The Sketchbook Project

Hi folks! It's here! My Art House Sketchbook is here!

I had joined a project to create a sketchbook that will be part of a traveling show, and I was waiting for the sketchbook to show up, it just arrived today!

The sketch book will travel around a bit then it will have a permanent home at the Art House COOP Library in Atlanta GA. Folks will be able to check it out like a regular library book.

I am so excited to be part of this project. I will be posting photos here as I work on this project.

This is a photo of the book as it arrived today....stay tuned for more to come!

Carlson's Guide To Landscape Painting

The Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting is an artists reference book that I picked up on a recommendation by Richard McKinley on the Pastel pointers blog. The Blog said that he refers to this book when he paints and it was dog eared from frequent use. I wondered what book could be so good that a seasoned artist would use it as a reference. I went on line and purchased the book.

Most artist reference and "how to" books out there are pretty basic. And if you are wondering why a seasoned artist would pick up a "how to" book, there are many reasons I can think of...

Artists like to learn new things, it keeps us young. Just look at Andrew Wyeth, he painted up until the day he passed away. Learning new things keeps your mind sharp and it also helps to know what other artists are doing. And it gives you a fresh way to look at your own work.

Getting back to Carlson's Book, this book is really impressing me because he gives pretty detailed "rules" of landscape painting.

There are items described in the book that I do intuitively, but to read why I make these choices helps me think more in the process to make choices I may not have thought of on my own. Many of the processes and theories he describes make sense and if you are someone who gets out and paints plein air on a frequent basis, the abstract light bulb over your head now has a description and theory inside it.

The Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting doesn't have pretty color photos, all the illustrations are in black and white. However, when you really look at the values of the black and white paintings, the theories in the book really come together.

I recommend this book for all landscape painters and students of painting.

Enjoy!

Welcome to my online gallery!

For those who are wondering how someone "becomes" an artist....for me, it was something I was born with. It's a way of how I see the world and it started in grade school...I was always drawing something, I liked drawing animals and making up stories about them...I progressed to drawing horses because I was horse crazy. I tried them in every shape and color. I used to make horses out of clay and I'd play with them. I made clay saddles and other tack to put on them.

I never realized I had any sort of talent until we were assigned a project in 7th grade for the book Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl. I tried to create a scene were the raft was visited by a shark...I researched pictures of the raft and I pulled encyclopedias and other research books out of the library to get reference photos of sharks that I could use, then I drew the shark and the raft. I didn't think anything of it, big deal, I drew a shark freehand.

Well, the nuns thought it was a big deal. They asked my mom to send me to the Philadelphia High School for Girls because they felt I would get the art instruction there that I needed. And I did....I received a great academic education and I majored in Art, too. One thing about growing up in Philadelphia, you have access to the arts. I went to a Saturday morning program at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts and that's were I drew my first life models.

From there I went on to get my BA in Art and Art Education from Rosemont College. I have been enjoying painting and other artistic activities since that time.