JULILY ART

Hi Reader! Hi friends, I have a little studio update, and a shop announcement! My website is having a sale! For a limited time, VIPs can enjoy: 15% OFF prints + products50% (or more) OFF original artwork And yes, that really does mean 50% off the originals. 😳 The reason? Well... my studio walls are FULL. Like, where am I supposed to put the next painting? full. As I keep developing my skills and making new work, I’ve realized that I need to make some room for the paintings that are coming...

Hi Reader! Lately, I've noticed that my studio practice (and also my brain) seems to operate in two very different directions. One minute I'm working on one of my figurative paintings, happily making things up as I go. I'm inventing a face, changing the colours of someone's hair, adding flowers that don't exist, putting together pieces of a story that only makes sense in my head. I love that part of painting. There is something incredibly satisfying about being able to decide, well, what if...

Hi Reader! This week in the studio, I’ve been moving between three very different kinds of work: painting on a new piece called Field Notes which I mentioned in my last email, sketching decorative framing ideas in my sketchbook, and starting the very first drawing in my Victorian Greyhounds series, which I also gave you a sneak peek at last week! And honestly, weeks like this always remind me of something I think is worth saying out loud: being an artist never really means you are done...

Hi Reader! 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...

Hi Reader! I wanted to drop into your email to show you a couple pieces from the last couple months and update you on where I am at with my work! Firstly, these paintings were finished back in February, before I got my puppy. Since I've finished these pieces I've been feeling less connected to The Keeper series. I have a bit more I want to do with it, but I think it is time for a little bit of a break. A bit of art block has hit, and while I have a lot in the "ideas" category, not a ton is...

Hi Reader! I've gone and disappeared again! So sorry, I have been busy with training my new studio assistant and I admit it still isn't an ideal situation for productivity but fingers crossed he gets the hang of it soon! I thought I would take a moment this week to introduce you to him and let you know a little bit about what's coming up in the next few months. This is Tobey! He is a 16-week old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and he is not the best studio assistant, but I admit there was a bit...

Hi Reader! If you’ve been wanting to feel more confident with watercolour, to truly understand how it works instead of guessing your way through, this is your invitation. Watercolour Foundations begins March 5, and special pricing closes Tuesday, February 24. Student work from "Botanical Watercolour Illustration" This course is designed to give you the skills most artists wish they had learned first: How water actually behaves on paper How to control blooms, blends, edges, and softness How to...

Hi Reader! I used to think practice was something you did before the real work began: drills, exercises, practice sheets you moved past once you were “good enough.” Now I understand that repetition is the work. Repeating the ideas, the subjects, and the concepts because each pass changes me. When I repeat a process, the same materials, similar compositions, familiar subjects, I’m not standing still. I’m refining my attention. Each repetition sharpens my ability to see what’s actually...

Hi Reader! I’ve been asking myself a simple question lately, and sitting with it longer than I expected: Why do I make art at all? Not why I post it.Not why I sell it.Not why I teach it. But why I keep coming back to the quiet, sometimes frustrating, often uncertain act of making something with my hands. The honest answer is that there have been stretches of time where art felt distant from me. Where it became something I managed, scheduled, explained, or justified instead of something I...

Hi Reader! I’ve been thinking a lot lately about something I used to strongly believe in that I realize now was holding me back for a long time, and I see it happening to other artists beginning their own journeys too. It’s the idea that skill development, especially those most basic skills like drawing and colour theory, just aren’t that important. In art school I had been told time and time again that realistic drawing wasn’t interesting enough to help me be a professional artist. I had...