The original plan was to paint these paintings in 30 days, but I didn’t for two main reasons. 1. I suck at painting alla prima, and 2. I fell in love with my subjects and wanted to do them justice. So I decided to finish one painting a week, which sounded a lot more…
Author: Amber
Setting Up a Pepper Still Life for Painting
Painting from life is a great way to keep those observational skills sharp and is a useful skill to learn. It is a tool that should be in every artist’s tool box right next to photography. All throughout my artistic career I’ve always created from both life and photos and used them interchangeably. Right now,…
The Complete Artichoke Trio
I’m pleased to announce the completed artichoke trio. Painting artichokes is a lot of fun, and by fun, I mean work. But people love them, so I will probably paint a few more eventually. For now though, I’m going to stop at 3. Two of the three have already sold. If you have your…
Negro Bill Canyon
The hike up Negro Bill Canyon to Morning Glory Arch in Moab is a really beautiful 4 mile round trip hike. The trailhead recently got a name change to Grandstaff Trailhead, but the canyon itself is still named Negro Bill Canyon. I read somewhere that a name change for the canyon is currently being…
The Long Awaited Second Artichoke
Well, I told you I’d paint more artichokes eventually, and here they are. For whatever reason, people seem to absolutely love the artichokes. Maybe it’s because the hearts are so tedious to paint. Getting all of those thin lines perfectly shaded is a serious pain, but worth it. The first artichoke sold before I started…
Porcupine Ridge
This is one of my favorite photos lately. It was taken from our campsite on Porcupine Ridge and overlooks Castle Valley, Utah. I’ve entered it in a calendar photo contest and would love to win. The competition is steep and I could use your help. You can help me out by voting for my…
The Complete Yellow Onion Series
Here it is, the complete yellow onion series! While I did really enjoy painting these onions, I’m also really glad I’m done for now. I’ve discovered that yellow onions are hardly yellow at all. There was far more pink and orange than I expected. The completion of the onions is also one giant step…
Genesee Country Village
I was apparently still in still life mode on a recent visit to the Genesee Country Village and Museum in Mumford, New York. Most of my photos consist of all of the beautiful old paraphernalia people used to keep in their homes. It is a beautiful living museum with actors portraying the people who…
The Last Yellow Onion
I’m relieved to be done with onions for the moment as this set of 9 onions is now finished. They’re really interesting to paint and far more colorful than I expected. Though, at times I was thoroughly annoyed with all of those colors. For instance, this one has pink, orange, yellow, brown, and purple…
Photographing Lightning
Call me silly, but I’m super excited to have finally captured my first lightning photos. These were taken on a whim. It was storming a few nights ago as I was getting ready for bed so I decided sleep could wait. Since I hadn’t prepared in advance, it took me almost the entire time…
8th Yellow Onion Finished
For some reason, I thought it was Tuesday all day today. I very leisurely varnished this painting and set it aside to dry. Then tonight as I put the kids to bed, realized that it was in fact Thursday and I hadn’t taken any photos or written a blog post.Total fail. Better late than…
Bear Sighting
On a drive up to the mountains with my husband and kids last weekend, we got to see a sow and two cubs right from the road. This was my first ever bear sighting in Utah. I watched one of the cubs climb down from the tree it was in before running off with…