Color, color, color!

So excited to get some prints back from a painting session I did a month or so ago. I’ve been drawn to using bright colors in eye-popping combos lately. I can’t seem to get enough color these days. Am I the only one who is tired of seeing tasteful beige and grays all over the place? I mean, yeah, it’s okay, but isn’t it more fun to see all the colors? Thank goodness for Mother Nature. She doesn’t follow trends.

I did a series of wood panels combining fruit trees branches with bright and cheery patterned backgrounds. They look fun and surreal at the same time:

I’ve ordered some giclee prints to see how the colors would look in a prints and I’m so pleased! I have a few in my shop and how cute would these be as a series in a kitchen? I may try some more kitchen-themed pieces. I love product label design, so maybe a series of pantry items.

Kitchen-themed colorfulness in prints!

How fun are these prints?

Eep! I opened my online shop...

Y’all, I’m so nervous. I’m opening my online shop. Right now it consists of prints from the Fleurs de Villes Dallas shows at NorthPark Center for the last two years. NorthPark commissioned me to do original artwork to give the floral designers as a thank you for their hard work. I loved every minute of it and the floral designers were thrilled to have a surprise illustration made just for them.

I’ve been asked about prints ever since and decided it was time to offer fine art giclee prints. What’s a giclee? They are art prints using the best materials available - 100% cotton rag paper, archival inks with lightfast ratings, printed with the latest technology.

My original artwork was made with soft pastel - one of the messiest art materials out there. The reason I chose pastel is the eye popping color saturation. They really do convey the original colors of the floral pieces. With giclee prints, you get the best of both worlds - amazing color without the mess. :)

Close up of soft pastel

Another close up

I’ll write more about the prints later, but please do check out the shop. These look amazing as sets, so buy as many as you can. All prints are titled and signed. Lead time on shipping is about two weeks as these are made to order. Enjoy!

Fleurs de Villes 2025 and Urban Sketchers DFW Exhibition

Whew! It’s been a few weeks!

I love this time of year in Texas. The DFW area in March and April usually has a big storm that takes down a few trees, fences, etc. and this year was no different. Wind storm wiped out our fence and a small tree, so we put up another fence and I’ll plant something new. That was the bad part of spring weather here - the good part is with the rain, everything flushes out and spring is gloriously green and sprinkled with beautiful flowers.

Speaking of flowers, Fleurs de Villes had its second exhibition, ARTISTE, at NorthPark in March and like last year, it was incredible. Sixteen floral sculptures are designed by the top floral design houses in the Dallas/Ft Worth area who are paired with premier local cultural institutions. Each take a theme and interpret their vision in flowers, fresh greenery and organic materials and the show is only up for five days (fresh flowers, etc).

As you can imagine, this is heaven for anyone who loves to paint in the wild. So I painted and painted and painted for three days. I decided that if the show came back this year, I would devote more time to sketching all the mannequins. NorthPark was lovely and invited me to sketch at the opening night party. I had a great time meeting and chatting with the founders of Fleurs de Villes, the spectacular NorthPark group, and the “fleurists” who created it all. I came back Thursday and Saturday to increasingly larger crowds. Everyone marveled at the beautiful flowers and the artistic and engineering talent of the floral designers.

NorthPark Center’s Opening of Fleurs de Villes ARTISTE 2025. March 19, 2025. Video courtesy of NorthPark

Everyone asks what I use when they see me sketching on location, so here’s my list of stuff that I used for this project:

• Strathmore 400 series toned paper in tan -I used toned Strathmore 400 paper last year and loved the way it popped the colors and whites, but wanted an accordion sketchbook instead of a traditional book. Strathmore doesn’t make an accordion sketchbook, so I improvised using Strathmore 9” x 12” paper sheets, folded in half and taped together in the back as I finished a spread. By the end, I think my sketchbook stretched 10 feet!

• Daniel Smith gouache and watercolor - any good artists gouache will do

• Caran d’Ache Neocolor 2 crayons in ALL the colors. LOL! - these are water soluble and the best for opaque washes and punches of color

• Caran d’Ache Luminance color pencils - great for adding detail and are so fun to use over gouache

• Derwent waterbrushes - or any waterbrush (the water is contained inside the handle so you’re not dealing with a cup of water that can spill.

• ink brush pens, pencils, kneaded eraser and everything else floating around in my bag. :)

All supplies can be found at Blick Art, Jerry’s Artarama, Cheap Joe’s and any independent art supplier.

Sketching away the day at NorthPark. Fleurs de Villes 2025

About a third of the way through my sketching the entire Fleurs de Villes exhibit.

The finished sketchbook is on display at Lovefield Airport along with dozens of other talented artists representing Urban Sketchers DFW. If you love to sketch and want to be a part of a built-in community of creative, friendly and talented sketchers, please join us. Urban Sketchers DFW meets every month, is free and open to everyone of all skill levels. We love sharing our passion of sketching on location!

My Urban Sketcher sketchbooks on display at Dallas Lovefield Airport through June 2025.

Past sketchbooks and art supplies from Urban Sketcher Symposiums in Amsterdam, Netherlands and Porto, Portugal

More sketchbook spreads including the beautiful Dallas Arboretum.

I’ve decided to print my Fleurs de Villes 2025 sketchbook as a zine that will be available once it’s printed so be on the lookout!

What Am I Doing?

Hi y’all,

I’m terrible at this website thing. The only way I find that I’m consistent with anything is to do a small step. Need to work on my art practice? Draw some lines. Need to clean the kitchen? Unload the dishwasher. Need to weed the garden? Pull one weed. This may sound incredibly simplistic to most, but it works for me. Especially now when the world does not make sense. I’ve decided just to write and post things on here and do it line by line, picture by picture and tell my perfectionistic tendencies to piss off. I just googled whether “perfectionistic” was a real word. It is. Sigh…

Anyway, what am I doing? Lots of arty things! I’ve spent time making loads of paintings, drawings and framing some of my jewelry. That last one needs some explanation which I’ll do on another post. Small steps. :)

Here’s a pic of some of my current paintings. Cheers!