"Beautiful Life"

This painting is new for 2021. As many of you may know, I started experimenting with acrylic paint a long time ago in my art journal. I painted page after page across many notebooks and attended local in person classes, no matter what the subject matter was, all with the intention on knowing how to use acrylic paint. I remember vividly the feeling of wanting to paint, but I didn’t even know how to put paint on the paint brush. True story.

“Beautiful Life”, bright orange abstract painting available from the artist. Click here to purchase.

Back then, it was uncommon to find painting tutorials and workshops online. Oh how the internet has changed that!

An old journal page where I was teaching myself the properties of my acrylic paint.

Somewhere between 2008 and 2014, my painting style changed dramatically. I went from unfinished, raw emotion journal pages, to what I would call more refined, gallery ready artwork. It started when I decided that in order to be taken seriously as an artist (🙄), I needed to be accepted by a juror into an art show, win awards and have a solo show.

My show before opening night, December 2014.

Every now and then there is a part of me that misses the old art journaling days. I do not journal at all anymore. I suspect that the feeling of freedom that I experienced in my journal is now present every day in my paintings on canvas..I have learned a lot more about my practice since then. The experience of painting so many paintings, no matter the substrate, has proven invaluable to my practice.