This weeks painting adventure is along the Stonycreek River in Somerset County, PA. I’m working on letting go of my dependence on realism. It’s continuing to be a challenge. Stony Creek River #1: stage 1 Off to a good start- painting the energy and heat of the rocks and the river that scattered them. Late…
Back in September I applied for an artist's residency at Big Bend National Park, an opportunity to live and work for a month in one of our largest and most remote wilderness areas, right on the Mexican border (image above.) As I worked on the application, I gained a new understanding of why I paint the way…
This recent post from Chuck Wendig's blog Terrible Minds got to me: Nobody wants you to be an artist. It’s for a lot of reasons. Some come from a good place — they think, hey, we want better for you. The life of an artist is hard. Be a bricklayer, a doctor, a ROCKET LAWYER, something, anything.…
In honor of Mother's Day, I want to share the music and work of Jennifer Berezan with you. Berezan is appearing in concert May 27th in Washington DC for the first time, and I am thrilled to get to hear her. Jennifer is a unique blend of singer/songwriter and activist. She has recorded over ten albums,…
I try to get out and paint plein-aire from the Yoshino cherries during their brief and glorious blooming. It's always unpredictable! This year it seemed imminent, then a cold front delayed their progress, then BAM! an explosion of flowers. When I first came to Washington, I expected something gaudier. I was amazed by the subtle…
You're young, alone, and surrounded by strangers who speak a language you don't understand. You're weary, having travelled thousands of miles into the unknown, because everything you knew and loved has been destroyed. Meet Bessie This is the tale of the woman Baltimore came to know as its premiere kosher caterer, Bessie Bluefeld. About 100 years…
Farewell to the musician who provided the playlist for my young life, and the artist who gave sound and vision to the androgynous, artistic, alien of my soul. In a world with no road map, as the traditional life of my parents and grandparents became quaint and irrelevant, Bowie blazed across the firmament, operatic troubadour of the next moment. He released…
I'm in the last throes of completing a series of river pictures that have been 'almost done' for weeks now. I nudge each of them forward every time I get out the palette, and yet they seem to stay stubbornly in the 'not quite yet' camp. ALMOST!! Last Sunday I completed this one: (click for larger…
I've been busy, too busy outside slurping up all the delicious low-humidity summertime that August has brought to Southern Maryland to post work I've been doing, so here are a few things I've been working on. click images for larger view Solstice Sunrise, oil on canvas, 14 x 11" 6am, June 21, 2105 ©Patrise
You can catch me at the monthly Moyaone Markets, where I often have art for sale and in progress. In good weather I love to set up outside and invite anyone to make art with me, and that's what I did at the August 1 Market, a blissful summer's day. I had a variety of…
