I spent a lot of time this weekend sketching out several new paintings, and even though they’re still at the beginning, I already feel that lovely shift that happens when the ideas are finally on paper.
There’s something about having multiple pieces started that makes it so much easier to keep my momentum going. Even if the finished paintings are still a little way off, the energy is there now and that always feels exciting.
One of the pieces I’m beginning will be taking up a lot of my attention over the next couple of weeks. It’s a painting on Hahnemühle paper, and the piece is a bit of a diversion from The Keeper series, but heavily in line with some themes and imagery I've been playing with over the last year.
I keep coming back to the idea of curiosity as something quieter and more uncertain than we usually picture it. Field Notes is a new work in progress exploring the pursuit of knowledge not as a grand revelation, but as a moment of hesitation and observation. The figure stands at the edge of a pond, just barely entering it, surrounded by ibis, lily pads, and decorative botanical forms that feel somewhere between collected specimens and ornamentation.
One of the things I’m most interested in right now is the way domestic patterns and natural spaces begin to blur together. The wallpaper fading into the sky became a way of thinking about how our inner worlds, interests, obsessions, and inherited ways of seeing shape the way we move through the world around us.
I like the title Field Notes because it feels unfinished in the best way: observational, exploratory, and open-ended. Like the work itself is still in the process of searching.
And one of the parts I’m most excited about is adding gold detail to that frame using Schmincke Aqua Bronze.
It’s one of my favourite materials to work with because it creates such a beautiful, thoughtful metallic finish. I think a lot of people worry that adding metallics will make their work feel too flashy or tacky, but I really love showing how they can be used in a way that feels elegant, intentional, and very much part of the painting.
That’s partly why I’m especially excited to share that I’ll be working with Schmincke at an event on July 11 at Opus Granville Island from 1-5 PM. I’ll be there talking about the qualities of their paints and sharing more of the kinds of materials and effects I genuinely love using in my own work.
If that sounds like something you’d enjoy, I’d love for you to join me there.
I’ll also be sharing more soon about some upcoming watercolor workshops: a few single-evening classes over the summer, and a deeper 5-week workshop in September/October for anyone wanting to spend more time learning and growing with paint.
Here are a couple more previews of what I've got going on:
I am working on a mini series of Victorian Greyhounds, simply because it seems like a fun project. They will be graphite drawings with busy decorative frames and this is the first one all sketched out.
I just started this little sketchbook on Arches Hot Press paper, as a tester, doing some gouache bird drawings. I am using a super simple palette for these ones, and I've filmed the process so stay tuned for a video on my YouTube channel!
Lastly, here is a finished piece that was a tester for another new kind of paper but I love the direction, and it IS a bit of a sneaky preview of the very start of the brainstorming of my new series Dreamland, which I will tell you way more about in the coming weeks and months as it starts to take its form.
There’s a lot quietly taking shape over here, and it feels good.
Thanks for being here while these new ideas begin to unfold. Stay tuned for new work releases and some shop/website updates coming soon! Also, if you're curious how my studio assistant is doing:
He is growing up so fast! Still majorly cute and causing trouble, though.
TTYL!
xoxo,
