I am so energized and creating some amazing new art. I just finished a series of nest paintings, small 10"x10" colourful and full of life. I had a lot of fun creating them. I have begun to use a technique of creating an entire series all at once; its a bit crowded in my art room, but the result is a more cohesive series of work, and a good variety of colour. I am getting prepared to do a new series of work that incorporates some of the pictures that I have taken of Ottawa in my city paintings, called "Urban Ottawa 2010." I am just preparing myself to begin, and I can not wait to put the paint on the canvas.

My Trip to NY City has also inspired a series that I hope to begin later this summer. It is also going to be an urban series with photographs incorporated in the paintings. Mostly focusing on SOHO, which was truly an amazing area.

Wow, the world of participating in juired shows is so great. I just got accepted to a show with Ottawa Mixed Media Artist at the Britannia Gallery. I am so excited! Show starts on Thursday, 2728 Howe, Ottawa, ON, 613-721-1559

I just went to NY City for four days, and I feel full of inspiration to create art. One of my secret tools is to write down my ideas when I am too busy to paint, then I know that I wont forget the details when I do get the chance to create art. I also use my camera, and photograph city scapes so that I have a frame of reference to follow.

Many mixed media artist, such as myself happen to fall into the world of collage. Probably because there are often elements of collage in the style of creating mixed media art. I have just read a book " Collage Journeys" written by Jane Davies, that I found very useful and informative. She illustrates a lot of great ideas for collecting collage materials, finding inspiraions for collage, and how to examples of attaching items to a canvas or a board. I would reccomend this book as a good place to start, if you are experimenting in the field of mixed media.

One thing that I love about being a mixed media artist is that I am able to incorporate a diverse range of materials. I found an old dictionary in a library "free" box. Its old, torn up and yellow but perfect as a source of inspiration. No guilt about ripping out the pages of the book to include on my canvas.

There are sometimes when I think..what will I do next? Thankfully this time I found a great new book on collage, there are so many new techniques that I want to try. Thank goodness for new fresh ideas!

It is a part of my process as a mixed media artist to see every little bit of paper as a possible part of a lager painting, but this can become a problem when my art studio becomes infiltrated with so many paper scraps that I am completely overwhelmed. I realized that I truly have a difficult time throwing any of it out...even if it does begin to contaminate the tranquility of my little basement studio. So I had to get tough with myself and have a purge of my art studio. Now that that tedious process is over I can actually see the floor...for now at least.

The impetus for this new art blog for 2010: I wanted to further define my ideas, thoughts and experiences as a Artist living in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. I have been an artist selling my art since 2001, and its time for me to share more of my experience with my peers, clients and the world for that matter. Its not an easy process to define yourself as a professional artist, and make a living at it. So this blog is a ongoing collection of my thoughts, successes and inspirations.