In the beginning of painting while in college, I steered away from painting in oils due to being so easily dizzied by all the fumes in the studio, and too easily smearing the paint inadvertently with my resting palm.

My daughter who was not very interested in art or painting most of her life, aside from street painting each year since she was eight… suddenly fell in love with painting in oils as a teenager when she worked at an art supply store and brought samples home. She kept encouraging me to try the unscented oil paints from Gamble, as I had set up a studio section for her in our garage.

In 2006 through my sister’s encouragement, I sought out teachers and luckily discovered Armand Cabrera before he moved across the country. I attended many of his painting demos. And I discovered the fantastic art of Plein Air painting, which was a great way to be outside in nature while painting and it was an awesome practice for learning how to paint faster.

My Plein Air paintings are all originals done on site in one day. They are much looser strokes as they happen and are completed in a few hours.

I have done a few larger oil paintings from my own photos. I work on them outside in my patio… but without a well ventilated indoor studio to work in year round, painting a larger painting that is harder to protect over a long period of time, is rare.

The portrait was done live, in a class at a museum studio, over five days.