Painting Paints and Thinking Twice

"Painted Pony" oil on gesso panel 8x10 (on hold for future show)

A horse is worth more than riches.  Spanish Proverb

Brr…Our warm weather streak came to abrupt end this week. Today, I woke up to several inches of snow which is pretty from a landscape painting perspective but not enjoyable to drive in. 

It’s not going to be easy to get out and about today (I adore my old car Maxine but she’s not very snow worthy) so planning to work on finishing some paintings I started a while back. Do you have a stack of those in your studio? Mine's getting pretty high...

So yesterday I finally put the finishing touches on these daily oil horse painting studies. As a lifelong horse lover and painter, of course I love “paint” horses—How can you resist a horse splashed with color by Mother Nature?  Paint horses are not only valued for their fancy patterns but I’m told are also smart, friendly and wonderful equine companions. I'm always on the lookout for them when I'm out taking photos.

"Sweeter Grass" 8x10 oil  on gesso panel (on hold for future show)

Last week at Jay Moore’s color workshop I took a couple of dozen of pages of notes. A few key guidelines have come to mind while painting this week. One that’s really helped is: 

Think twice, paint once. 

Kind of simple right? But it’s true and it works. The more time you invest up front in a painting the less time you’ll spend correcting, scraping, etc. You’ll absolutely save time in the long run. Plus, you’ll likely craft better brush marks and shapes along the way.

Thanks everyone—I hope you have a safe, colorful and cozy winter week! P.S. You can find out more about my new upcoming painting workshops here.

Learning & Teaching: New Workshop Announcement

"Garden Jumble" oil on linen (work in progress)

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. Ghandi.

First, hi to all my new recent students--It's been wonderful working on some exciting painting projects this past month. As always, thanks for sharing my studio.

Speaking of teaching, I'm very pleased to announce I'm teaching 3 painting workshops (6 weeks each) starting this May at the lovely Curtis Arts Center in Greenwood Village. This is a great option if you are looking for an adult group class or specific theme workshop. The Curtis Center has a very nice comfortable class room as well. I thought long and hard about the themes. I hope you like them as much as I do. Here's the workshop line up. Again, each session is 6 weeks on Wednesday mornings.

• May 6: Confident Color for Oil Painters
• June 24: Colorful Nature (Painting Florals)--Subject focus so your favorite medium!
• August 12: "Almost" Daily Painting--Primary focus oils but other media OK

You can find more info about my workshops on my Scarlet Owl Studio website or please feel free to email me with any workshop questions.  

Curtis Art Center Classroom--comfy and well lit!

I've already started thinking about class agenda, exercises etc. We'll have fun but be prepared to work hard and learn lots!

The only thing I love more than painting and teaching is learning. I took a few days off this week to enjoy an excellent color workshop with western landscape master painter Jay Moore which took place at Jay's amazing studio in Parker, Colorado.

Met some wonderful talented artists, enjoyed many "aha" moments, and watched Jay paint a gorgeous landscape demo from start to finish. Really what more do want from a workshop?  I can't recommend Jay enough for a class or workshop--especially if you love landscapes.