As I did not have this blog at the time, I had no opportunity to share any of my festive Christmas projects from this past December. Actually I gave relatively few paintings as presents last year. Many a Christmas past found me scrambling to finish multiple paintings at once and I inevitably ended up in tears. Last month I wanted to avoid the emotional melt-down and also needed to factor in shipping time so I kept my projects manageable and avoided procrastination on them (mostly). 

The lady slipper painting was inspired by a trip to the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens (during a different month obviously) and was my aunt's gift. The portrait of my sister's new puppy Flynn no longer looks a thing like him as their little baby is now a whopping 40 pounds at 4 months old. His aunt Laura will have to do a different painting when he's fully grown and the estimated 80 pounds. But they will always be able to remember that he was once quite a bit smaller. 

So far 2015 has brought many changes for me. First of all I am very excited to have a personal website for the very first time. In the past I have used a profile on Fine Art America to promote my art, but I wanted the freedom to design my own site and customize the viewer experience. This is an experiment and I welcome feedback as I further develop the site. 

For another big change: New Years weekend saw me and a 17 foot Uhaul truck driving down the highway to Topsham, Maine, where I moved into a one bedroom apartment complete with a sun porch, which I am using as my new art studio. It's an old building and I love the quirky spaces and crooked lines. It's also just over the river from Brunswick, which is an active and arty college town. I'm looking forward to being part of the community.