ballerina a human study

With the start of spring (even though it still feels like winter today), I find myself enjoying new adventures. In March I studied horses extensively to familiarize myself with their forms, movements, and personalities. I started my Sons of the Wind series in April, along with my first class for my Master's degree. I've been crunching time as I prepare for shows this spring and summer, continue to paint, and devote time to my school work.

As I work on my Sons of the Wind series, I am also pulled to study some human references in a similar manner to my horses in March. Unfortunately I can not devote the time to completing one a day, but will work on a couple a week in hopes to further my knowledge of the human forms, movements, and personalities. My daughter seems to grow in leaps and bounds and I have so many moments I want to forever capture in paint!

See, it is my personal belief that an artist can capture the feel and emotion of a moment in a way a simple photograph can not. At least us amateur photographers can not! Great photographers have a gift to see and enhance the images with programs like Photoshop. But as an artist, I can paint what I see and what I feel. I can create the illusion of movement with color and strokes.

Therefore, as I work on my ability to paint the human form or any other form, I am also working to perfect that capture of the moment. I want to leave my daughter and her children with colorful memories of her childhood. I want to show her that in both my eyes and God's eyes she truly is a work of art!