There’s a little bit of everything going on lately. Some sketching, a few color experiments, a visit back to my old school district, and some plans for workshops and travel. I’ve also taken a little time away from painting. Not because I’ve run out of things to paint, but because every now and then I need to step back, shuffle things around, and see what interests me next.

Here’s a look at what I’ve been up to.

An Upcoming Gouache Workshop

I’ve been working on a one-day workshop introducing the essentials of gouache. It will take place in person in Liberty, Missouri, on January 30 and will be limited to 15 seats. More details will follow once everything is finalized.

Gouache has been enjoying a resurgence of interest among artists, and I’m happy to see it. I’ve used the medium for a lot of years, particularly for painting on location. It has some wonderful qualities, along with a few quirks that can keep you on your toes. I think it’s a great medium to explore, whether you’re an experienced painter looking for something different or a beginner just getting started.

The workshop will be designed to give participants a practical introduction without getting bogged down in too much theory. We’ll work through a series of short exercises, starting with the basics of paint consistency, layering, color mixing, and brushwork. We’ll use a limited palette and a large brush, which is a good way to concentrate on the important things without getting distracted by detail. Along the way, we’ll experiment, make a few corrections, and learn how to work with the medium rather than fight it. We’ll finish by creating a small guided painting that brings those ideas together.

My approach is to discover, experiment, organize, simplify, and then paint. It’s a good way to learn gouache, and a pretty good way to approach painting in general. The goal is for everyone to leave with a better understanding of how the paint behaves and enough confidence to keep exploring on their own. Beginners are welcome.

I’ll share registration information as soon as the host has finalized the registration details.

A Little Random Sketching

I was getting a little worn out from so much painting, so I took a couple of weeks off. I’ll be back at it soon enough. In the meantime, I’ve been doing a lot of random sketching. Some of it has been street sketching around my little town, while much of it has involved exploring the rural landscape and the places around home. I’ve been switching between quick pencil sketches and more energetic marks with water-soluble crayons. Nothing particularly organized. Just a lot of scribbling and looking around.

I don’t know whether I’ll revisit any of these sketches with paint. Some may turn into something more, and others may simply remain what they are. That’s fine. Sometimes I need to get a little drawing out of my system before I can think about doing anything else.

I also don’t think I can overstate how much I value simple thumbnail sketches. A few vertical and horizontal lines can do a remarkable amount of work when it comes to designing a composition (see top of post.) They don’t have to be elaborate. In fact, the simpler the better. A few lines can establish the big shapes, the balance, and the movement before I ever think about color.

A few nights ago, I couldn’t sleep. So I got up, pulled out my water-soluble crayons, and revisited some simple landscape designs I’d penciled out a few months earlier. I worked through several variations, mostly thinking about the arrangement of shapes and the relationship between land and sky. It was a nice way to spend a sleepless stretch of the night. I sometimes wish Caran d’Ache made these crayons in a really large diameter. I’d buy them.

Back to Stocksdale Park

Honestly, at first I couldn’t even remember exactly when I’d painted this study or what had prompted me to set up there! (Yes, it’s been that sort of month.)

I’d returned to the park after winning Best of Show with a different painting from that location during the Liberty plein air event. I had some musings about color I wanted to explore, particularly with regard to greens. Greens have been giving me a little trouble lately. I know that’s a pretty broad statement, but there are so many ways to approach them, and I haven’t been entirely satisfied with what I’ve been getting.

This little study was painted right off the parking circle in Stocksdale Park. The sun was still fairly high, but it was beginning to move toward the horizon. As I sketched, the shadows quickly grew longer and the relationships between the light and dark shapes became more apparent. I had recently added a few colors to my palette, although I couldn’t tell you exactly which pigments they were now. The funny thing is, I don’t think I used them much anyway.

I was still thinking about color, though. And that led to a few further experiments.

Some Bright Ideas

My usual approach to a gouache painting is fairly predictable. I rough in the important shapes with a crisp round brush, then establish the darkest areas with burnt sienna and ultramarine. Once those dark shapes are dry, I can work lighter, more opaque colors over them. It’s a strategy that works very well with gouache. It gives me a kind of Notan structure to build upon, and it helps keep me thinking about value and the big shapes before I get too involved with color.

