The Question: What Subjects Inspire Me? Greetings, I have been thinking about what subjects inspire me to draw and paint. That is to say, the question has been rattling around in the back of my head – where do I draw inspiration? The Answer? Took Some Searching. You would think the answer would […]
What Inspires Me – Leaves! Three Different Leaf Series Read More »
Introduction. A friend of mine recently asked me how organizing my art work day. My friend is looking forward to retirement and thinking about painting. In my head, I started going though organizing my mundane daily schedule: coffee, exercise, breakfast, get to the studio, etc. Then, I started thinking about whether or not there was
Organizing My Day By Priorities And Eight Art Show Tasks Read More »
What Is “Classically Trained”? Hi! I have been thinking about what makes an artist classically trained. Have you seen that term on a biography of an artist or musician? And, what does that mean? John Stermer, Classically Trained Artist What a funny question, don’t you think? To explain, I have been helping my sister prepare
Classically Trained Artist Read More »
Potato Salad Friday – With Egg Hi and Good Friday To You! I was making a potato salad this morning, with hard-boiled egg, and was thinking about the paintings I’ve been doing lately with eggs and egg cups. What is so special about eggs? I don’t really like eating just plain old eggs, though I
Its About Egg – Broken And Otherwise Read More »
The Demo: Three Artists, Three Approaches, One Figure Having introduced the Watercolor Society of Oregon’s (WSO) Spring Convention in my previous post, I’d like to talk about the “Three Artists, Three Approaches, One Figure” watercolor demonstration (demo). Let me say that it was quite a privelege to be asked to participate. I had the pleasure
Figure Demo, WSO Convention (Part Two) Read More »
Motivation – That Which Keeps Me Working. Hi! I have been wondering how personal motivation contributes to overcoming artist block. Put another way, I would like to examine what motivates me and keeps me plugging away at my art. By looking at what motivates me, both positive and not so positive, I might learn something about making art
Motivation – What Gets Me Going & Keeps Me Going Read More »
Part Of Artistic Growth. Experiencing a bout of “Artist Block”? It’s OK, it happens to many of us and even some of the greats so there is no reason to quit! I hope by sharing with you that this is a perfectly normal, of not frustrating, part of artistic growth, then you and I can
Artist Block – Don’t Worry, Its OK; It Happens Read More »
Contemplating nature – as in spending a few days out camping, being quiet and thinking about life, trees, birds and painting titles. While contemplating, an exciting thing happened. I had a moment of insight in how titles can suggest different meanings for paintings. I wondered, how had I not had this insight before? Contemplating Nature
Contemplating Nature and Titles Read More »
Forgotten (Almost) Commission Recently, I was looking through my library of file CDs and came across my first commission: the frog pond series. I had almost forgotten about it…almost. I thought it would be fun to share the frog pond cartoons and give a bit of backstory. Apparently, I like doing cartoons. Not surprising, I
A Bit of Frog Pond History – My First Commission Read More »
The “Why Paint” Question Why do I ask the “why paint” question? I came across two blog posts* that asked similar questions regarding “why”. The question sparked my brain cells. I’ve been “riffing” on this idea for the past two days! So why draw and paint? Why go through all the self doubt that seems
Why Draw? Why Paint? Read More »
