In the same vein as my crab apples, here’s a 10.5″x13.5″ watercolor of some mushrooms I found growing next to a tree stump in our yard. They were hidden under some leaves, which I cleared away just a bit. This revealed all kinds of sticks and other dark plant material that was in the process [...]

“I’m not sure why, but I just don’t want to blog about my show.” — me, every day since August 23. Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been feeling uncharacteristically vulnerable and borderline paranoid, and last night I finally figured out why: my paintings are on display and people are looking at them. Normally [...]

I’m calling my newest painting Gelateria, pronounced jell-ah-ter-EE-a, which is where you can buy gelato*. Gelato is something you should eat while you’re in Italy if you want your entire concept of “good ice cream” to be ruined forever. Trust me: if you’ve never had gelato, you don’t know what good ice cream is. And [...]

During (our kitty) Bun’s various health ordeals, my painting did indeed have to go on. I’m trying to create as much work as I can over the summer in preparation for my one-woman show at the end of August. Honestly, even though my numbers are in pretty good shape, I still fear that I won’t [...]

Here’s a new addition to my series of Burano buildings reflected in water. Coming up with titles for paintings like this is difficult, and I enjoy bouncing ideas off Jeff. This one stumped us for a long time, and as I type this Jeff is still playing around with words like turbulence. But as of [...]

Every year the Illinois Watercolor Society invites artists across the country to enter their juried exhibition. Simply entering this show is no guarantee that you’ll be accepted–it’s a hundreds-will-enter-60-will-win kind of contest. This spring, as I got set to mail the appropriate forms and fees to the IWS for this competition, I kissed the self-addressed-stamped-envelope [...]

Here’s the latest entry in my Burano series–an old woman admiring flowers on the windowsill of her home. I’m calling this one Mother’s Day. As always, the colorful buildings of Burano were a joy to paint, especially the yellow paper around the flowers and the bright, bright building, which was a combination of opera (the [...]

Dale’s Super 400 “Today I’m starting a portrait of my late uncle Dale (Dad’s older brother),” I announced on Facebook a few weeks ago. I posted the reference photo below of Dale and asked if my friends or family knew any details about the guitar he’s holding. I wanted to find a clearer image online [...]

UPDATE: “Abandoned Knowledge” won honorable mention at the 2011 Illinois Watercolor Society’s 27th Annual Open Juried Exhibition. Thanks again to Andy Ihnatko and Roger Ebert. Three people made this painting: Andy Ihnatko, Roger Ebert, and me. Roger Ebert’s a household name, and I hope most of you know me by now. Andy Ihnatko writes about [...]

Aunt Linda is my father’s sister, and I was very happy to create this watercolor of English roses for her.  I had painted a similar picture for my parents’ dining room years ago: Linda was a fan of that painting and told Mom and Dad that she would love for me to paint something like [...]

After about eighteen painting sessions, my portrait of my sister Emily is finished.  What a challenge this was! In case you don’t know, my sister (an a.m. news anchor in southern Illinois) has turned her love of makeup into a side business thanks to her YouTube channel, Beauty Broadcast.  Poof–I call her Poof–reviews mostly drugstore [...]

I decided to give myself a break from portraits* for a couple of weeks, and here’s the end product: my third Burano-inspired watercolor.  My previous Burano paintings were still lifes of bottles and mussels, but this is the first time I’ve tackled the tiny, quiet island’s colorful buildings, boats, and canals.  Burano’s houses are painted [...]

I’ve known my friend Lori Simmons since we were in kindergarten together.  My favorite childhood memory of Lori was the time she and I were practicing cheers together during recess in 2nd grade.  We were both probably the quietest kids in our class, and instead of yelling the cheers we kind of talked them and [...]

Terry’s finished! I think there are around 200 books in this painting, but I’m not sure.  I stopped counting at around 135, and that was when I was nowhere near being done.  Each of the seven shelves took at least a day to paint, not counting the knicknacks or the wooden parts (I didn’t want [...]

A few days ago I began painting a portrait of Dr.Terry Sherer: heroic educator, tireless arts advocate, voracious reader, and beloved friend.  Jeff and I visited him in his marvelous home in Missouri last month for a photo shoot and a wonderfully rambling, afternoon-long conversation that was, as I told Terry when we said goodbye, [...]