Blog

My Grandfather's tea pot is truly a mid-western original, and so was he!

My Grandfather's name was Colonel. Every year I can remember going back

to my childhood he planted beautiful flower arrangements in this big old tea

pot. It's on our porch now! ...Love you Gramps! 

Will was checking under the hood of the tractor and found one of these birds nests, complete with eggs. Unfortunately, they had to go (to my studio). The other two nests were collected in the off season. My workshop needed fresh still life demo materials, -- and voila! Here's the final form!

It truly is an amazing world, - spring flora and fauna! Beautiful!!

Our hydrangeas are spectacular! They've found a perfect home and

they keep returning year after year to remind us! When the news cycle

seems overwhelming, take a break. Plant something or better yet hang

a painting to remind you of what's important. Keep your heart with all

diligence. Out of it are the issues of life.

At my Monday workshop I wanted to introduce Swedish painter (1860-1920) Anders Zorn's palette which basically included combinations of yellow orche, black, red and a white! We were disappointed because we could not... get any quality color close to the orange we were looking for! We learned a valuable lesson! It's probably not a good idea to use the Zorn palette and have a major bright orange object in your still life...it didn't work for us!!! The Zorn palette works beautifully on skin tones with all sorts of subtle colors! Finally, out of frustration, I decided to add other colors including cadmium red mixed with lemon yellow to achieve the beautiful orange I wanted!!! Voila!!!