Thoughts on Painting

Hello, Everyone!! I have been so busy producing videos and filming tutorials that I've not updated my website blog in a few years (4!) Oh my goodness, that is FAR too long. So today, I am going to share some of the paintings I've been painting on my channel. The first one that I painted for Valentine's Day went viral and is currently at 41,000 views! That was so very exciting for me, as I love sharing my painting techniques, and have for a long while wanted to teach workshops. I am just getting back into working again, after 4 years of not working much at all.

With the shutdown of the world in 2020, and also losing my Dad, my favorite Aunt, and my father-in-law that year, within a few short months, it really took away my zest for painting or doing much creatively. It was a very sad past few years, and I am just getting to the place where I can smile and laugh when I think about all of them, and feel so blessed that I had them in my life. The things that I did creatively during that time were learning bullet journaling online, and also dabbling around with watercolors, taking classes online as well as watching Youtube videos for days on end about everything. It was fascinating to me and somewhere that helped relieve some of the sadness, and provide some happiness and tons of education about a medium I knew next to nothing about.

It still amazes me the amount of free content available on the internet, particularly Youtube, for creatives. There is so much quality content, and sharing of ideas, and I wanted to be a part of it! So last month I set up my desk with a filming station and started filming some of my watercolor paintings. It has been so fun, and there is a community of painters that comment that brings joy to me every single day.

Let me show you some of the things I've been doing over at Youtube. Here is the first painting that I posted, which was just an abstract, fun piece entitled "The Easiest Valentine Painting Ever!" 

My style of painting in past years has been very Old World traditional still life painting as realistic as possible, and while I do love the challenge of painting like that I have always loved loose abstract paintings (where you can still identify what you're looking at). I love the challenge of watercolors, and at this point in my painting career feel like they are WAY more difficult than painting with oils. I also did not love all the chemicals/solvents that come along with oil painting and did not like the water based oil paints I had tried while traveling. So in my learning and struggling with oils, I felt like I had enough overall painting experience to also teach some things while I was learning. 

I then added a few other color combinations to the stamped on ball jar that I did in the first video:

And then I did some sweet peas, and a heart

I have so many friends who say "I can't paint!" and I really feel that every one can paint. I am teaching on Youtube to try to help people who would like to paint and just need a little guidance, or a fun friend to paint with! I will also be doing some videos around my farm, in the garden, and out around Bucks County doing some urban sketching and painting plein air. I hope to have a community of friends who enjoy documenting this beauty and just plain old playing around with paint!

I am really having so much fun getting back into painting after such a long hiatus. I do hope you'll join me on my journey! 

Happy Painting!!