Art is so much more than just a picture. With many disturbing challenges in our world right now, it's a relief to come back to art-making. I let it wrap around me. Foremost is the calm that comes from sinking into the act of painting. It empties my mind of everything else. A mental and emotional mini-vacation. Looking at someone else's art works too. I get to experience wonder and awe, maybe joy, maybe shock, maybe transformation. Not all art has to soothe and beautify. Sometimes art is...

April Powers? Spring greetings! It's already April. I missed my March newsletter to you. Sorry. I don't know what happened to March this year. It was here one day, gone the next. I've been deep in studio, in one of those periods where I work and work, with a smattering of finished paintings to show for it. Some paintings simply take more time to make up their minds. I go with the flow, since it rarely works to force completion. It's best to back off, start a new work. Keep moving, stay in the...

Goodbye February, Hello March February is coming to a close. I wish we could see tonight's 6-planet alignment from here in Oregon's Willamette Valley, but it looks like we're overcast. Ah well, March is happening and spring is on the way. It's time to switch from armchair gardening to hands in dirt. And I have painting ideas bursting at the seams, so I'm happily tucking into the studio to nurture them. Someone asked me not long ago if I ever run out of ideas for paintings? Not so far. It's...