. 

MARCH

There’s no slowing down! We are going to Baton Rouge to help Scott’s parents with their big move to assisted living. I have a pastel workshop at Acworth and I’ll be going to Chattanooga for a still life workshop with Todd Casey. Very excited about that! This is my year! Growth, experimentation, play and travel. Let’s goooooo!

OTIS , WINNIE AND LOU-LOU

The boys are getting along better. Otis still feels threatened by Louis, not so much by Winnie. And Louis defers to Otis as the senior member of the family, but I wonder if that will last. And our Winnie Bo Benny is just about the sweetest, cuddliest, snuggliest sweet potato on the planet. He reminds me a lot of JuJu. Lou-Lou is definitely cut from the same cloth as Otis - no wonder they butt heads :)