I Will Light Candles…
Morning Vigil, 6×12″ pastel on card
Candles of joy, despite all sadness,
Candles of hope where despair keeps watch.
Candles of courage where fear is ever present,
Candles of peace for tempest-tossed days,
Candles of grace to ease heavy burdens.
Candles of love to inspire all my living.
Candles that will burn all the year long.
-Howard Thurman
Chalk on a blackboard. What images pop into your mind? Math class, handwriting lessons, doodling in the corner when the teacher wasn’t looking….
Well allow me to introduce a new image: creating a pastel painting on a black board. If you know me at all, or follow my blog, you will know I love, love, love a good black base for my pastels. Up until today, this only meant that I start with black pastel.
But today, (drum roll please…) I created my own black pastel board!
Let me walk you through the process, and show you my results: Continue Reading…
Last weekend was a doozie. Sunday night about pushed me over the edge.
The curtain is raised. The stage is set:
Our story begins in a small house in southern suburbia. Alas, the sweet and ever-helpful husband is out of town on business, leaving a young working mother outnumbered 3 to 1 with the children. Friday night, darkness falls Continue Reading…
If you’re a Southerner, chances are you’ve spent a long time sitting on a porch listening to stories from your grandparent or great aunt. Most likely, the respected senior was rhythmically swaying on a porch swing or a creaky rocking chair. Mosquitos were probably treating you like a buffet, and the humidity making you feel sticky. While listening, you may have been picking at the old paint on the porch step. If you’ve been on such a porch on such a day, you’d probably already heard the story several times before, but listened patiently as it was retold yet again.
In our social-media infused, google-run, multi-tasking reality, lazy porch-sitting days require a mental switch and a physical sigh to make the transition. Continue Reading…
George
Tonight we lost our 11-year old cat George. He was our first pet, discovered as a tiny kitten in a bush in Piedmont, Alabama the February before my husband and I were married. He leaves behind his best friend Sam, and his human family. I drew this pastel of him as a kitten several years ago, and thought it was a fitting piece to share. We will miss our sweet George!
Long ago, in some fuzzy conversation from my past, there was a discussion about different types of people: followers, leaders and not-followers. For years, this trio of types has lingered in my mind and caused many a joke, as I can be a pretty ridiculous “not-follower.” This can be translated into my stubbornness against those newfangled contraptions or those audacious new pants…you get the idea. Can we say “hello Granny”?
Suffice it to say, I pushed against the world of tweets. It took me years to get on Facebook, a long time to buy a pair of capris back in high school, and a good while to jump onto the Harry Potter train. But I’m no stick in the mud…I just hold out long enough to be a “not follower,” aka cool and awesome. Nowadays I’m all over Facebook, I own all Harry Potter books and movies, and I flip up my jeans in the summer. And I’ve finally stepped into Twitter.
At first, I was nervous. I had 8 followers…why tweet? If you tweet to no one, does it make a sound? With baby steps, I began tweeting and following, and hey! I was followed back! Then suggestions began so courteously showing up in my inbox, helping me connect to more artists around the world. It was a big day to be retweeted by someone I didn’t know, and an event to reach 100 followers. In a few weeks of tweeting, I’m up to 139 followers and climbing.
I’m starting to get the hang of it, and I’ve made some novice observations:
Twitter truly is about community. It’s awesome to so easily connect with artists in France, the UK and Ontario; to connect with Sennelier and Ampersand; to tweet and be tweeted. I like to think I’m able to share my art and images of my American South. Pretty cool.
I also realize the “tweeters” I like best are the ones who seem like real people. With them, it’s not always business, not repeated tweets over and over, and by their 140 character, hash-tagged tweets, you get a sense of a personality. It makes their little photo seem like a human instead of a stock photo.
I also find I click on tweets with easy to see images, nothing I have to work too hard to view. I click on blog posts very relative to my interests. And I like to read the funnies!
So tweet with me and see what you find!
