Above photo credit: Jaylyn McFadden
My studio is the former taproom in an 1830s brick house in rural Vermont.
But my favorite studio is under the sky where I get started on most of my paintings. The French call this en plein air, meaning in the open air. My brother gave me an old easel and it accompanies me around the back roads and hillsides near my home. In 2022 I started painting from the bed of our old pickup truck (I saw the Irish artist Elizabeth Cope doing this on the pages of Faire magazine and had to try it). I spend the winter months finishing my summer paintings, and creating dreamscapes that are composites of the places I’ve been fortunate to go. I work in slow-dry acrylics by Golden Paints and use wide hardware store brushes and Rosemary artist brushes. Just love them!
From my journal
Underneath: Luminous Opera
Morning light creeps through the curtains around 5:30, and what's new is birdsong. There is still a crust of snow on the fields, but patches of grass are making a comeback—albeit matted, brown and littered with twigs, and less savory piles revealed after the...
Mudded In
Early spring is a test of visual deprivations. Scents are coming back on the breezes. The fug in the barn when we leave the house is damp wood, hint of tilth, awakening squirrel den, and thawing woodpile. Daffodils, lilacs and cut grass are at least a month...
Making a List of 50 Things
Today I opened up to a list of 50 Things I Love that I wrote back in the fall. Do you have a pen handy? If so, do yourself a favor, and write down 50 things you love. It is affirming and—if all goes well—you'll end up with a list of 58 or 62 or 75! The ones...
Follow Along
Want a little blue sky in your inbox?
I send emails when the stars align (every so often).
See Original Art Here
- Flower Festival Exhibit, Artistree Gallery, Pomfret, Vermont, through July 17
- Royalton Memorial Library, South Royalton, Vermont through mid August
- Bank Street Gallery, AVA, Lebanon (New Hampshire) ongoing
- First Branch Coffee (Vermont) ongoing
- In my home studio by appointment
Where I'm Teaching...
- Summer Workshops open for registration. More details here.