For my next experiment, I decided to eliminate that step. I wanted to see whether I could get brighter, more luminous color by working directly on the paper rather than first establishing those dark shapes. That meant sketching with a pencil instead of a brush, and I found the change awkward. I was a little disoriented without that familiar dark framework to guide me.

The colors did glow, though. There was a certain transparency to the painting that reminded me more of watercolor than what I usually think of as opaque gouache. It was interesting, and I liked some of what I was seeing. But I wasn’t entirely convinced.

For a third experiment, I went back to my usual Notan skeleton and added several more colors to the palette. I included both warm and cool versions of red, blue, and yellow. That’s a considerably broader range than I’m accustomed to working with. My usual palette has been reduced to four tubes, so you can imagine what happens when I suddenly put all those extra choices in front of myself.

This little color sketch was based on a pencil drawing I’d made a couple of days earlier. I found myself thinking much more about color than value, which is not where I usually want to be. I’m so accustomed to working with a limited, Tonalist-informed palette that all this brightness has me second-guessing everything. Is it working? Is it awful? Does it look like something out of a comic book? I honestly can’t tell yet. For now, I’m keepin’ it loose. Tryin’ out some brighter color. And tryin’ not to panic because all that color scares the crap out of me!

I’m going to need a little time to absorb what I’m seeing. That’s part of the point of these experiments, I suppose. Not every painting has to be a success. Sometimes it’s enough to ask a question and see where it leads.

Back to School

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of visiting Maplewood Elementary, where I brought along a few of my painter and sketcher friends. I’ve been retired from teaching and fine arts administration for two years now, but every so often I get an opportunity to revisit that part of my life.

One of my former colleagues, Josh House, reached out and asked if I’d be interested in returning to do a painting demonstration. He was intrigued by the idea of inviting working artists and sketchers to the school grounds to make art on site, giving the students a chance to see artists at work. The autumn plein air season was winding down, which meant a few of us could finally come up for air after spending the past couple of months following the painting circuit.

I invited Judy Coe, Peggy Wilson, and Denny Dowdy to join me. It was a good group, and we had a great morning. They say you can’t go home again, but I got a chance to dispute that one. I was back in my old school district, surrounded by familiar places and a whole new crop of kids.

I had a blast. We painted and sketched, answered questions, handed out high fives, and taught a few students the secret art department handshake. I didn’t come close to finishing my painting, but that really wasn’t the point. The kids got to see colors being mixed, brushes in action, and paintings taking shape. They also managed to avoid stepping on my brushes, which I consider a pretty good result. And, of course, they learned that I’ve been painting for approximately 155 years.

I’m usually a pretty fast painter, but I also enjoy being a bit of an entertainer. That’s one of the things I loved about teaching. I found myself working much more slowly than usual, stopping every few minutes to talk with groups of fifteen or twenty students at a time. I probably could have finished the painting if I’d concentrated on it, but I was having too much fun interacting with the kids. Besides, I suspect they got more out of seeing the process than they would have from watching me rush to the finish.

It was a good reminder of how much I still enjoy sharing what I do. Retirement hasn’t changed that very much.

A Few Travel Plans

I have several irons in the fire when it comes to travel. We’re definitely planning a trip to Costa Rica toward the end of 2026, and I’ll be painting in Ireland in the middle of 2027. There are a several other possibilities for 2027 that haven’t been confirmed yet, so I’ll save those details for another time.

Teaching continues to be an important part of what I do. I recently had an opportunity to join my artist cousin Amanda, who mentors a group of studio artists each week. I enjoyed sharing some of the plein air tools I use, along with a few sketching tools that were unfamiliar to them. We also spent some time looking through sketchbooks and talking about the value of drawing as a way to work out ideas before starting a painting. A sketch doesn’t have to be a finished piece of art. Sometimes it’s simply a place to think on paper.

I’ll also be traveling out of state in a couple of weeks to teach a workshop on sketching the figure in motion. I can’t share the details of that event just yet, but I’ll have more to say about it later.

So, although I’ve taken a little time off from painting, I haven’t exactly been sitting still. There’s plenty to think about, a few new things to try, and some interesting places on the calendar. That’s probably enough to keep me busy for a while.

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Hey, everyone! Things are getting updated on the website galleries. New work is getting added to the 2026 Plein Air Gallery soon, as well as a fresh batch of graphite work in the From the Sketchbook Gallery.