I go on and on about the glories of textured pastel paper-which I love and prefer-but sometimes, I do use a piece of “regular” pastel paper…with a twist. While I mostly use Ampersand Pastelbords and Sennelier La Carte pastel card, I often choose a sheet of pastel paper for soft subjects, like a baby’s face. However, I do NOT like the little dots that show up on most papers.
So, I just flip it over and use the back! Continue Reading…
“Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.” -Picasso
Over the years, I have become adept at spinning plates. I can hold several sticks at once, get the plates spinning and keep them all going at the same time without crashing. Okay, maybe only metaphorically…but that would be a cool party trick…
I do however, keep a lot of things in motion as I live each day: 3 kids, 5-day a week job, and an art career are the main events, amongst all the other important and enjoyable parts of my life. People often ask, “How (and possibly why) do you do it all?”
I want to be a good mom. I want to be a successful artist. I want to do well at my day job. I want to keep things in order. I want to be involved in the art community. I want to enjoy life.
So I take Picasso’s advice and “vigorously act” to reach my goals.
Here’s an example of how that plays out in real life:
Painting with a baby
Yep. I put the baby next to me and go with it…I may have to paint or draw while singing silly songs and making ridiculous faces to keep her happy, but it works.
I draw during baby’s nap time, or on weekends while the family’s chilling. I have been known to draw with a little boy on my back at my art desk, because I was determined to finish up a piece.
I take a deep breath, try to reduce the inevitable stress of drawing with a kid on my back and tattle-talers in my ear, and remember why I do what I do: because I believe that it matters.
Because art is important to me, I find a way to make it happen along with motherhood, work, marriage and life.
I aim to never let the busy-ness of life overtake what is important to my life.
What is important to your life? What dreams are waiting for action?
The first step may be the hardest, and if your life is anything like mine, the subsequent steps to stay the course require effort and passion as well. In my opinion, each step is worth it.
“I want first of all… to be at peace with myself. I want a singleness of eye, a purity of intention, a central core to my life that will enable me to carry out these obligations and activities as well as I can.” –Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift from the Sea
A field of cotton ready for harvest, lit brightly by the sun on a crisp November afternoon, rimmed by a string of trees in the distance with a Southern blue sky above.
I drool.
This is a sight often viewed enviously from my car window as we speed down the interstate; but not this day. This lucky lady was able to bask in the glory of an Alabama cotton field and snap as many photos as I wished.
I’ve been itching to put my pastels to work capturing this exquisite afternoon.
Lately I’ve been busying myself with commissions and small pastels, and I decided it’s about time for a big one.
I compiled 5 of my photos into a sketch, making sure to have everything just how I wanted it.
Using vine charcoal, I loosely recreated my sketch onto a 24×36″ Ampersand Pastelbord (I always choose gray!)
I’ll begin the color soon…right now, my sketch is resting and I’m contemplating. Check back soon and join me as we progress!
New Year’s Eve, 10:00pm. The little one is down for the count, but our older two kids are still up and our friends have just headed home. Sitting by the nice warm fire, we open a bottle of bubbly to share…sparkling apple juice, that is. (Champagne has already been shared by adults!)
It’s time to review the year and discuss the new year to come. (I confess the only art in this post is the “art of life.” But life is art!!!)
2012 started off quite well, I would say: Continue Reading…
I'm a self-taught pastel & watercolor artist and instructor, raised and based in Birmingham, Alabama. I constantly collect stories and pieces of the world around me, turning them into works of art. Inspired by nature, I love to share what I've learned and build connections and community. I invite you to browse and join my site. I hope you find something that inspires you!
Voted one of Birmingham's Best Local Artists 2013, Birmingham News & al.com
Featured in Birmingham Magazine, March 2018
Visit the Commissions page on the top menu to find out more about my pastel & watercolor portraits. Portraits are drawn from photographs in a timely manner with the highest quality materials to ensure they will be enjoyed for generations!
Thanks for visiting my site! I am an awarded pastel artist and instructor based in Birmingham, Alabama. A self-taught artist, I have been working with pastels for over 6 years, selling in shops, galleries, shows and by commission. I teach pastel workshops for adults, and love to help emerging artists on their journey into the art community.
