Artist’s Blog
Insights, painting techniques and news from my Blue Mountains studio
Only Listen to the Critics that Count
Creativity is challenging - how do we stay on track and only listen to the critics that count?
4 Essential Ingredients to Creativity
Any truly creative process is by nature not formulaic or simply mechanical. It’s possible to make something like a painting or a piece of writing, without truly engaging your creativity. These are the essential ingredients…
Do More of What You Love.... Painting Workshops for 2023
I'm going to add to the words Do more of what you love and say also, Be more of who you love. With this in mind, I'm truly excited to invite you to join me in some new workshops that I have designed for this purpose.
Transform the Way You See the World - Colour Painting Workshop
In this full-day colour immersion, you will acquire practical know-how on mixing and arranging colours, understanding warm and cool, intensity, hue and value, contrast, relationships and dynamics. By the end of the day, you will know how to lighten red without losing intensity or how to create a warm blue to vibrate next to a cool one. You will leave with a finished painting and a new experience of the world!
How do Anxiety and Uncertainty Birth Creativity?
Being creative is something most people want, but few of us feel confident about being. Confronting the unknown, with its accompanying anxiety, is the very birthplace of creativity…
Join Me to 'Capture the Spirit of Landscape'
My last workshop for the year is happening next month, 24 & 25 November. ‘Capturing the Spirit of Place’ will be a wonderful opportunity for you to learn new skills, meet like-minded people and have fun.
Painting Towards my Own Death
Lately I have challenged myself to get more embarrassed, uncomfortable, even scared - to stop using familiar methods and rather to explore uncharted tracks, that possibly lead nowhere in particular.
Understanding Your Child's Art Part 2
Do you wonder what to say to your child when he shows you his drawings? How to encourage your daughter as she gets frustrated with paint? Read this - it may just help!
Understanding Your Child's Art
Do you understand what your child creates and why? What do you say and do to encourage him? As Picasso famously said, 'Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up’.
Painting and Pavlova
What do painting and cooking have in common? In my case, they are both sensual and courageous...
Setting Goals
Goals can set us up for success or failure. What about goals that are about working without goals and making mistakes?
Embracing Your Training Wheels
Is being creative a gift given only to the select few? What does it do for us and can you choose to be creative?
My 98 Year Old Inspiration
Decades before the Mindfulness movement, my Gran taught me to pay attention to nature, to see and sense like an artist.
In an Elemental Whirlwind!
I'm on a high after exhibiting with the amazingly talented pianist, Elyane Laussade in Elemental Elegance!
Love Yourself by Loving Art That Loves You Back
What is important is to believe that what you like in art, what you love, is good for you.
Creating Safety to Mess Up
I try to create safety for mistakes with all works in progress, in painting and with people...
Musings from London
As I stood in London's Victoria and Albert Museum, I witnessed a touching moment between a father and daughter.
The Marks of Love
Love can infuse everything we do, like a delightful aroma. This painting expresses tenderness and passion, reflecting the deep connection I experience in love.
Taking the Plunge
My 8 year old daughter recently reminded me how gutsy it is to strive for results and that reaching them isn't the most important outcome.