Month: March 2016

  

Usually I like to have people in my paintings. I spent a lot of stories in my head about places, and they all require people to make them interesting.

Lately, though, i’ve been painting places and the fingerprints that we leave. 

This little train depot north of Dorset VT is no longer in use. Cargo trains still go by, but the building is abandoned for the most part–used only as a place to post signs. The track is an indelible fingerprint, but the little depot still leaves it’s mark and inspires dozens of questions about stories that might’ve happened here.

  
One of the reasons I’m a watercolor addict is that it’s kind of a no-frills medium, and I’m a no-frills kind of gal.
The great thing about watercolor is that your entire studio can fit into a little plastic pencil case and still give you the ability to Channel Winslow Homer or whoever your art heroes are. When you’re done, you can just pack up your little pencil case and want to color pad in the blink of an eye and you’re done.

  
The no-frills studios kind of the opposite of what my life is been the last few weeks. Battling the flu as i navigate tax season working at a company that makes personal finance software, my non-painting life is riddled with complexity but not only curtails painting time but infects it with stress and worry.
This is the first day I’ve had in a while to get back to basics-to get back to the painting that sustains me. And Packing up my pencil case and pad reminds me how nice it is to be that no-frills gal with the bad haircut and even worse fashion sense, finally focusing on what’s really important again.