The American West is a place of incredible beauty and mystique. Western landscapes are uniquely stunning, with mountain vistas, multicolored canyons, wide open spaces, and a color palette all their own. This week I’m introducing three new paintings based on my travels out west, so if you’re a fan of western art, this may be your week! From our first vacation after our honeymoon in 1980, all the way up to 2001, our family car only knew one path to vacation time… due south to Florida! Eventually, we realized that our little family had just a few more years before…

Happy Sunday, everyone! I hope you enjoyed some of the warm weather we had last week before the rain came. I am very excited because all of our hard work on our gardens has really paid off. My flowers are blooming like crazy, and every day I feel joy when I look at their brilliant colors and inhale their glorious scents. I’m enjoying it this weekend, because I’ll soon be busy with a new project. (Not ready to talk about it quite yet – but I’ll tell you all about it next week!) You may remember that since the arrival…

Since we last talked, I’ve had quite a busy, fun, and eventful week… with a few surprises along the way! First, I added the enhancements to my artist-enhanced giclee prints of “Lincoln Highway’s Historic Ship Hotel” and brought them to my framer (Lee Heckman Gallery in Mt. Lebanon). Then on Tuesday, Tom, my grandgirls, and I drove out to Beaver to the Courtney-Laughlin Gallery and Frame Studio, to pick up the original painting now that it’s framed and ready for my customer. I just had to get a photo of Tom and the girls with the painting… especially considering they were already painted into…

After over a year of COVID isolation, who isn’t ready to just pack a bag and get away for a little while… but still maybe a little anxious about getting back out into the world? That was the case for Tom and me last weekend. Though we’re now fully vaccinated and reasonably safe, we were still cautious about our visit to Raystown Lake. So we rented a cabin and didn’t interact much with anyone but our dearest friends (also fully vaccinated), whom we hadn’t seen since 2019. Our cabin was very rustic – just a step up from camping. This…

I hope you and your families are healthy and enjoying the recent Spring weather and getting outside a little more as the temperatures warm up. I’m writing you today with a special request – I need your help to create my new art products line for the coming year. Due to the pandemic and the tough economy in 2020, I’m sorry to say that some of my supplier partners didn’t make it. For that reason, some of my popular items are no longer available. But while it’s sad that this has happened, I’m looking at this setback as an opportunity…

This week I’m officially announcing the release of my new painting, “Lincoln Highway’s Historic Ship Hotel.” When I last showed you my progress on the painting, it didn’t seem like there was a lot more to do to finish it.  It was pretty much done except for just the road itself… I mean, how hard is to paint some pavement? Actually, the road is central to the theme of this painting. The Lincoln Highway brought people to this particular spot… from sightseers who had heard about this unique landmark, to motorists who just happened to be driving by and pulled over…

My plan on Wednesday was to take pictures of my backyard garden, as some of my readers have asked about it. I was all set with beautiful, artfully composed photos of every detail… so many photos, in fact, that you might have died of boredom. Then something unexpected happened… an odd late-season snowstorm! What did you think of this sudden throwback to Christmas? I was like a kid on Christmas morning!  I knew it would only last a few hours, so I couldn’t resist running around my garden, taking pictures of my beautiful blooms covered with snow. Here are photos…

I hope all of you had an enjoyable holiday weekend. Between Easter celebrations and working hard on my painting of the Ship Hotel, it’s been a very busy week for me and my family.  Easter is such a pretty time of year as the trees begin to sprout tiny green leaves, and flower buds are opening, scenting the air with their fragrance. Yet amid all this springtime fun, my granddaughter Autumn is still obsessed with Santa. “Ho-Ho-Ho!” is her favorite phrase, and she never gets tired of talking about Santa and what he might be up to. Remember the Jolly Old…

From my family to yours, Happy Easter!  We’re not even going to talk about the fact that it’s freezing outside. It’s almost like Mother Nature is saying, “Ha ha! April Fools!”  Regardless of the weather, we’re looking forward to a beautiful Easter weekend as we reflect and enjoy. This last week was filled with delightful days of painting the Ship Hotel. I think the sky in this piece may be my most exciting one ever! I was tickled pink as I applied each layer, running up and down the steps to my studio between sessions, as my inner art critic screamed…

Spring officially arrived this week and brought some warmer weather with it, so I’ve enjoyed spending a lot of time outdoors working on my garden. After I took the first spring photo (above), I went on to clean both the front yard and the back yard to get it ready for mulch. I’m thinking Tom and I may lay all the mulch ourselves this year instead of hiring a landscaper. The front yard won’t be so bad, but the back yard is four times the size. So no promises… let’s see how we do! We’re looking forward to the blooming…