Winter Cardinals

I received a lovely surprise the other day when the sketchbook company I use, Stillman and Birn, liked my cardinal painting on Instagram and asked to repost it on their Instagram feed, Facebook page, and blog. I had to write a brief artist statement too. Needless to say, I was pretty darn excited!

Here is their blog post with my statement.

My crazy daisy

I stopped at a florist the other day and grabbed a few different flowers with the intention of sketching them. I chose a few daisies, gerbera daisies, and sunflowers. Then they sat there for days. I loved looking at them, and all of the details, but I think I overwhelmed myself. When was I going to have time to deal with all these flowers and all those little details? Then one night I was like, "okay, get a grip. You don't have to draw every detail. Who said you even had to draw every flower? And really, why do you think you have to draw an exact replica? When in fact, if that's what you wanted, you should just take a picture. Use one as inspiration, and make it your own." Wow, self, what good advice!