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“Canvas & Conscience: Art in a Changing World"
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How Nature Painting Connects Us to Our Inner Landscape
What I've learned from years of hiking and painting is that the outside in the foothills is that it awakens the wilderness within us. That untamed part of our creativity, our authentic emotions, our connection to something bigger than ourselves needs regular contact with nature.
“Over the Barren Ground.” A Painting About the Weight Nature Carries
“Over the Barren Ground” is more than a figure—it's a metaphor for exhausted farmland. A visual reminder that nature is wearing down, quietly, beneath us. Living near the fields, I’ve seen the balance shift—fewer birds, vanishing bees, dry soil. This painting is that story in paint.
Why Climate Change Art Matters: When “Half-Measures” Aren't Enough
"Traditional plein air painting celebrates nature's beauty, but what happens when that beauty is under threat? Over years of regular observation, you develop instinctive awareness of environmental rhythms. This intimate knowledge becomes the foundation for authentic environmental art that captures both beauty and loss. With that thought you change how you paint, to reflect the emotional experience.
Painting a Place We’re Losing to Climate Change
In this blog post, we explore the meaning behind “Unfolding Fields,” a piece that speaks to my connection to nature, memory, and quiet reflection.This post reflects on how abstract art can embody memory, presence, and place. Each year, the land changes. This painting became a quiet call to protect what’s left.
Crop Rows Painting About Land, Pressure, and the Past
“Faultline Memory “ is an oil painting that reflects rural landscapes and the emotional layers found in farming life. It is a painting about land, pressure, and the stories held beneath the surface in farming communities. The thick texture and natural palette connect to rural memory and emotional resilience.
When Landscape Painting Becomes a Meditation on Journey
For me, this painting isn't just about capturing a beautiful scene but about exploring our relationship with challenging transitions. Nature provides the perfect metaphor—constantly changing, enduring, and ultimately finding pathways forward, even through the most difficult terrain.
Farming Inspired My Landscape Painting
In this blogpost I reflect on how creating my impasto landscape painting “Veins of Life” in a farm field taught me about the patience, risks, and resilience of farming life. Idraw parallels between the slow rewards of art and the daily gambles of nature.
“Borrowed Time” - Art and the Climate Crisis
As art mirrors the fragility of nature, Borrowed Time with its compelling strokes remind us that climate change is happening now and that thoughtful, committed individuals can spark meaningful change.
Resilient Fields: My Paint vs. Real Life
Creating art is a profession of hope. Every time I set up my easel at the edge of these fields, I'm betting on something beautiful emerging. This landscape isn't static. The fields are in constant change with the elements. The patterns show cultivation while the dramatic sky suggests nature's unpredictable response
“Pathways Unseen”: When Landscape Art Becomes Environmental Advocacy
As budget cuts to environmental programs deepen and protection of public lands weakens, many precious ecosystems hover on the edge of irreversible change. "Pathways Unseen," a textured impasto landscape, serves as both artistic documentation and quiet protest against environmental uncertainty. The hidden trails referenced in the title "Pathways Unseen" take on double meaning—they represent both the subtle contours of the landscape itself and the increasingly limited opportunities for people to experience these spaces firsthand. Each impasto brushstroke preserves what budget constraints threaten to erase.
Why I Paint the Same Sky Differently: My Textured Sky
So there I was, palette knife in hand, staring at a blank canvas. Again. The usual crisis - what to paint today? But then I remembered something I learned the hard way. Finding new stuff to paint is actually pretty boring. The real magic happens when you look at the same old thing but see it differently. So every morning I wake up and I see that sky changing. And I say thanks.
“Winter Harvest”: Painting the Wind’
Nature is never finished. When I paint the fields, I'm chasing a moment that's already gone. The way the wind sculpted the clouds and drove the crops into patterns like waves. Some people see landscapes as peaceful, but I see them as alive. They are always shifting, always breathing. Winter Harvest is about motion, not stillness. I paint the wind by painting what it moves. The field crops dancing below, the thunderheads building above, the clouds rolling like ocean swells.
