Hi Reader!

Black Friday (and cyber monday) are finally over so I hope you've seen the last of those email blasts from everyone (else!)

The holidays are coming and I am not sure how I feel about it.

I am hosting christmas dinner this year, which is exciting! In my small apartment it will be...interesting. But I know its going to be fun!

As I prepare for the holidays I feel a cloud coming over me...what do I get everyone for christmas?!

I try to keep my gifts to things my people really want. Things they will appreciate. Things that show them I've really thought about how to save money on their gift without them knowing 😉

And I am SURE my family and friends are at the point where they pretty well expect to get something art-related from me 😄 but I don't know if that's a good thing or not...

Anyway, I wanted to show you what I've been working on the past few weeks, mostly for my own personal growth. It's something that's been on my to-learn list for a while, and with all the painting in oils I've been doing, I finally got up the courage to start painting portraits. For YEARS I drew portrait after portrait but always black and white.

With my new obsession with colour, I thought it time to get the colour going and see what I could do.

And I am really happy with them so far.

Not to say there weren't challenges though. But we will talk about that later. Here is the art:

Now I know this is very different from the work I've been doing but being an artist is a journey, and sometimes we pivot.

I am in a pretty big pivot right now, and as I wade through the knee-deep swamp of "good" ideas I have, you'll start to see some new kinds of work coming from me. One thing I can guarantee however:

It will be good. It will be vibrant. And it will only get better from here.

So there you have it! I peek into my studio the last few weeks.

My biggest challenge here was (I think) the paint. At first I blamed myself, which it could have been a little bit me, but with watercolour paint, the more you add, the more gummy it looks. And with darker skin tones those paints were gumming up real bad.

So I rectified this by spending money, of course.

Anyway, that's all I have for you this week but I would really LOVE to hear what you think of these pieces, or just life in general. Hit reply and let me know!

As a quick reminder, my black friday sale ends tonight at 11:59 PM! So check it out here and use the code GIVEJOY for 20% off!

Until next time, 🤟

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xoxo