People often ask me how I decide what to paint. The truth is, I have a few running lists of things to paint at all times. It’s more of a matter of when to paint something. One list is an extensive file library of photographs I’ve taken. It’s a collection of images ready to paint. I tend to view this library every day hoping that one in particular will jump out at me. Another list of things to paint, I keep as a note in my phone (and computer) that I keep track of while I’m out and about and get an idea. And lastly, the other is just in my head. Funny enough, I typically paint something that is fresh in my mind though, and because of that, I don’t believe that I will ever finish my lists of things to paint. I guess you could say that what I paint is an ever-evolving subject with no true pattern. I paint what I love in that moment, and when I do that, I don’t feel like I’m working at all.

On a morning like today, for example, despite my calendar telling me to work on a landscape piece, I decided to paint a pot of daffodils and small bunch of floral filler I bought this weekend to paint with some friends (which we did, and they did a beautiful job for their first time!) When I walked into Trader Joes looking for a floral subject to paint, I originally went in for ranunculuses or yellow tulips, but the daffodils were absolutely the star of the show! I literally walked out of Trader Joes with my face buried in the petals of the daffodils and filler (the filler smells heavenly! Does anyone know the name of it?)

I was still so jazzed about the paintings and daffodils after painting with friends that Monday morning in my studio couldn’t come soon enough! I ended up painting an entirely new daffodil piece that was more refined and “life like”, but I loved the softness in the first one I did with friends more. I went back into the first one and spent around 4 more hours refining areas and adding extra subtleness. (If you look close enough in the last image of the three of us together, you will see how different my piece was before!) I am so pleased with this painting! It is a breath of fresh air, and a very welcome peek at Spring (it snowed a bit here this weekend!) It's even sweeter to me because it's filled with great memories with dear friends! (Thanks, girls! You did so so well!)

This painting will be part of a Spring Collection available on April 20th! If you've been following me on Instagram, this was originally a landscape series, but I can't help but add some florals for Spring. :) Mark your calendars!

As a young painter, I turned to books for nearly every painting. You may know this already if you’ve followed or read my blog over the years. Not having formal art instruction my first 7 or so years of painting in oil meant that books were my go-to for instruction and inspiration. These books ranged everywhere from art instruction books and art history books, to art books with only full-page images of paintings. Even novels like Where the Red Fern Grows and The Little House on the Prairie series inspired my paintings.


This book is great for a beginner! I often bring this book along to lessons now to share with my students. It’s simple, quick, and very intuitive. The first few pages even teach a bit of easy-to-understand color theory that I think is very helpful and one of the best quick guides for the basics.

It is a small book, 6x7.5 inches, which makes it handy and easy to carry around or pack with art supplies; I’ve even packed it in a plein air (travel) bag when I was just starting out. I buy it in a hardcover so I don’t have to worry about it being in my studio where oil paint seems to run wild. I like the sturdiness of a hardcover when I do need to pack it in a bag, too.

The core of the book is the easy-to-follow color charts. It saves a novice painter time and money (paint is expensive) while helping them achieve great color! For someone who struggles to learn how to mix color just by playing with it, or for the perfectionist, this is an excellent reference. As a professional artist now, I especially appreciate the technical notes about pigment qualities and attributes; that information is often overlooked by beginning painters, but is tremendously helpful to begin learning early.

Another advantage to the book I find (that isn’t really stated inside the book) is that it introduces a new painter to colors they maybe wouldn’t have been exposed to, beyond a basic set up of color. Not only are they introduced to those new colors, but they can quickly see and learn how to use them. With what seems like an endless selection of color choices at the art stores and online, this book helps new painters decide which colors they should try next, skipping colors that maybe aren’t as useful to own and work with. *cough* “Flesh Toned Paint” *cough*

Note: Because colors vary slightly from brand to brand, I find this book works and matches best with Winsor & Newton oil paints, although it would still be beneficial to pair with any brand of paint.

Happy color mixing! :)

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Walking through The Art Institute of Chicago last year for the first time, I repeated in my head a description for Monet’s work: “painter of light.” It couldn’t have been a better description. It wasn’t the first time I had seen his work in person, but it was the first time that it really impacted me. When I rounded the corner into the impressionist’s collection, the room seemed to glow; the art seemed to sparkle. I had to stop for a moment and take it all in.

The paintings of hay bails in different light by Monet caught my eye especially. I loved seeing the warms and cools reflect against each other, and I loved his confidence apparent throughout the entire piece. So often I feel that “messy” or “careless” is mistaken for “confidence” in art, but it was unmistakable in Monet’s work that every stroke of color was placed thoughtfully.

Fast forward to around a month ago. I was working with a student on a landscape when it hit me that her strokes, to me, were reminiscent of Monet’s. I told her this, and we decide to study Monet for the next few lessons and recreate his painting of blossoming trees.

We dove head first into learning more and more about Monet’s approach so we could accurately move around his paintings and analyze his technique. One thing in particular that we did was mimic his color palette, almost exactly. Monet said: "I use flake white, cadmium yellow, vermilion, deep madder, cobalt blue, emerald green, and that's all.”

We used permanent rose and/or alizarin crimson in place of vermillion, and titanium white in place of flake white, and it didn’t effect our output greatly. Additionally, upon further research, I learned of a few other colors Monet would’ve used such as cobalt violet; I chose to use king’s blue in place of cobalt violet because, although it isn’t extremely similar, I always have king’s blue on hand in my studio and felt that it would be a good purple-ish substitute.

Essentially, we created a palette full of color inspired by what Monet used. "His" palette quickly became very exciting to work with; it is a simple palette, and the colors work together with ease beautifully. With his palette it is easy to use the basic techniques of color mixing and achieve gorgeous results. I love the range of pastel-like colors to saturated, vibrant colors. Although not many reds are seen in Monet's work, I found that I mixed in reds more than I expected to mute greens (green and red are complementary colors, and when complements are mixed together, they create muted color in many shades).

Color aside, I chose to lengthen my strokes more than Monet maybe would’ve, but I’ve already fallen in love with the idea of furthering true impressionism in my work like you see in the piece above. All in all, I am enjoying this palette immensely, and I think it's here to stay!

Below you will find a list of my Monet-Inspired Palette colors with corresponding links. If you paint with this palette, or your own slightly-modified version of it, please share an image of your painting and tag me in the post–I'd love to see your work!

At work

My Demo Area

Working

 The girls all painted so well! I was really happily surprised! Lots of budding artists! It was especially neat to see how different each girl painted. Some dabbled here and there, others covered the canvas before I even came around to them! Some changed the image, and others literally painted within the lines.






 I really had a blast teaching these young women (as little teaching as it was.) We all just chit chatted and painted the evening away! Every girl left with a GREAT masterpiece, and only TWO--that I know of--left with paint in their hair. Whoops! (Good shampoo and turpentine, ladies!) Hope you enjoy this post! I have some painting posts i'll put up soon! Keep an eye out!

Click on the photo to enlarge!