January and February can be an unpredictable time in the studio. Some years these months are slow and experimental, and other years they’re a bit more hit-the-ground-running. So far 2025 has leaned more toward the latter, but in an energizing way that feels really refreshing. I wish I knew the secret formula that explains why certain months and years are more full than others, but for whatever reason I have a list of commissions I’m already working through as well as galleries to restock. I know things will slow down before too long, so I’m enjoying the full painting days while they’re here.
Per usual, if you’d like any more photos, videos, or pricing information about anything you see here just send me an email (or use the button below) and I’ll get back to you asap.
This painting was my way of revisiting another landscape I painted for Anne Irwin Fine Art early last year. I remembered that first painting flowing easily and having a loose movement to it that I can have a hard time replicating - it’s easy for me to overwork and end up with a much tighter style than I want. There’s nothing wrong with a tight style, but sometimes I just want that looser, more impressionistic feel. I definitely veered into slightly more detailed territory along the way, but ended up quite happy with the end result - a landscape with movement and whimsy that still feels peaceful.
Occasionally I start a new painting by essentially using the canvas as rag to clean my brushes while painting an entirely different painting. Does that make sense? I don’t remember which piece I was working on when I started swiping leftover dark green paint across the bottom corners of this 40x40 canvas, but before I knew it I had the base layers of a swoopy marshy landscape. I wanted to keep a more open/airy feel to this one and had to make myself not add mountains (I live in them so it feels second nature to have them in any landscape)!
My next self-imposed challenge was to make a river-inspired abstract. Not an abstracted river, but river-ish abstract. At some point in high school or college I realized the common denominator in classes I struggled with (like math) were that they all required specific answers that were either right or wrong, unlike English which gave an assignment that had an objective, but graded based on the creativity and clarity through which you arrived at that end point. This is why I love abstract painting - the objective is to create a painting that feels balanced and complete while remaining non-representational, but the means through which you arrive at that end goal has endless possibilities.
This was one of those magical ones that flowed effortlessly and I fell in love with immediately. This is SO RARE for me. I almost always have a point about 75% through the process where I’ve got problems to solve. Not with this little angel. I painted her from a photo I took this past fall in Acadia National Park at Jordan Pond, and she already has a new home with a fellow artist and Maine-lover in Pennsylvania.
A fun river commission (an abstracted river, not a river-ish abstract, I’d say) for a girl’s bedroom in Virginia! The most challenging part of this was probably the canvas itself. It was a non-standard custom size and for the life of me I could not find stretcher bars in the specific dimensions I needed that were 1.5” deep (as opposed to a 3/4” thickness that just feels dinky, IMO). So I had to get creative and order double the 3/4” stretcher bars, assemble two separate frames, then fix them together to make one 1.5” thick frame, then stretch and staple the raw canvas around the bars before gesso-ing and starting to paint. Overall a delightful commission for a lovely client. And truly custom from tip to tail!
I still need to re-stretch that landscape on linen in the far right of the main photo at the top of this post, but will hopefully get to that this month. Also, those two wood panels in the top left are primed and ready for an oil landscape commission I’m super excited about - I don’t often get oil commissions so this will be a fun departure.
My trusty courier, Jamil, will be at the studio any day now to pick up all the paintings and deliver them to galleries far and wide, so if you see something ya want, let me know soon!
As always, thanks for being here and reading about everything I have in the making.