One of my favorite challenges in my Advanced Pastel Techniques class (next session is at Dunedin Fine Art Center Winter 1, Thursday...

"Success happens in clusters." -Julia Cameron; The Artist's Way We artists need each other. It's a simple fact. While many artists may...

Landscapes are beautiful all on their own, but adding a focal point like a figure or a creature can improve a painting. But how do you...

This blog along with the previous 4, and the next 22 are designed specifically for the Plein Air Adventure class to go along with the...

Portraits are the Holy Grail in art. Artists aspire to do realistic portraits because nothing screams success like a well drawn likeness....

I first learned about using a complementary palette from reading The Yin and Yang of Painting by Hongnian Zhang, from the Woodstock...

I have always loved small businesses, especially family-owned. These businesses are the backbone of the US economy because they create a...

Most people have no idea what color temperature is. Only geeky artists ever use that term, and maybe a wayward interior decorator. But we...

Every pastelist (and many others) face this dilemma on a regular basis. There are two trains of thought when it comes to blending in...

Each medium has it's strength, and weakness. Pastel is magic because you can layer color, and even light over dark and dark over light...

I cannot overstate the importance of play. As a professional art teacher, I see many novice artists that take themselves so seriously and...

We often don't think of art in terms of a discipline. Usually we think art is "outside the box" and creativity "happens," it isn't...

If you ask 100 different artists how to approach a still life, you may get 100 different answers. In art, there are many paths to the...

When I'm plein air painting, I have a different process than when I'm painting in the studio. In plein air, you have a short period of...

If I were to describe my painting process here, it would be back-to front, and dark-to-light. That means I started with the big shapes of ..

There's a whole new world that opens up when the sun sets. Night changes the values and colors of the landscape; everything becomes low-key,

Every medium has its strength and weaknesses. If you have experimented with different mediums (most of us do and accumulate closets full of