I really like to be outside doing anything from gardening to sailing, hiking, plein air painting, sketching, that sort of thing. Except when it's super-cold! I used to spend a ridiculous number of hours on end working in my studio. Now I achieve a better balance between indoors and outdoors.
I also read a lot, and in the winter I pick up more indoors hobbies such as printmaking, quilting, knitting, carving, playing the piano. I like making useful objects. I particularly love learning how to do skills by hand.
And in any art museum, portraits are everywhere: in every style, color, and size, from every country and created by every type of artist.
In a portrait's brushstrokes we find a path connecting us to another human on a timeless level.
Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, van Gogh and Rembrandt's many self-portraits, these are just a few of the well-known portraits that have come down to us through the ages. Their popularity is testimony to the power and value of capturing personality, character, and aspect, on canvas.
Oil paint captures the living qualities of the human face and body like no other medium. Skillfully handled, the portrait transcends technique and draws the viewer in, and a single artist creates a treasure for us all.