Art Supply of the Week - The first post

I first started the Art Supply of the week posts on Facebook about 2 weeks ago. My blog didn't get receive the first one but I wanted to share it here so that they are all together and no one misses a post. Monday will still have a brand new Art Supply of the Week. 

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Color Shapers with shaped soft rubber tips

These are one of my absolute favorite tools: ok... other than brushes and paint. They are called color shapers and have flexible rubber tips. I use them to remove paint in a reductive method when paining grass and also to remove paint anytime I make a mistake.

Art Supply of the Week - Solvent Free Oil Painting

Keep your brushes clean throughout your painting day without the use of solvents.

To keep my brushes clean throughout the day I use walnut oil in a Silicoil Jar.

• First I wipe all the paint I can possibly remove onto the lint free blue paper towel depicted on the bottom.

• Next, I swish the brush around a bit and then wipe it on the paper towel. A lot more paint comes off quickly this way. I do this a couple of times to minimize how much paint ends up in the jar.

• Then once I'm satisfied with the level of cleanliness of the brush, I squeeze absolutely all the oil out of the brush with a clean part of the paper towel to ensure I'm not adding excess oil to my painting.

The Silicoil is great because of the smooth metal wire inside that gives your bristles something to work against, while allowing the pigments to slowly fall to the bottom. I replace my oil about once per year so the cost of the oil is pretty minimal. I use M. Graham Walnut oil because I feel confident that if some of the oil in the bristles does get into the painting that it is of a high quality and will not cause problems with the paint film.

Photos from the R. W. Norton Art Gallery

Here are a few photos of the gorgeous gallery where one of my paintings is currently being exhibited.

Exterior of R.W. Norton Gallery of Art, Shreveport, LA

There is my painting on the left!

I'm so thankful to be showing in this amazing space with so many spectacular artists!
Photo credits: David J. Wagner.

Photoshoot in the Everglades

One of the things that I love most about my chosen profession is that I get to combine the activities and things that I enjoy into paintings. Yesterday morning's activities included a landscape photoshoot in an old quarry in the everglades. Combining photography with exploring the outdoors and incorporating some of those photos into the backgrounds of my paintings is like a dream come true. Seriously, I love my job! The cicadas were singing and one could hear the throaty sound of a distant alligator. The old quarry is the perfect setting for my current series of work because of its expansive views of the sky, distant trees and multiple lakes. It's truly a beautiful location.  Here are a couple of shots of interesting wildlife and other tidbits we ran into while my husband and I were hiking!

I was walking towards a lake off the path and this bird, a nightjar?, suddenly flew up and then hit the ground hissing. I immediately stopped as I was sure she was trying to attract my attention away from her hidden nest and I didn't want to disturb them anymore than I already had.

Sure enough, a couple of feet from where I was standing was her single chick! I'm so glad she was there as I might have easily stepped on it! The dew was still on the ground spiderwebs and this little chick, as still as can be, looked just like them. A couple of hours later on our way back I checked in on her; she had returned to the nest and all was well.

Fossilized shells littered the ground where the bedrock was exposed.

Florida's enormous Orange 4" grasshoppers! Every time I see these giants I can't get over how huge they are compared to the ones I grew up seeing every summer in Ohio.