I hope you all are enjoying the end of summer and these days before the sun sets earlier and cooler weather moves in.  I wanted to share an article that I wrote for Oil Painters of America.  This article was recently published and revolves around the exploratory nature of artists, specifically plein air painters.
  I hope you enjoy the article and it gives you inspiration and ideas to take into your own practices - https://www.oilpaintersofamerica.com/2026/08/painters-are-explorers

  I missed a few days of updates because I was super busy here in Easton, but I wanted to write a final wrap-up post to summarize the week.
  All I can say is that Plein Air Easton was amazing from beginning to end.  It really is like the major leagues of plein air events with so many great artists, a fantastic staff behind-the-scenes and beautiful locations to paint.  Another thing that sets PAE apart from other events are the generous hosts who house the artists during the week.  I was staying at the beautiful Sandaway, which is a boutique hotel and then I moved for the last couple days to a charming cottage on a private estate.  Many thanks to my hosts who have become friends to me.
  Today and yesterday, I also linked up with the Vasari team at Troika Gallery in Easton.  I've been connected with Vasari for a little while now and it was great to see them in Easton, sharing their excellent paint with so many artists.
  I will end this post by sharing a story that I feel is a good metaphor for life.  When I first arrived, I planned to paint a boat painting.  I was thinking of all those great John Singer Sargent boat paintings that I love.  So I arrived and thought to myself, "I have all week to paint those boats, good thing there's plenty of time!"  Today, I woke up and realized that I'm leaving tomorrow and sure enough, I hadn't painted any boats!  It wasn't that I didn't want to paint the boats--I wanted to, but it seemed like I had all the time in the world.  Inevitably, life goes by whether I achieve my goals or not.  But as I'm getting a little older, I don't want to let anything slip by.
  Side note: I'm planning to be back at Sandaway in September to teach a workshop.  If you'd like to stay updated, check out my WORKSHOPS PAGE for more info!

  A habit that I formed early on is to take notes while I'm sketching.  These notes are often simple observations about where I am, what I'm sketching or something else descriptive.  I like to think of my sketchbook like a visual journal and it helps to include these extra descriptions.
  Sometimes I also like to include philosophical ideas that apply to my method; these ideas could be specific, but they usually apply to the larger idea of art making.

​Some recent notes include:
"Put all your thoughts aside and observe."
"Draw more with your eyes on the subject - less with eyes on your paper."
"Draw lace as if you were making it."
"Ease into it." (By this I mean to take it slow at the beginning of the drawing process.)