I recently felt like starting some completely new paintings.

I tucked away the odds and ends I’d been puttering with.

A fresh start feels great because I’m becoming interested in some new colors and materials that weren’t going to merge easily with what I’ve already had going on.

I’m playing with linework and earth tones that are new to me. I might make some collages, I haven’t decided yet.

A lot hasn’t been decided. So far:

Canvas, paper-

I really like to work on a lot of things at once. Painting like this creates a cohesion that can be hard to do; especially when new ideas take you away from the older ones you started with. With this series I’m working on six stretched canvases and nine pieces of watercolor paper.

Colors, materials-

As the snow melts I’m so inspired by the rich earth tones being revealed. I don’t think anyone would say I’m afraid to use color, but brown isn’t found in many of my paintings. The ground and soil is such an important part of the forest landscapes I love. Ignoring these colors doesn’t seem doable anymore.

Fresh sketchbook pages-

One of my favorite things about starting a new painting is preparing a fresh sketchbook page to go along with it. I use a hardback sketchbook to keep records of my paintings every step of the way and beyond. I list the year, size, title, materials used, colors, figurative elements, and finish with updates about galleries the painting was shown in and who bought it and for how much. I started doing this ten years ago and it stills works great.