Studio
Whoa I have bit off quite a lot with this painting… but am enjoying taking it slow so far. This is actually a collaborative piece with one of my Instagram followers who offered me a few fab reference photos like this during quarantine when I didn’t have any models. As striking as the original photo is I was a little intimidated, but after a few hours I’m feeling right at home among the palms:)
6.12.21
About 10 days ago I started noticing a pair of teeny tiny birds perching and loudly discussing all sorts of important things upon a golden pothos house plant I had hanging on my porch for watering day. At the end of the day I noticed a few thoughtfully placed sticks tucked into my plant, which gave me a little inkling of what was to come.
Day one nest building
Beautiful and sturdy by day three!
photo not mine
Within just three days there was a beautiful and sturdy built little nest on my potted pothos. And now the treat of watching this little bird family grow has been one of the most exciting things to witness over this past week!
The dad has a lovey red shade to him (of course mama is brown - ugh, such is the animal kingdom XD ) and with a little online search I have discovered they are called House Finches and are well known for creating nests for their tiny blue eggs on porch plants (and being ridiculously cute!).
It’s hard for me to get a good pic, especially of both of them. Here’s dad on my plant with mom tucked in her nest and a better pic I found. online.
It was very interesting to see mama bird lay one egg every day for five eggs days. I had always assumed birds lay their eggs all in one day, but the comparison of her tiny size to these eggs makes a lot more sense that she could only form one at a time. I’ve done a little research and it looks like their eggs take around two weeks to hatch.
Stay tuned in my Instagram Stories to see all the little squawking babies soon!
5.20.2021
Today I’m bringing you a wealth of knowledge on one of the most important, yet most difficult to discuss, topics plaguing the American dream - systematic racism. Until we not only learn from the past but learn to see the racism between the lines and just under the surface, we will never be able to succeed in banishing unfair and unjust treatment of Black people here in this county or in the rest of the world.
Perhaps you saw my post a few weeks ago about why I felt compelled to create this drawing of Duante Wright’s grandmother. Today while I demo this, and another easily recognizable fallen brother in the Black Lives Matter movement, I’m sharing a plethora of podcasts all about the Black experience both historically as well as contemporarily which you can enjoy enlightening yourself with while working in your own studio.
Here are the podcasts I mention in the video
‘Policing in America’ by Throughline
‘How Jacob Loud’s Land Was Lost’ by Planet Money
‘Rethinking Black Wealth’ by Planet Money
‘Reproducing Racism’ by Reveal
‘Tuskegee Syphilis Study’ by American Scandal
‘The Immortal Cells of Henrietta Lacks’ by Rebecca Skloot (book)
‘Henrietta Lacks’ by Black History Club
’Henrietta Lacks’ by Babes of Science
‘The Real Black Panthers’ by Throughline
Nice White Parents by The New York Times
‘Black Parents Take Control, Teachers Strike Back’ by Codeswitch
Please let me know if you find this post useful and will be listening to a few of these recommendations. Also, if you have any great resources to add please do!!
5.11.2021
Since moving into my new spot in Nashville I’ve recently been cruising some ideas for my home art studio and three of the sites I stumbled upon were too inspiring not to share!
The photo above is a little glimpse of my new setup. I think I need more plants and possibly more art on the wall too, but at least my easel and lightening are good to go!
This first one has really great, specific tips on how to set up a creative space in often overlooked areas with some seriously envy-worthy organization and layout idea pics. Oddly enough this post comes from a storage unit website, but it’s right on point, so I’m sure you’ll love it too! Your DIY Guide to Designing a Home Art Studio
This page has some fabulous ideas for all kinds of creative spaces if you have an extra room in your house, the first half of the article features rooms that look especially nice to have during these times of staying at home constantly. 13 Ways to Convert a Bonus Room into a Usable Space
And this last one is for the realist in all of us - ha! These are actual working art studios (some with the artist in them!) that are such a delight to peek into. No joke, one of my faaaaaavorite things is to see where and how other artists create - both neat n tidy and full of frenzy. Sometimes I feel so torn between wanting to stay in my small-home art studios or eventually getting a spot with 10 foot ceilings - they both just seem to explode with possibility! 44 Stunning Art Studios That Will Inspire You To Get Back To Work
If you enjoy tours of artist home studios, I’ve created a few from the various places I lived in Hawai’i on my YouTube channel. You can also see tours of the two tiny houses I lived in on island too!
