Category: Art Process
The Rewards of Commitment
January 2, 2026
Every September and January I teach, “Drawing: The Right Approach”, a class for total beginners (though all experience welcome). At the start I suggest that the four most important things for ...
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How to Paint a Piano with 20 Kids
December 1, 2025
This November I was asked to paint a piano (an actual piano, not a painting of a piano) with the students enrolled in the Fine Arts eCademy (Fae) at NIDES (North Island ...
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At the Edge of Nowhere - Amber Painting
February 4, 2025
In this painting, Amber, a yellow-orange couch is resting in the middle of the Comox logging road. The setting is referenced from a blurry photo I took at dusk in winter. I ...
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Health Equals Creativity
January 5, 2025
To live a creative life, you don’t need an ideal working space, money to buy paint, a difficult past or to have been born with tons of talent. I think the main ...
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How Colour Makes Me Feel
August 29, 2024
I’ve often imagined that observing bright colours, especially in nature, was like taking vitamins. The neon green moss in the forest in February, an intense dark blue sky behind white snowy trees, ...
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The Creative Focus at MISSA
July 30, 2024
In hindsight, I can see that it was a random chain of events that led me to teach drawing at the Metchosin Summer School of the Arts (MISSA) this July.
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The Search for Treasure
May 1, 2024
A common stumbling block for artists is “not knowing what to draw, paint, write or sew etc…”. I have heard students or artist friends lament about this and I have been stuck ...
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Permission to Paint
March 3, 2024
I’ve always felt that I had permission to be an artist. Not in an official way, like I asked someone and they said it was ok – but in a way that ...
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Peace is in Patience
July 4, 2022
I think “patience” is an underrated, yet very valuable quality to have. Patience means being able to tolerate long periods of things not looking like they are progressing, or are like they ...
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How Decisions Factor in Art
May 3, 2022
I often mention to my drawing students that being an artist means you have to make art decisions. What to work on, when to work, how long, what subject matter; once you’re ...
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