I am not the type of person who loves to go shopping. If I do, I have a list, and I get in and out as quickly and as efficiently as possible. I probably have my mom to thank for that - in our book, efficiency is key. Whether it’s for clothes, shoes, makeup, what have you, shopping in general is just not something that I particularly love. But take me to an art store…and hope that you can get me to leave. Most of my art shopping experiences happen online, and even then, I could spend hours deciding which new paints to try, which size canvas to try out, or if I really do need that new set of watercolors (Hint: I totally do.)

I am so excited to share something that I’ve always been wanting to do with my art - prints & paper goods!! One of my very first art purchases was a Teil Duncan Fine Art print. She is an artist I look up to in so many ways, and when I graduated from college, I wanted to treat myself to a piece of her art to mark the occasion. The only product of hers that was in my budget was a print. A fine art print is a high-quality reproduction of a piece of original art. I was so proud to feel confident in purchasing my own piece of art, and that print still hangs in my home to this day!

Oil painting, along with most art-making techniques, is an ancient practice. It’s story goes way way back, yet there are always new lessons to learn. My role in the history of oil painting is small, but I am privileged to tell its story. As an artist in the 21st century, I have access to certain programs and devices that help me write the story of oil painting in a modern age. Below are some of my favorite tech items that make my life easier, more efficient, and so much more enjoyable!

When I was a little girl, my best friend and I would play in the backyards of each other's houses and make what we called "mixtures." These concoctions were made up of pretty much anything and everything you could dump into a bowl and mix until combined. We would raid pantries, dig up dirt and leaves, and always built a story around what this specific mixture was meant for. Sometimes it had healing powers, other times it was "dinner" (Note: we never, ever actually consumed any of these mixtures). We were attracted to creating something from nothing, and mixing up different combinations of the materials were given was an activity that we returned to often.

These days, I'm still mixing things up, but I've graduated from mud and kitchen spices to mixing up oil paints, mediums and solvents. My mixtures are both bright and pastel colored, and are lovingly painted on to my canvases. One of my favorite parts of the painting process is building and developing my color palette. It always starts out so clean, and then as the painting builds up, so does my palette, and the colors begin to tell a story. 

If you have been following along before I even started this blog, you might remember that this past May, my work was shown in a gallery in Brenham, TX along with the work of my best art friend, Olivia Nucci! The show ran through the month of May, and then was moved to the bed & breakfast connected to the gallery for the months since. While I was down at The Farm over Labor Day weekend, I stopped in Brenham to pick up the remaining pieces from the show, which are now available for purchase on my site. 

While the paintings from The Color of My Sky will certainly look great on the walls of your home, why not bring some of those wide open spaces of the Texas countryside to your mobile device? For those who have a phone, a laptop or a tablet (or maybe all three!) I've created digital downloads that you can use as a background for your favorite device. I usually keep these exclusively for my email subscribers, but today I am bringing them out in the open for anyone to use! 

She’s the It Girl of The Color of My Sky. She’s bright and unafraid of sharing her personality. Everyone wants to have her on their walls. Who is she? She is ‘Girl Crush.'

The first words that come to mind when I sneak a glance at this painting is, “Holy PINK!” The process of this painting was certainly a study of my favorite color. When working with such a bright and vibrant palette, I learned that a little goes a long way. If you look at the painting a little longer, you’ll see that there are ranges of blues, purples, and even some aqua colors that balance out the range of pinks and magentas. I loved exploring both the warm and cool ranges of pink, moving from a warm, salmon-y pink all the way to a cool, deep magenta. I learned that you can indeed create areas of light and shadow with the color pink, and still formulate a realistic landscape scene, despite the color scheme.

A haircut. Wine. Oil Paints. What do all of these have in common? In my opinion, they are three things that are worth the splurge. While there are okay haircuts, decent wine, and sufficient oil paints, I’ve found when purchasing these three things that a few extra dollars produces exponentially better ends results. 

Over the past couple of years, I have tested out a number of different brands & colors of paint on my palette and found some real winners that I truly cannot do without.

BRANDS: There are a few brands of oil paints have stuck with me over time, and those I can rely on for consistent color and quality. Williamsburg Oil Paints is the gold standard for me. Their paints are highly pigmented, so a little goes a long way! Because I only have to use small amounts of their paint at a time, I find that spending a little extra on some of their paints okay because I know they will last pretty long.

Holbein Artists' Oil Colors & Gamblin Artists' Oil Colors are both tied for second. They are slightly less expensive than Williamsburg, but have a solid range of colors that make a big impact on my palette.

Each painting has a personality and a life of its own. I’m here to introduce you to one of my favorites!

‘Pasture’ gets its name from the wide open field that spreads out across The Farm. I painted this piece from a photo I took on a near perfect day. The clear blue sky was interrupted by a luscious billowing cloud that swept across the sky. It was late afternoon, and the treeline that lies beyond the edges of this image was starting to cast long dark shadows across the field.

One of the best things about The Farm is that its landscape is the constant variable in a frequently changing equation. Had I caught this scene a few hours earlier, the sun would have been high in the sky, and I wouldn’t have seen the deep, nearly-teal shadows in the distant treeline - even in the grassy green of the day, there are warm reddish-pink tones that suggest that the sun is ever so slightly fading.

Each painting has a personality and a life of its own. I’m here to introduce you to one of my favorites!

We all dream of somewhere else. Whether it’s somewhere we’ve been, or somewhere we frequently return to, where we are now often isn’t where we want to be. Thankfully, paintings like ‘Day Dreaming’ can take us there as soon as we lay eyes on it. This seems to be a quintessential “Elizabeth” painting for a few reasons: the wide and narrow format, the big sky, and the loose interpretation of the land. There is texture and depth in the sky that signify movement and the fleeting nature of the light in this moment. The subtle shifts in color that add visual interest and depth to the sky, from a cobalt blue to a turquoise-y teal, each layer building upon the last.

The wide dimensions of the canvas are my favorite to work with for many reasons. The wide format of the painting has an ability to allow me to capture a range of moments on the canvas, rather than just one. And if you have never experienced the expanse of a Texas sky, this sized painting is the next best thing. On the far right, you can see the sun hanging onto the sky, fading into the horizon, illuminating that side of the painting with its warmth. As you progress to the left, the light changes the land, but in a softer, more subtle way.