Honored and very excited to be working with this brilliant company.  Click this photo below to read the article about how and why I use Natural Pigments products.  

  I'm quite excited because my order from Natural Pigments arrived today!  The shipping was fast as always!  I ordered a few items that I needed and some new things to test out.  All the items were beautifully and thoughtfully packaged; Natural Pigments even used old shipping receipt paper to pack the boxes.  That's really resourceful and I appreciate the thought put into it.  
  Another great touch is that the paint tubes were individually packaged with half pieces of biodegradable styrofoam used to keep the tubes safe.  There's nothing worse than getting a tube of expensive paint shipped and opening it to find that the tube is crumpled!  These tubes are immaculate and don't have any dents at all.

  As I said, I ordered a few tubes of oil paint and some supplies that I needed, but I also got some watercolors that I'll be testing out and doing a review of very soon.  I'm super excited to be using such beautiful products and I highly recommend Natural Pigments to anyone looking for quality products.  Have a great weekend everyone!

  I made a 2020 resolution to choose quality above all and it starts with companies like Natural Pigments.  It's easy to think that great materials will automatically make you a great painter, but it obviously requires dedication and years of practice; what's also true is that the materiality of painting is very important to the final result.
  Within the last few years, I've been becoming more and more of a purist when it comes to my materials.  I've long been a fan of 19th century paintings, which is why I was so happy to discover Natural Pigments.  I had the opportunity to meet the founders of Natural Pigments back in 2013 at a portrait painting conference in Philadelphia and they were some of the nicest, most knowledgeable and generous people I've met.  
  If you're interested in techniques and materials of the past (like me), then you'll be very happy to read through Natural Pigment's website.  And if you've ever had questions like: Do I need to wait six months for a painting to dry before I varnish it? then check out their resources page which has a link to technical articles to answer a bunch of painterly questions.
  Another reason I like their paint is because their pigments and paints are hand ground which results in larger particle sizes of pigment and ultimately a more luminous paint (this is especially important for watercolor painting).  Another important process is the way their watercolor pans are made, As it says on their website: "Unlike pan watercolors made with the extrusion process, Rublev Colours Watercolors are poured—a process preserving the integrity of each color and resulting in semi-moist cakes that respond instantly to a wet brush."
  I just purchased a set of watercolors which I'm eager to try out and write a review of.  Go check them out yourself and enjoy their amazing paint!!

  I was doing some painting last night and I realized again how much I love painting various textures.  The most amazing part of oil paint is the ability to transform one material into another, exactly like alchemy.
 The painting was all alla prima and took me about 3 hours to complete.  I'm a fast painter, but that was even fast for me to complete a painting.  I recently made a deal with myself that I will never rush a painting, if I feel like I'm rushing I put my brushes down and walk away; since this painting progressed from beginning to end, I didn't feel the need to walk away.  I feel like the speed also helps me because I don't end up overthinking areas and going back and muddling them up.
 It was also really fun to paint because I was really inspired by the color of the rum and the orange reflections that are created with light passing through the bottle.  Even though this painting only took a few hours, I was totally immersed and focused the entire time.  I've come to realize that the question of "how long did that take" is not an accurate reflection of the skill or quality of the painting.  
  Handling the smaller details such as the label on the bottle or the cap of the bottle was the only area where I used a smaller brush.  For those details I like to use small synthetic watercolor brushes, but the rest of it is larger bristle brushes.  And the details are actually pretty abstract when you see the painting close up.  I'm not sure if it's my own speed or laziness, but I always painted details in a shorthand sort of way.  I like suggesting a bit of detail, but I don't like laborious painting because it makes the painting feel lifeless in my opinion.  I feel like I captured a sense of space with this one and the light and textures are as accurate as I could make them.  Stay tuned for more soon!