Blog

A Hint of Summer

3/22/2026 10:56:34 PM

This past month has brought an unexpected stretch of warmth - days that feel more like early summer than spring. As a painter, I notice how quickly the atmosphere shifts when the temperature rises.  The light becomes stronger, the contrasts more defined, and colors begin to simplify.  Along the coast, people linger longer, settling into a slower, sunlit rhythm. After the quieter winter months spent in the studio, experimenting, trying new approaches, and working through ideas, this change in season feels like an invitation.  A chance to carry those explorations into a different kind of light, one that is constantly shifting and alive. On [...]

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A Glimpse of Place: My YouTube Shorts

3/21/2026 12:53:23 AM

When I travel to paint, there are always small moments that a finished painting cannot fully convey - the shifting light, the sound of wind through trees, the quiet rhythm of painting outdoors. Over the past few years, I began capturing some of these moments as short videos while painting en plein air.  These brief clips - now collected on my YouTube channel as Shorts - offer a glimpse of the places where my paintings begin. Each video is only a minute long, but together they form a kind of visual travel diary.  You might see: - a harbor just before the light changes - [...]

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Painting the Familiar with New Eyes

3/9/2026 5:52:06 PM

When we travel, seeing comes naturally.  Everything feels new, and our attention sharpens almost without effort.  We notice the shape of rooftops, the rhythm of streets, the way light moves across unfamiliar buildings.  But what about the places we pass every day? I painted a street in downtown Carlsbad recently - a place I know well.  An outdoor cafe sat on one side with cheerful yellow umbrellas, and across the street an older building stood quietly in the afternoon light.  I must have walked by this corner many times before.  Yet on this particular day, something asked to be noticed. Learning to paint [...]

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The Brush and the Dance

3/4/2026 1:17:38 AM

In Japanese, we have a proverb: 弘法筆を選ばず. It refers to Kūkai, also known as Kōbō Daishi, a revered monk and master calligrapher.  The saying means, “Kōbō does not choose his brush.”  In other words, a true master does not depend on the tool.  Skill transcends equipment. For many years, I believed something simple about my own brush.  It was an extension of my arm.  I practiced.  I repeated.  I trained my hand to obey what my eye and mind instructed.  The brush followed.  It responded to pressure, angle, speed.  It felt physical, direct, disciplined. And then, over time, something shifted. There were moments, often in [...]

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