Capturing Luminosity in Words and Images

Black Warrior Review: Fossil Fuel   Curled Up With a Good Book: Flight Patterns   Curled Up With a Good Book: Fossil Fuel    The New Precisionists    Brant Lyon’s Review of Fossil Fuel    

I fall in love with every painting I make. The my–heart–is–beating–so–fast kind of love. The I–know–this–one–won’t–disappoint–me kind of love. More than any other way of working, for me oil painting is a process of surrender and effervescent discovery.   The Love Affair Begins With the Blues This is the blocking in stage. I set up… read more

I loved when my kids were teenagers! I may be one of very few parents who enjoyed this stage, but there was something about the bravado and vulnerability that many teens project, at the same time, sometimes in the same moment! that fascinate me.   A Poem or a Painting Happens Every Day   I… read more

Dark skin makes me jumpy inside. There’s a vibration to very dark skin that sets me abuzz, that makes me hear things, taste things. A story begins in my mind about survival, about how to be dark in a world that chases light. How to be black in a culture that refutes the dynamism of… read more

There are three whites commonly used in oil painting—Zinc White, Flake White, and Titanium White. I prefer Titanium White, a warm, luscious color with superb mixing qualities.   White is the Thief of Intensity   Mixing white into a color robs the color of some of its power. It’s often necessary to do this to… read more

Many people have inner critics that ruin their fun, any kind of fun. The voice drills on and on—nasty, mean, super negative. I’m fortunate that my inner voice is soothing, kind, and infinitely playful. I’ve learned to always trust this voice.   Figure Out Who’s Painting   If you do enough painting, after a while… read more

Hi Danielle,    I’ve been fascinated by the painting Las Meninas since I was a little girl. The Infanta is such a magnetic figure. Everything in the painting seems to turn around her. She is perfectly placed—secure in her own brilliance.    The reason why I chose to re-paint Velazquez‘s Las Meninas was to put myself at… read more

Setting Up My Palette   I set out colors on my palette from dark to light. I start on the right with  magenta and cobalt blue as my darkest colors, then add permanent green, and so on until I reach titanium white all the way on the left.         Why No Black?… read more

Many years ago I studied oil painting with Andrew Reiss, a Brooklyn painter and instructor. A group of us set up our easels and painted together at his studio on Sunday afternoons. Andy would go from artist to artist, helping each of us perfect our skills. It was a warm, welcoming environment. We worked from… read more

As part of developing my oil painting technique, I created a series called Use in a Sentence, based on botanical prints, with their fine detail, and script that often provides genus and species. Use in a Sentence combines double meanings for words—for instance BEET (noun) and BEAT (verb), or CHARD (noun) and SHARD (verb), which… read more