I am so excited to announce that you can now purchase custom pet portrait commissions through Ramapo-Bergen Animal Refuge, INC (RBARI)'s online SHOP. When you purchase a commission through RBARI's shop, 20% of the commissions cost will go directly to RBARI to help rescue animals.  Your commission will also be a tax deductible expense.
​  We're offering both watercolors and oil paintings in standard sizes.  If you have any questions, please reach out and we'll be happy to answer them.

  So I was working on a commission today and really doing battle with it and it all became so clear to me.  I've been looking for ways to make painting easier and I've realized that it's NOT easy and it never will be.  
  I was working on this commission and really struggling.  I haven't done a pet commission in a bit and it seemed extra difficult.  I kept pushing and sweating and it finally turned a corner and looks good to me.  It's like the magic of a painting is buried somewhere in a pile of hard work and that's a hard thing to accept; I think the media in our society is always telling us ways to do something more efficiently and faster ("one weird trick!"), but that doesn't apply to the craft of painting.
  I'm very hard on myself and I demand perfection out of my work.  I don't mind walking through hell to get the painting done.

  A list of a few principles of art that I want to remember for the future:
-Painting and drawing: Broad to narrow, big picture to detail
-Presence in the moment of creation
-Don't worry too much about technique
-Just draw or paint and enjoy
-Do my best
-It's difficult sometimes but that's okay
-Let the painting tell me what should be thickly painted and what should be thinly painted.
-Be myself and keep practicing <3