I've been working on a series of florals from this group of fresh flowers that I picked up last week.  The flowers are absolutely beautiful and have been really inspiring me a lot.  I've painted 5 paintings so far and just did one today that I'm very proud of.  I painted it very quickly because I saw some rain clouds gathering and I finished it right before it started raining.
  I was telling my students this past week that there's really nothing more important than inspiration.  If you want to paint something that inspires you then you will enjoy it more and it will turn out better.  I encourage everyone to seek your own inspiration, whatever that might be.

  It's that time of year again and I'm ready to start teaching.  Throughout the summer it's nice to have a break and work on my own stuff, but I miss teaching.  I had a busy summer this year with my first semester of grad school at the Florence Academy and I gained a huge amount of information so that will now heighten my own style and way of teaching.
 My classes for this fall are drawing and watercolor and I'm teaching a new course called Advanced Drawing for the Ridgewood Community School.  I'm proud that I'm pioneering this new course for the school and that I can share a bunch of knowledge.  All my classes are always based on the principles and the craft of drawing and painting; I don't believe in tricks or special methods because there's no "exact method" of painting or drawing (there are many roads to Rome).  I also emphasis the importance of repetition and getting the hours of practice in to develop an individual approach; there's no shortcuts.
  I always feel very thankful that I get to teach this information because I truly love it: the history, methods, materials and everything is really a complete fascination and obsession for me.  Looking forward to a great semester!

  Well I have some exciting news that I've been keeping under my hat.  For the past 6 months or so I have been speaking with Mr. Raz Seri and Ms. Sharon Solomon from the Boulder School of Fine Art.  They told me that they were starting an atelier school in Massachusetts.  We kept in touch and eventually we discussed if I'd like to teach a landscape/plein air course and an art history course.  The Mass Academy of Fine Art is located in two beautiful studio spaces with north light; one in Somerville and the other in New Bedford.
  So this is all still pretty early and I'm not sure exactly when my courses will begin, but I'll update everyone as soon as I know.  It's a pretty exciting time in my life and I'm trying to really enjoy each moment as I pursue my two loves, painting and teaching.