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Recent Posts
- Playful Art Liberates! August 15, 2026
- Lower the (Paper) Bar and Bring on the Fun July 14, 2026
- Painting: Is it a Noun or a Verb? May 18, 2026
- My visit with Erik Koeppel May 2, 2026
- Art History: Is it about the Artist or about the Art? April 9, 2026
- You Won’t Know Until You Try February 8, 2026
- When you Know Better, but don’t DO Better January 28, 2026
- The Gentleman Farmer from Newark: Part 2 December 8, 2025
- The Secret is to Make Practice Effortless November 8, 2025
- An Inch Made All the Difference October 31, 2025
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Category Archives: Nuts & Bolts & Magic
When ‘Oh Well’ feels good
I wrote a blog post draft a week ago, knowing full well it would never see the light of day. In it I was able to wail and rant and despair and simmer down and finally see the point in … Continue reading
Posted in 3- Magic: Art Epiphanies, Cartoons, Musings on Life, Watercolor
Tagged Creative Habit, Inspiration, Perseverance, Watercolor
8 Comments
In your heart you know
That expression, “In your heart you know” was said to me over twenty-five years ago by a man who was refusing to cooperate. At the time I had a big decision to make. I had weighed all the pros and … Continue reading
“Onward Through the Fog!”
As I said in my last post, sometimes you have to be willing to close one door before you can open another, even if that means standing in the dark hallway alone for a while. The hallway’s not so bad … Continue reading
Posted in Musings on Life, Pencil sketching, Sketchbooks, Watercolor
Tagged Beginnings, Creative Habit, Looking
5 Comments
Knowing when to quit
My intention when I wrote that title was to simply talk about watercolor painting: specifically, how do you know when to stop fiddling with your painting and call it good. As soon as I typed the title, though, I realized … Continue reading
Posted in Musings on Life, Watercolor
Tagged Beginnings, Creative Habit, Inspiration, Perseverance
5 Comments
Taking stock of the soup we are in
A year ago today, on Christmas Eve, I was in the midst of my second right-eye retinal hemorrhage. For decades I have had no sight whatsoever in my left eye, so this new development was pretty scary. I hadn’t driven … Continue reading
Dowsing for the Ultimate Watercolor Secret
This morning I was working on a lesson plan for my next Sketchbook Adventure Club class this Saturday (theme for the day will be ‘Watercolor 101’), and honestly, I was struggling. I had way too much to say, insights into … Continue reading
My roots are made of celluloid
I was born in the early 1950s and cannot remember a time when I wasn’t swooning over cartoons. The ones that my generation grew up with were crafted by Warner Brothers’ Looney Tunes, Disney, and Hanna-Barbera. These were our versions … Continue reading
Posted in 1- Nuts: Graphic Styles, Cartoons, Musings on Life, My Story, Watercolor
7 Comments
I just finished a sketchbook
When you are using a 160-page sketchbook, as well as two other ‘specialty’ sketchbooks, all at the same time, it is a big deal when you Finish A Sketchbook. Why three at once you ask? Simple. 1) I want one … Continue reading
Globetrotting as a Local Sport
Living about an hour away from a large, relatively old city means I can go there, I don’t have to go there, so I rarely go there. You can know intellectually that you are near a goldmine, but gee, it takes effort to grab … Continue reading
It’s all about the P.A.U.S.E.
Two days ago I taught my last marathon art class for the foreseeable future. It was not my last art class, not by a long shot. But I won’t attempt to do another five-hour-straight “everything you need to know to … Continue reading