This inquiry is perhaps the most frequently asked question of all.

I do have a list of materials that I use, am happy to pass this along to you and at the same time want to stress that the materials suggested here are exactly that: suggestions only! Over time, you will develop your own set of preferred materials through one aspect of your own work that I think is highly important: experimentation! This is what makes painting fun and keeps the process alive.

Here’s the suggested list: Materials List

Big question! Or big answer!

If I had to simplify this to one answer it would be this: learning to see! And this is a big topic!

Before it is possible to paint accurately, it is crucial to look long and carefully. This practice takes time and is in fact, a life-long one. Most of us have been trained to connect our visual experience with words. While this is great for speaking and writing, it really gets in the way of communicating visually.

Taking the time to really look at the information that is entering our mind through our eyes and recognizing it as shapes of light and dark is the first step in translating it onto paper or canvas. Intentionally focusing on the shapes of what we see allows us to break away from the need to draw with lines, an approach that is too closely associated with verbal object identification to be useful for painting. Once we can see the shape, it can be placed on the canvas exactly as that shape: see the shape, place the shape on the surface!

Sounds simple! And it is with some practice! And one big benefit of this practice? The experience of awe. It really is an awesome world!

Perhaps better than reading all this, take a look at some of the my time-lapse videos like this one: Ashley

Click on any title to order on Amazon:

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards
Life Drawing in Charcoal by Douglas R. Graves
Carlson’s Guide to Landscape Painting by John F. Carlson
The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron

After recommended painting supplies, this is the next most often asked question. The answer is: It depends and largely upon my intent for the specific work.

Some paintings are done as quick sketches, others are demonstrations, commissioned portraits, landscapes or still lifes and any of these can range in size from small 4 by 5 inches to larger works greater than 4 feet. So, depending on the nature of the painting and its size, it can take me from several hours to several months to complete.

Many of you ask this question in order to assess how long it ought to take you to complete your painting. I hesitate to answer this one for this reason: How long it takes me to complete a painting is irrelevant to your work. How long it takes is how long it takes you. After all, it is your work and no one elses.

Too, experience can make a difference, so comparing time to complete is also unfair as there is no real way to account for practice in relative to ‘how long it takes’. Logically, the more you have practiced, the more likely you are to arrive directly, and possibly sooner, at your goal. Of course, the opposite could be true: You may find that the more paintings you produce, the longer you care to work on each one. This latter happens to be true for me.