Finding delight in the simple things of life isn’t that hard when you are brought to a point where those things start to feel like luxuries. A lot of my life has been filled with varying degrees of abundance. It’s not that I didn’t notice or feel grateful but, on some level, I wasn’t able to fully appreciate all that I had. There was this consistent desire for more – which can really create disillusionment.

Since pursuing my art full-time and doing other side work to help support myself it’s brought new awareness toward my past experiences and how I live my life now. Life feels a lot less cluttered than it used to be and yet there is a rich fabric of design and patterning that upholds me.

It’s within the context of a still life painting that I most resonate with important parts of myself. There’s always the joy in creating but in a still life something more exists. Reconstructing and imagining from the heart what I am working with, whether it’s a red pepper or a piece of fabric, each element comes into the arrangement with some purpose. I don’t know what that is at the onset. That’s part of the adventure. It’s the experience of painting itself that allows the mystery to unfold and other beautiful complexities to emerge. For me, this is the only way!

Categories: New Paintings, Still Life, Still LifeTags: art, art and home, art collectors, art for sale, art gallery, colorful paintings, contemporary art, decorating with color, expressionism, fine art, oil paintings, painting, rendered impressions, still life paintings, women artists