You see simple ranch-style red brick homes all over western Pennsylvania, where I live. You might drive by this one and not give it a second glance. Its not impressive or imposing. It doesn’t have columns or dormers or gables. It was built in the understated style of a typical 1960s ranch. But this little […]
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Commission #2: A Stately Home in Atlanta
House portraits require quite a bit of back and forth communication with my clients. I usually ask for lots of photos of the property from different angles, so I can choose what works best for the composition. The client often requests a change of season for the painting, so there are discussions of what type […]
Commission #1: “Memories of Home”
I promised before Christmas that I would show you all the commissioned paintings I’ve been working on lately. Most of them were intended as gifts, so I couldn’t spoil the surprise and reveal them before the holiday. Well, now that the decorations have been packed away and things are getting back to normal around here, […]
Christmas Memories
Our daughter and her children came to help us decorate the Christmas tree a few weeks ago and, as we hung each ornament on the tree, we found ourselves telling Nicholas, 4, and and Callista, 3, the stories behind many of the ornaments. There’s the 50-year old silver glass ball with “Leslie” written on it […]
Catching Up
Have you missed me? I’ve been AWOL for the past month or so, squirreled away in my studio working on commissioned paintings that needed to be done in time for Christmas. I just finished up the last one and I’m feeling a giddy sense of accomplishment! I promise I’ll share everything with you eventually, but […]
Thumbnail Sketches – All Dressed Up!
One of the lessons I taught my students while in Tuscany was about using thumbnail sketches to zero in on a scene and test out various compositional options. I suggested using a separate sketchbook page for the thumbnails and later turning that page, with its accumulation of tiny scenes, into a dynamic page in its […]
2016 Tuscany Workshop
Imagine yourself wandering through the cobblestone streets of this medieval hilltop village in Tuscany. You stop at a sidewalk cafe for a cappuccino and pull out your sketchbook to begin drawing an ancient stone building across the way. Sip…….look……..paint……..see. This is the way we experience Tuscany, taking the time to meander and explore, or to […]
2016 Workshop Schedule
I’ve put together an exciting line-up of classes for 2016 – see all the details on my US Workshops page. I’ll be teaching on both coasts and across the pond, so check out the schedule and see if there’s a workshop that might be right for you. Here are a few of the highlights… In […]
Step-by-Step Watercolor: Fattoria Bacio
In one of my recent posts, I promised I would show you the step-by-step process I used to paint a sketch of Fattoria Bacio, our workshop location in Tuscany. The villa is perched on top of a hill, surrounded by vineyards and olive groves. One pretty fall morning, I walked out along the ridge, about […]
Day Trip to San Gimignano and Saying Goodbye to Tuscany
It had been a fantastic week at Fattoria Bacio and our final days gave us more of the same. The sunrise Thursday morning was spectacular… and the skies cleared by breakfast time, forecasting a perfect day for our trip to San Gimignano. But as we ate our breakfast, a stealthy fog began to fill the […]
