I just got a new travel sized watercolor painting palette from Holbein.  The palette is really beautifully made and comes in a variety of sizes; bigger sizes can hold more colors, but I opted for the 26 color version.  I haven't used the palette yet because I'm waiting for my watercolors to dry so they don't slowly drip down when I fold it up.  I bought mine from Dick Blick and it came really fast in the mail.  I was looking for a metal palette to carry around for plein air sketching and I can't wait to try this one out!

  I've been busy recently getting work ready for the upcoming show at Alfa Art Gallery.  I'm super excited about this show and can't wait to show some of my new watercolors.  My work for this show will be a series of plant studies and are all painted from life, which I'm very proud of.  
  You can read more about the upcoming exhibit HERE and you can see my profile on Alfa Art's website HERE!  Have a great day everyone!

  I haven't done a blog post in while, but I feel like now's a good time.  I've been experiencing a lot of development in my personal and professional life recently.  My professional life is going really well and I'm so thankful that I get to teach art to a wonderful group of students; it's really an amazing experience to be a full time teacher and artist.
 I've also been personally developing a lot in terms of my own artistic outlook and philosophy.  My main artistic goal now is to create paintings and drawings that reflect my own world in the present moment.  I don't see any purpose to creating paintings that reflect a world perceived through a camera.  And I know my own work is strongest when it's not just a copy of a photo.
 I'm gravitating away from a lot of online sources of entertainment also as a result of these feelings.  I still post on my instagram, but I foresee myself moving far away from that also.  It's a hard realization to come to because there seems to be a lot of benefit to having an online presence.  But I think it's only a vapid phantom and nothing more.  My only true success and growth has come from personal connections that I've made.  A lot of modern sources in my life feel just end up feeling shallow when I try and embrace them.  I know I'm the outlier here and I'm totally fine with that.