2.25.2021
Brrr! What a cold week! Didn't it seem like I was just in my sports bra and shorts on top of a tropical mountain on O'ahu and suddenly I'm here freezing my feathers off in Nashville, Tennessee?!
Luckily I'm in a safe spot, just stocked up on groceries, and my awesome new artsy job cancels when it's this icy on the road so I've had the luxury or being able to do some healthy baking, snuggle up, and have my own little mini snow excursions around the nature areas of my new apartment complex. I even figured out the perfect spot to do some indoor plein air landscape painting with gouache right out my window so I wouldn't freeze my fingers off trying to set up to paint outside. Yay!
I hope you enjoy this vlog as much as I enjoyed making it for you! Here's a playlist of some other art + adventure vlogs from my travels.
Shoutout to Study Girl at Chilled Cow for the best snowy day streaming music.
Please stay safe, stay inside, and drive slow! Here are a few links you may find helpful should something go wrong:
https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/how-to-survive-a-power-outage-in-winter/432226 https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/15/us/power-outage-winter-storm-how-to-trnd/index.html
And a place to donate to those in Texas who have lost power: https://breadoflifeinc.org/
2.21.2021
If you have been following my art journey for even just a little while, you know it is rare that I do outside brand collaborations, but you better believe compostable mailers is some thing I believe in 1000% wholeheartedly in every way possible!!
I am constantly discussing ways to be more eco-friendly and mother earth conscious in my YouTube videos especially, and with so many people in this world having to shop online it is even more important that we pay attention to our plastic footprint as small business owners. I really love that these mailers have simple instructions on the bag and they dissolve in any compost bin, not just in specifically designed city facilities. I imagine that even if they don’t make it into a compost bin that still means they break down so much faster than petroleum plastic either way.
You guys, it is literally actually factually like a trillion zillion times better to not use plastic to begin with than to ‘recycle’ since most cities/facilities don’t really do nearly what you think they do. You can ask any ecologist and can also quote me on that!
@noissueco mailers are SURPRISINGLY inexpensive for being biodegradable! You have to have to have to check them out!!! 🌱
2.16.21
I've started packaging my prints using brown craft paper which not only gives that handmade-with-love feel, but is way more eco-friendly than most packaging, and will probably even save you money both in supplies and at the post office.
Sending print orders with lots of extras and goodies lets your customers know just how important and appreciated each and every art order truly is.
And whenever you get a print order or sell an original piece of art, make sure to check out this video on how to turn your first-time buyers into repeat collectors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrubX9yNtxs
If you snag some craft paper (or anything else!) through my special links it helps to support this channel at no cost to you - thank you! https://bit.ly/3fUKr9D
11.29.2020
Today is a long requested video about mixing skin tones with oil paint. And to make mixing these skin tones extra easy for you, we're only going to be using 4 colors plus white to create a large variety of skin tones for anyone across the world. These are the same five oil paints I recommend picking up as a beginner, so if you'd like to see how to create most of the other colors of the rainbow using just these same paints check out this video here
Check out my Complete Guide to Oil Painting here (More videos coming soon so make sure to save it!)
FREE Skillshare workshop coming Nov 2020!
Need any of these paint colors? Any purchases through my special Dick Blick link helps to support this channel at no extra cost to you. Thank you!
Titanium White: https://bit.ly/2Uqiugo
Cadmium Yellow: https://bit.ly/30e3iWh
Alizarin Crimson: https://bit.ly/2S9HO8t
Ultramarine Blue: https://bit.ly/308ydmU
Raw Umber: https://bit.ly/2xrsAF5
11.8.2020
Today starts 8 days of polls + questions all designed to learn about YOU!
I’m psyched to find out more about what my lovely audience likes artistically and otherwise so I can be more attuned to creating content that really resonates.
So pop over to my Instagram Stories today + everyday thru next Thursday to drop in your two cents!
9.23.2020
Have you ever seen a parrot skull? I honestly hadn't til I found this royalty free image to paint from - it's so wild right??
Today I wanted to give you a few studio updates while I share the painting of this bird skull in oil. Namely, that I’m going to be running polls and questions in my Instagram Stories and on my YouTube community tab in order to get you know YOU, my lovely audience, better so that I can make the kind of artwork and videos that you love to see!
If you'd like to know more details about how I paint bones, check out this recent human skull painting workshop on my website or Skillshare, or catch the 3D process here on YouTube.
How to Paint a Skull in Oil:
https://gumroad.com/l/how-to-paint-a-skull-with-oil-paint
3D Skull Trio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLf_l1zV3E4
9.20.2020
