Drying Duo Tone Flower Petals?!?

Whoa did I just walk right up on the middle of the Deck of Cards painting the white roses red or is this the neatest lil abomination ever?!?

There’s an entire full rose bush full of these light pink flowers and hidden amongst them are these fascinating fuscia petals, either showing up as a handful of individuals…..

or, oddly enough, split directly down the center of a petal.

And you know once I find anything delightful or unusual in everyday plants I compulsively must see what will happen if I try to dry them for art.

These turned out pretty well so far! They’ve only been drying for about three weeks in the dark so the color is still so vivid. I’ll probably take one out and experiment with it in resin to see how well the color lasts because I sure would love to use these unusual specimens in a painting!

6.9.2021

A Visit to Lyon Arboretum

Wow friends, even after almost four years on O’ahu I can still ge my mind totally blown by the flora out here. I spent a glorious morning strolling though the Lyon Arboretum with my sister artist Zee photographing and marveling at all the absolutely otherworldly flowers.

It was like every time we turned the corner ‘round another bush we would stop dead in our tracks and gasp!

The arboretum is a cool spot that is run by the University of Hawai’i so it is very well cared for and features flowers and plants from all over the world with little plaques describing their names and origins. It’s a truly wonderful place that the school chooses to share with the public.

I mean, have you ever seen a black flower?!

Do yourself a favor and check out the rest of these mind-bending plants, and if you ever get out to O’ahu plan an afternoon at the Lyon Arboretum in Manoa Valley. This is the fourth time I’ve been and no matter what time of year you will see things you will not see anywhere else.

8.15.2019

Painting a Dahlia in Oil

Aloha friends! I'm so glad to be back in the studio sharing another painting vid with you! I feel like it's been so long since I've made one of these since I just finished that whole fun series all about 'Putting on an Art Show on a Budget.'

I've been loving the addition of all these flowers to my latest paintings. So much fun to play with all that color!

Painting this dahlia in oil was a really fun and unusual challenge for me. It's important when depicting something as geometric as these petals to start out with a strong and accurate drawing. Once you have that down, enjoy the next steps in my video!

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originally published April 11, 2018

Good Enough?

From the responses I get to my blog and videos I can tell that most of my supporters are ambitious, hard-working, and creative in their own right so I feel like many of you will be able to relate to a recent gnawing feeling I had when creating a painting that was not my best work. I struggled a little bit with an internal dialog when deciding whether or not to take the time to go back and correct my shortcomings.

Sometimes good enough is good enough, but often times it’s not.

When working on a repetitive or tedious part of a painting it can be tempting to just go through the motions until the paint is on the canvas (or linen in my case) and be done with that area as soon as you can. However, in the grand scheme of things I have learned that there really is no point to making art unless you are sincerely doing your very best and genuinely trying to use all of your skills to make the most remarkable work you possibly can.  

As much as I hate to admit it, art is not a necessity, at least not in the way food, water and shelter are, so if you have something creative yet extraneous to minimal survival that you wish to share with the world, I have learned that it is wise to push yourself to your limits and go all out in creating something truly incredible and unusual. A good rule of thumb is that audiences don’t remember ‘average’, they remember ‘mind-blowing.’  

Today I am happy to share with you friends a little demonstration of how I decided to take my own advice, even though it meant redoing something I had already spent a few hours on.

Last week I painted this dahlia, the first one like it I have ever done, and I kind of knew that I didn’t start off with a strong enough drawing, which is honestly why it eventually turned into a weak painting. At first I thought I could just muddle through and maybe go back in with a few corrections, but after feeling dissatisfied every time I glanced this painting on my easel I just knew that this was not remarkable enough to be proud to show an audience. Good enough was not good enough for me. 

I decided to completely go over what I had done before and give myself a better ground surface and a much better drawing. I also took extra time and care while painting and I'm pretty thrilled how it turned out! It did take me a few hours to paint just one and I still have two more to go, but in the end all the time is worth creating something I can truly be proud of:)

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originally published April 8, 2018