The month began with a much anticipated class on painting the divine feminine in alignment with the new moon… a most creative time. Toward that end, I channeled my divine feminine in rich blues and greens. This is the forest goddess Tara. She was made from tears shed by her father and now she nurtures the forest by shedding and gathering her own golden tears into a lotus flower. She holds the renewing drops in the lotus flower until the forest claims them for growth and sustenance. Each month, for the next year, I’ll be creating the divine feminine in various forms. The theme this month was “holding”.

Mixing it up as usual, I made time for some oil, watercolor and mixed media. My female portraits are the most fun in oil, for sure!

The oil paint goes on like butter and I’ve taken to using a small palette knife to dip in and lay on a big bunch of color. It mixes well too! “Emerald Evening” was the result and she just reeks with elegance, right? She so inspired me, I had to do another, but this time a pink cow! I’m really digging this palette knife approach…

Sketches are selling well over in the ETSY store. To inspire my daily sketch habit, I purchased a new leather journal with delicate, handmade, Italian paper in a creamy, warm tone with deckle edges. I can go with soft pencil making the art look ephemeral or scratch in deep dark shades to make it more robust. The paper is light, like a thin wafer. So beautiful to work on. These photos just don’t show the paper well, but if you have the chance, I recommend trying some!

This month I also made it back to watercolor florals. It’s spring here, so I’ll probably dip the brush back into watercolors much more. I want to do some big ones; like a full sheet or 22×30 inches!

One of my collectors requested a diptych of sunflowers. I had to look up what a diptych is before I said yes! Historically, diptychs were 2 wood panels put together with hinges. The two panels faced each other and then opened like a book. Many of them were commissioned to sit on altars and some even were waxed to keep the painting protected…think Encaustic. This triggers more ideas for Encaustic over watercolor glued to a wooden cradle. Those might be fun!

Click any image to see more details, pricing, sizes about these works of art.