I have been wanting to paint looser. I've tried it. It's hard. Much harder than I expected. So hard, in fact, that I think I may take a class from a painter who specializes in that style. But, in the meantime, I tried my hand at something a bit different. Using a more direct and accurate drawing style around the painting, and leaving the drawing more visible, I found a way to get a very interesting illustrative style. The brushwork is also tighter, but what's really selling style is leaning into the illustration phase of the pieces. So far, all the pieces I've done have been presents for loved ones. If I keep at it, maybe some will be available for sale in the future. I hope you enjoy them.

I've been doing some form of "art" for as long as I can remember. I think it was around preschool when it all started. I say preschool because I think that was when I started having the ear aches that had me going to the doctor all the time. My doctor was fantastic and I had him for my entire childhood. I liked him so much I would draw things for him. My mom told me years later that he pulled her to the side after I had given him a drawing and told me she should encourage it as I showed a natural aptitude for it. So, she did as well as she could with no money, and thus an artist was born. By the time I hit puberty, I had already done every kind of art you could imagine from drawing to sculpture, from sewing to music. The only thing I hadn't gotten into was oil paint. I tried it once when I was about 17 and was frustrated by it. I didn't know anyone else doing it, and this was pre-internet. So, I left that paint-that-seemed-to-never-dry behind. Many years later--late 2024 to be exact--I picked it back up. My past forays into acrylics and watercolor did not prepare me for the complexity, versatility and joy of oils. I only wish I had started earlier.