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EDI Live TODAY! Reference Pics

Hello Light Tier friends, I'm looking forward to seeing you in about 15 minutes for our live art session. I will be primarily using oil pastels, but you will be able to join in and paint along with any medium you have on hand. Here are some photos

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Materials

Something new - oil pastels, pt 2: Techniques

Welcome to part 2 of our series on getting to know a medium that is new to you. If you missed it, part 1 is here, where I introduced my process of trying oil pastels as a total newbie, and how I go about selecting, researching and becoming acquainted with

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Events

EDI Live: Feb 24, 12pm PST

Each month, Light Tier members are invited onto a live online painting class where we'll go deeper into the month's practices and ideas. If you'd like to join in, click here. Hello Light Tier friends! Our next EDI Live will be Saturday Feb 24

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Monthly Guide

February 2024: Trying something new - oil pastels, part 1

Meet my new obsession: oil pastels. They are quick and opaque. They are vibrant and smudgy and all around lush. Over the past decade I've been slowly adding mediums to my collection. I started with watercolors, brush markers and fine liners pens. Later I added in gouache, colored

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Materials

23 other sketchbooks

One of the things that lowers my barrier to sitting down to paint often is having one sketchbook for everything, though, it's really two for me: I have my Midori MD (I use the cotton line now, but also love the regular ones) and an Etchr watercolor sketchbook.

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Something interesting and beautiful (& 2 months free!)

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EDI Live: Jan 20, 12pm PST

Each month, Light Tier members are invited onto a live online painting class where we'll go deeper into the month's practices and ideas. Right now annual memberships are on sale – offering 2 months free! If you'd like to join in, click here. Hello Light

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January 2024: Easy Does It

Two days before Christmas I put a tablecloth over my art desk and shifted my attention away from paint mixes, canvas scraps and the rumpled pages of my sketchbook. Art breaks are wonderful and I take them several times every year. And each break has a companion: a new beginning.

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Try It

Collaborative decisions: commissions

This time last year I was writing to you about painting the burnt out forests of the mountain ranges near me, and I'm back at it painting the mountains again this winter. After camping with a friend in the southern Cascades earlier this year, she asked if she

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Reference Photos: EDI Live, today!

Hello Light Tier friends! I'm planning to talk about this shape that lives in my sketchbook, and we may also use or reference some of the photos in the album linked below. See you soon!

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EDI Live: Dec 16, 12pm PST

Each month, Light Tier members are invited onto a live online painting class where we'll go deeper into the month's practices and ideas. If you'd like to join in, click here. I'd love to see you there! Hello Light Tier friends! Our

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Monthly Guide

December 2022: Finding new shapes

Artists always need shapes, but sometimes finding new and interesting ones can be harder than it seems. Big blobby shapes that look sort of like boulders are always the first thing to come out of my hand, so if I want to incorporate other shapes into my markmaking play I

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note-to-self zine

In our live class last weekend we made two types of zines, and I want to show you one of them. I didn't have a name for it last week, but now that I've sat with mine on my desk for a week I've

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Events

EDI Live: Today! 12pm PST

I'm looking forward to seeing all you Light Tier friends (join us here and come to class!) here in about a half and hour. I mentioned this is yesterday's post but wanted to float it up to the top: we're going to play with

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Monthly Guide

November 2023: The Inhale

If I turn back two pages in my sketchbook, I find this, dated 10/26/23 and labeled #1. I had a burst of desire that day and thought I'd try for a streak of daily abstract mark making. This spread had taken me me about five minutes

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Events

EDI Live: Nov 18, 12pm PST

Each month, Light Tier members are invited onto a live online painting class where we'll go deeper into the month's practices and ideas. If you'd like to join in, click here. I'd love to see you there! Hello Light Tier friends! Our

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Process

A stance against bombs

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Events

EDI Live: TODAY Oct 21, 12pm PST

Each month, Light Tier members are invited onto a live online painting class where we'll go deeper into the month's practices and ideas. If you'd like to join in, click here. I'd love to see you there! Hello Light Tier friends! Our

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Monthly Guide

October 2023: Spooky Season

It’s Spooky Season! It’s taken me years to come around to the charm of this time of year, as I’ve never been one to do fear for fun. I’ve been asking people why they like scary music and creepy fall vibes for years now and I

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Materials

Back to school supplies

What's better than a fresh box of crayons? Not much. If painting is my practice, buying art supplies is my hobby. And since it can get expensive fast, it's usually worth it to go back and revisit the treasures I've already collected and dig

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EDI Live: Today! 12pm PST

I'm excited to sketch with you today! We're going to be talking about and practicing staying in the moment as work create. Click here for the link to join us! Here are some reference photos we may draw from today:

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This is another moment. Write another poem.

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EDI Live: Sept 23, 12pm PST

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Monthly Guide

September 2023: Cross-training

In my years as a physical therapist I began to see how art and therapy bleed easily into each other: in both places were tender people who lived with some kind of pain, working gently over time to transform it into something that felt good in their body and allowed

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Process

Stepping around perfectionism

Earlier this month I wrote about stepping around perfectionism instead of tackling it head on. Here's one of my favorite ways to do that: Take 6 or 8 or 10 pieces of small/medium sized paper (I used watercolor paper that I tore down from a large sheet)