Exploring Emotion Through Landscape Painting
"Geometric Harvest" captures the farmland on the outskirts of where I live with vibrant blues, greens, and geometric lines. Painted on unstretched canvas, it emphasizes the raw beauty of the landscape through its rough, uneven edges, blending impressionism and expressionism. This large-scale piece reflects my connection to the land, bringing a sense of calm and immersion. The vast fields and geometric crop lines draw viewers in, making them feel as though they are standing in the middle of the farmland. The pure colors mix in the eye, reflecting the landscape’s natural harmony and creating a vibrant, living scene. "Geometric Harvest" is about finding beauty in the everyday and capturing that feeling of being part of something bigger.
Wide Sweep: A Reflection on Art, Nature, and Chaos
Living by the ocean, with farmland just outside the city, gave me unique inspiration. Here is a stormy blur where land and sky collide. Blue is usually calm, but not here. This blue is restless and full of movement, capturing the chaos of storms across the fields. At 95 inches wide, this painting is like standing in the middle of a storm. It’s bold, alive.
The Studio Christmas Tree: A Holiday Tradition on Canvas
This year, I didn’t just want a Christmas tree in my studio, I needed one. Instead of hauling in a real or fake tree, I painted a 4-foot by 7-foot tree on canvas, capturing the festive spirit in an efficient, creative way. Forget needles on the floor, tangled lights, and curious pets; a painted Christmas tree is a pet-friendly, space-saving solution that you can roll up and reuse every year. It’s messy, vibrant, and totally unique. Just like the holidays. Every brushstroke of my painted tree tells a story, celebrating the messy, joyful spirit of the season. It’s imperfect in the best way, making it a cherished holiday tradition in my studio.
The Perfect Baby Gift – Why a Landscape Painting is Just Right
A landscape painting makes a unique and timeless baby gift, offering a personal and sentimental touch that a child can grow into. Imagine giving a baby their very first oil painting. It is a piece that evolves from nursery décor to a lifelong keepsake. Landscapes are calming, universal, and abstract enough to spark creativity. As a daily painter, I love creating textured, impressionistic pieces with palette knives that feel both meaningful and fun. Art is more than decoration, it is a connection, a gift that stands the test of time and grows with the child, sharing something meaningful beyond mere aesthetics.
Landscape Painting Process: Chaos, Lines, and Instinct
My landscape art process is driven by rhythm, instinct, and letting the canvas guide me, without following any rules. I paint anywhere—beaches, foothills, fields—because the location doesn't matter. It's all about the lines, colors, and the rhythm of the process. Painting is trial and error; I put paint down, move it around, and stop when I'm too tired to keep going, then grab another canvas.
A Cat's Critique: Finding Art in the Everyday
When your toughest art critic is a cat with opinions about mountains, you know you're in for an interesting day in the studio. Living on the edge of urban and rural life gives me a unique perspective; one day I'm painting cityscapes, the next I'm capturing the gentle roll of farmland that stretches just beyond our neighborhood. These solo painting trips are my form of meditation. It's just me, my easel, and the landscape—no phone notifications, no deadlines, just the quiet conversation between artist and nature, while my cat casts judgmental glances at my canvases.
Plein Air: Painting Feelings, Not Scenes
andscape; I’m in it, reacting to it. The sound of wind through the trees, the smell of the earth, or the way the sky shifts color as the sun drops—it all filters into my work. Even though the result might not resemble what’s in front of me, it feels like I’ve captured something real.
The Human Side of Painting Farmland in Impressionistic Style
What really touches me most is the human side of farmland. Winter and fall expose the bone structure of the land, and that’s what I love to capture in my art—the feeling of raw honesty that comes through those bare fields. When I paint a landscape, it’s not about copying the scene exactly. I want to capture the emotion, the meaning behind it.