artwork

on the winding road

Several years ago I read this quote by Joseph Campbell in the Brene Brown book Braving the Wilderness: “If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it’s not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That’s why it’s your path.” I’ve…

upcoming debut at the Utah Art Market

I received notice a few weeks ago that I have been accepted to participate in this year’s Holiday Utah Art Market December 3-6 at the Town and Country Plaza in Millcreek, Utah. Participating in this market is an honor, and I hope to put my best foot forward. Taking lessons I learned from the Beehive…

reaching

The central concept behind “Reaching” is to illustrate a long-term process of reaching for something higher — for help from a higher being, and for a higher version of yourself. Finding a way to express that concept beautifully in stained glass feels like a substantial achievement. The time spent in the design stage alone for…

the business card art show at the JKR Gallery

In September I will be participating in the annual Business Card Art show at the JKR Gallery in Provo, Utah. For this show, each accepted artist can display up to 10 artworks that are the size of a business card: 2 x 3.5 inches. I enjoyed designing and assembling my 10 pieces, and am excited…

in returning and rest

The title for this piece comes from a scripture that stood out to me recently: “In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength,” Isaiah 30:15. From the beginning this piece has had a feeling of safety and of being at home for me, so the scriptural…

working on something fun

A long-lasting arm injury has really slowed down my art production in the past year. As frustrating as it has been, I have a hunch that slowing down so much might have some payoffs. My ideas for the painting I’m working on definitely developed as I inched from one step to the next at a…

exploring Adobe Illustrator

I wanted to get to know this software a little bit so I signed up for a free trial and spent some time exploring.

copy of Woman in Black

This is my copy of Gabriele Munter’s painting, Woman in Black. Something that drew me to this piece was how there seemed to be a softness in the eyes, even though they’re kind of just blobs of black paint. I wanted to learn how Munter could capture something as refined as a soft look in…

studying Slobodkin’s illustrations

I love this illustration from the book The Hundred Dresses (page 14). The original artist, Louis Slobodkin, actually studied as a sculptor before finding his way into illustration. I had to warm up with a colored pencil sketch and then a still-not-very-precise study before I was ready to try copying the whole illustration. My final…

cicero the cat

Meet Cicero, my cat. The day I started this I was full of disappointment about a different piece, so I decided to start pouring all that energy into something new. It started with a sketch in pastel pencils and grew into a cozy-feeling oil painting. This is my second no-gesso painting. Oil on hardboard, 11×14…

davinci face copy

This is my work so far on an assignment to hand draw a copy of a DaVinci drawing. It is painstaking work. And for the next step I’m supposed to make second copy, this time without looking at the reference while I draw! I can look at the reference before I draw, and I can…

portrait in red and green

This is my interpretation of a portrait done by Gabriele Munter, one of my favorite painters. To imitate her style of painting on un-gessoed cardboard, I painted this on the un-gessoed back-side of hardboard. The texture is a little intense so next time I’ll try sanding the surface before painting. But other than that, I…

golden leaves

Watercolor on paper, 5×7 inches.

drawing: big cis plum tree

When I bought this tree last fall I thought its leaves were sparse because they had already been dropping with the turning season. Turns out, nope. The tree was just unhappy enough in the nursery conditions that it only had a handful of leaves, and a number of bare branches. It is starting to settle…

blotting paper art

This is a corner of a page I used for wiping extra paint from several different paintings. This kind of painting (unplanned, accidental, instinctive) is not what I want to spend all my time doing, but I like it as an exercise. And as a way to feel like I’m not wasting the excess paint…

bundled up

Pastel pencils have become my favorite drawing tool. Smudge-able, erasable, and in full color. This drawing was inspired by my having to bundle up a lot like this just to go down to my basement art room during the winter months. I have a space heater I can turn on once I get down there,…

pan pastels

I had fun exploring with a new medium. Pastel on paper, 6×9″.

a little wild and in motion

This has been such a wonderful painting to carry from beginning to end. It’s been about a year since I started putting down my first ideas for it, nearly three months since I started working in earnest on the final product, and I can tell that I’ve grown as an artist in that time. Here…

about my art

I am a learning artist. My favorite thing about creating art is that it teaches me how to listen to myself.

I work mostly with acrylics and oils, but also sometimes with watercolors or pastels. So far my works are divided between abstract pieces and images of female faces and figures.

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