Hello again, I’m back after some significant milestones in my life over the past few months. I am happy to get back to painting and blogging.

I continued my theme of animal skulls and flowers, my Vibrant Decay series. The series now has 9 in total pieces. I got some metallic copper and gold paints, and so far they really stand out!

I am working on updating my website and showing my artwork in an exhibit, so fingers crossed for me and I will update this blog once I have more details.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1266838032/bear-skull-and-blue-hydrangea

Hello everyone! I’m continuing with my Halloween themed paintings, and I bring you bats! Bats are my favorite animal. They are cute, fluffy, usually very tiny…and get such a bad reputation because of the diseases they carry. These paintings of bats are perfectly safe to hang in your home though, just in time for Halloween.

The top painting, Bats and Flowers, is of little brown bats or Myotis lucifugus. These bats are native to the Pacific northwest and north America in general. They are currently endangered.

The bottom painting, Bats in a Pumpkin Patch, is of California Leaf-Nosed bats or Macrotus californicus. They are threatened by habitat loss, but their population is still stable right now. They are native to North America and Mexico.

As always, these paintings are available in my Etsy shop! The originals of Bats in a Pumpkin Patch and Bats and Flowers are available at 9×12 size. The prints of Bats in a Pumpkin Patch and prints of Bats and Flowers are available at 11×17 size.

The title says it all, spooky season has arrived! Halloween is my favorite holiday, and fall is my favorite season. I’m having fun painting skulls and getting into the spirit of the season, with decorations to come in October…

For my newest piece, “Skulls and Cardamom Extract,” I wanted to try and challenge myself. My partner and I have started making our own extracts from fresh herbs and spices, and I thought it would be fun to paint the extracts in the mason jars as they develope! I had never painted glass before so this was a first for me.

The skulls are my own (resin and plastic) collection at home. I think the resin demon skull is my favorite so far. It is very glossy in real life, and I was hoping the highlights would reflect that.

I set up a still life with the skulls and Cardamom, photographed it on my phone, and then printed out a black and white photo of my still life. It was fun and challenging adding color to a grayscale reference. The marigolds and night sky were entirely imagined, I didn’t end up using a reference for those.

I hope you enjoy my newest piece, thank you for reading! As always, “Skulls and Cardamom Extract” is available for sale at my Etsy shop, where you can also find 17×11″ prints.

Hello again everyone! I’m excited to announce two new additions to my Vibrant Decay series, “Deer Skull and Blue Columbine” and “Coyote Skull and Bumblebees”!

“Deer Skull and Blue Columbine” was inspired by my love of skulls and antlers. I admire the graceful way antlers curve up out of the skull; my first still-life painting in college was of a deer skull in fact! The blue Columbine flowers surround the skull, inside and out.

“Coyote Skull and Bumblebees” is one of my new favorite pieces of work! Before adding the paint, I created sections of sculptural form using Liquitex Modeling Paste. I applied the paste in multiple thin layers to create a raised, textured effect. I highly recommend this paste, it is very easy to work with and resists cracks if you wrap the piece in shrink wrap or plastic wrap to dry.

The piece itself was inspired by my garden. I planted a small vegetable garden in the dirt plot in front of the apartment, and am hoping bees will arrive soon to pollinate. The flowers are modeled after some from the garden, and the coyote skull is modeled after a resin replica I have here at home.

As always, thank you for reading! Both Coyote Skull and Bumblebees and Deer Skull and Blue Columbine are for sale in my Etsy shop!

I recently finished “Human Skull and Roses” this week. The piece measures 12×16″ on cradled panel, made with oil paints. I added heavy modeling paste to create a 3D texture.

This was my first time experimenting with modeling paste, and I really enjoyed working with it! I created a sculptural surface with the paste, and then painted over the dried surface with oils. I wanted to see what I could do with creating depth and texture in my work. I think the skull came out well, and am especially proud of the texture of the roses.

This piece actually sat in my drawer for a couple of years before I finished it; it survived 5 moves to different houses and took about 3 years total to complete. This was mainly due to my battling mental illness and being between homes for an extended period…but this piece always made it with me to the next place I was couch crashing.

I had always admired the many layers of petals on roses, and wanted to create that depth with the modeling paste. I added metallic gold paint to give this piece an extra flair.

This piece is already sold, so it does not appear on my Etsy shop. Feel free to check it out on my Instagram!

“Befriend Your Demons” is an illustration I made in 2020 during the first covid-19 lockdown. It is marker and graphite on 11×14″ bristol board.

The work features a demon and scarecrow surrounded by corn and flowers, with the text “Don’t run from your demons…instead, befriend them.” The text and images were inspired by my continuing recovery in therapy. The inner world of my mind is populated with characters, such as the scarecrow, Jeremy and demon, Crimson.

This drawing shows the progress I have made in therapy. Jeremy was originally on fire, and had his eyes and mouth sewn shut at the beginning of my therapy journey. After years of progress, Jeremy can control the fire and open his eyes and mouth. The flames that once scorched the inner world have been turned into flowers. This progress was accomplished through hard work of learning to love myself and set boundaries, an ever evolving process. I learned to listen to the voices I hear and help meet their needs, as they are parts of myself.

One of my long term projects is writing a book about my therapy journey. Artwork that I used to heal, like “Befriend your Demons” will be included in the book!

If you like “Befriend Your Demons” consider checking it out in my Etsy shop, or on my Instagram!

It’s finally finished! The newest piece of work in my Vibrant Decay series is varnished and fully finished.

This piece features a racoon skull surrounded by dandelions. There are blue and purple shadows as a background. The work is done in oil paints and measures 9×12″.

Racoon Skull and Dandelions is the first painting version of my Vibrant Decay series. I was excited to work with neutral colors in my composition, for the skull. I wanted to see if I could achieve the same level of detail (or more) with my painting as I have had with my drawings. I think it was a success, the skull ended up very lifelike!

The background is a mixture of shadows and light. I wanted the light source to be dappled, and tried to focus on the shapes of light and dark. I wanted the shadows to be random, to make the background interesting and chaotic.

Thanks for visiting my website! You can find Racoon Skull with Dandelions on my Etsy.

Welcome to my website and blog!

These blogs are a tool for highlighting a new art piece or series of pieces.

For this post I would like to highlight my oil painting “Cloud Gazing,” pictured below.

This work is on 11×14″ canvas board. I used galkyd medium for fast drying, thin layers of oil paints. I always begin each project with a drawing on separate paper, fleshed out with markers and pens.

The demon, Crimson, and his scarecrow friend, Jeremy, lay in a field of daisies. Above them are pink clouds in a blue sky. The highest cloud has a castle on top.

My composition for Cloud Gazing was based on triangles. For example, Crimson, Jeremy, and the bush form a triangle. The bush, the mossy rock, and Jeremy form another triangle. I organized the composition this way because it creates a stable pattern for the viewer’s eye to follow across the whole piece. With this method, objects are staggered and active so that the piece is interesting to look at.

I take great inspiration from Vincent Van Gogh’s use of colors. I love bright, saturated color palletes. For Cloud Gazing in particular, I wanted the colors to be whimsical and childlike. A floating cloud castle is pretty whimsical. I based most of the pallete off of the purple clouds and the bright red of the demon.

Thanks for checking out my blog! If you’re interested in Cloud Gazing you can view it on my portfolio page, and purchase in my Etsy shop!