All through grade school & well into college, I habitually obsessed over tests & homework assignments. Hoping to allay my anxieties, my parents would always tell me, “Just do the best you can.” Naturally I understood, equally well at age 9 as at...
Initially, my intention was to name this blog On Beginning in order to create a sense of symmetry with an earlier blog I wrote called On Finishing. In that blog, I made the point that finishing a painting is much more daunting for me than starting one: Whereas I can...
Around this time of year, Tom & I love to put on our jackets – or our parkas & mittens, as the case may be – & go into the backyard to look for signs of new life. We poke our fingers in the mulch to see if the tulip bulbs are showing any green tips...
Recently I finished a painting that I had been working on for many, many months. Conventional wisdom has it that there is nothing so frightening to an artist as a blank canvas but in my experience, the reverse is true: Completing a project is much more...
Recently I’ve been watching some of my favorite movies again, or I should say, “listening” to them, for I find it very soothing to engage my auditory sense while standing in front of the easel, toiling away on a painting. Usually I listen to various lecture...
In our backyard, the clematis has wended its way to the upper reaches of lamppost, trellis, arbor & tuteur. Hummingbirds & bumble bees are working over the lavender spikes of catmint. The local bunny has been nibbling the last of the...
