Painting Diaries
May to September
Welcome to the Painting Diaries! It’s like the Princess Diaries if it was just about Mia Thermopolis’ cool mom (Helen) that rock climbs and throws darts at painted balloons, if that mom also began portrait painting routinely and exclusively.
Today we have everything I’ve painted from May to September — the good, the bad, the really-ugly-I-don’t-want-to-show-this-one. 2025 has been a year of returning to and building up my practice. My practice is mainly comprised of portrait sessions, still life study halls, and a workshop here and there. Assembling all of these pieces together makes that routine feel all the more successful. You can see the paintings from the beginning of the year below.
I’ve also begun a Real Diary: a journal where I can document thoughts, feelings, even music I listened to during a session. It has kept me interested as I track throughlines in my work, with an accompanying undercurrent of competition with myself. Plus, look at this shimmery Donald Duck on the front!
The following is a list of just some of the ideas I’ve been working through:
Thumbnailing my compositions to help me get exactly the layout I want (especially as I struggle to scale my drawings)
Trying to reign in my restlessness and scatter-brain tendencies brought on by a combination of laziness and a canvas that’s too big
Love for pre-mixing my palette
The ever-ongoing tug-of-war between drawing and painting, or to say it another way, line vs. form. How much drawing should I keep in my painting? Is it “cheating” to add outlines? What is the combination that best works for me?
Scraping down a painting
Abandoning a painting
Enjoying my harsh, geometric edges vs. blending my brushstrokes for softer transitions
And, forever trying to wrap my head around the color relationship between the background and figure. What does it mean!!!! What does it mean……
Perhaps one day I’ll expand and write about these concepts in their own Substack posts. But for now, please enjoy the journey with minimal commentary (and a few surprise photos from my camera roll), in this unique, vertical “gallery” space.
Portrait and Study Hall Sessions
June 1 — This painting came out exactly like how I’d hoped. Somedays things just really click. I wanted to push the caricature. I liked the stylized blocking, treating the oil a lot closer to gouache on the Arches oil paper.
Neil Callander’s Personal Color Workshop
First Day
July 25 — This workshop was an incredibly fun and illuminating look at color relationships. We started by mixing various triads, a “red,” “blue,” and “yellow” (I use quotations, because they didn’t have to skew towards those exact hues, but rather a color takes the place of those primary hues). From there we worked through many different model sessions, as we tested the range of what we had pre-mixed.
Second Day
July 26 — This second day was immensely challenging and uncomfortable. We couldn’t mix any new colors after laying out our palette, so, to a certain extent, you really felt your hands tied behind your back. When you make a bunch of things you don’t like in a row, it’s very frustrating.
However, all this was to get adjusted to the palette itself, learning how to drive, and it paid off on the third day.
Third Day
July 27 — On the third day, Jesus rose again. And on the third day of this workshop, I made something I liked.
Jokes aside, on the third day we were allowed to mix new colors out of the existing palette. I was also struck by the idea that “Drawing is from the outside, in. Painting is from the inside, out.” As I think about line vs. form in particular, this adage helped unlock something for me. Instead of utilizing a heavy drawing in the next two pieces, I tried to sculpt the form from the inside, out — slowly building the volumes up from masses vs. drawing out the outlines.
Post-Workshop
Creating these color triads felt like the closest thing to strumming a chord my husband plays on guitar. And, as we focused exclusively on this palette, I became as familiar with the colors and their relationships as playing notes on the piano. Post-workshop, I had such a good grasp on the palette and how to use it, I wanted to make some more pieces with the leftover paint. It was so freeing to feel that in control (and also, so freeing to not have to stop and mix up new colors every second and disrupt the flow of painting).
Painting a Wall
Ok, after all that great workshop, I felt like I was hitting a bit of a wall. But lucky for me, we had to move houses so I had a forced break anyways!
First step in moving to our new place was painting over this heavy, dark navy wall in our living room. I’d never painted a wall before, but I had a horrible time. I think I took all the stress I had about the move and put it onto painting the wall, trying to make it as perfect as possible or else I would be responsible for messing up our new home. Terrible!
Anyways it was quite the learning process, and in the end it got done and it’s beautiful. A theme of my painting is also letting go of perfection and moral failure for having made a mistake. Oop!
Baaaaack to Portrait Sessions
After August was taken over by the move and Light of the World premiere, I returned to painting September 7, not knowing exactly what would come out on the page. I had the drawing vs. painting question in my head after seeing Alice Neel’s work at the National Portrait Gallery1. Her utilization of line and drawing in her stylization has me rethinking what I want. It also felt like I had unlocked the origin of inspiration behind many animator-turn-portrait-painters like Louis Thomas.
Though the following painting doesn’t use too much outline over top of it, I did let myself start with a good drawing. That drawing was a huge hit — and by that I mean, I was quite happy with the foundation, so everything that followed was just pure fun.
Final Thoughts
I’m elated to have felt the shift from the question, “How can I make more art?” to questions of technique and process and problem-solving. In just one year, showing up and trying has paid off in spades. As we go into the last quarter, I want to shift the practice into more intentional exploration and development of my work as a stronger body itself. One step at a time, though, one step at a time.
If you have made it this far, thank you! It is my thought to wait until I have a substantial collection of work to make these posts more deep dives and worth your while. However, I’m curious if you would prefer more monthly updates? Maybe this becomes too much of a slog by the end. Sound offfff in the comments (or the poll I’ve made below)! And don’t forget to like and subscribe 😜
Cheers! Until next time!✨
Maybe a post in itself for the future! Reaffirming the things you love through museum visits
I love the juicy brush strokes on the skull painting - so beautiful!
I can't believe how much work you've made, it's lovely to see all the experimenting you're doing.