Ways to Stay Motivated

Latest Posts

The Relationship Between Self Permission and Excellence

One of the best things I do for myself as an artist is give myself permission to be awful, even at things I’ve done well in the past. I mean really awful, sometimes in full public view, not just in my studio.   I work at an art gallery, and have lots of conversations with… read more

Blunting the Impact of Negative Feedback on Your Work

It’s always painful when someone doesn’t like your work, or doesn’t respond in a positive way, or doesn’t respond at all. It happens all the time though. It took me many years to begin to differentiate between someone looking for a way in to what I do, and someone who just wants to stop me… read more

Painting to Feel Rich

I love the feeling making art gave me as a kid! I was mesmerized from the first moment I saw the paint colors and smelled the linseed oil. I loved setting up the wooden easel and the white painting panel, choosing my brushes, and figuring out what to paint.         Need Versus… read more

Radical Oils

About ten years ago I returned to oil painting after decades working on paper. I had built a career working abstractly, making prints and collages, but I hadn’t answered the original question I had as a child—how do da Vinci, Raphael, and Manet make the world look like that? Never answering this question seemed like a… read more

How I Developed My Oil Painting Technique

There’s a yellow house on Union Street in Brooklyn that I pass by every day on the way to my studio. I love this house! So cheery with its yellow steps, so inviting—and so odd mixed in with all the brownstones.   A Great Teacher Can Make All the Difference I took oil painting lessons… read more

FOLLOW