“Skies aren’t yellow!” Everyone held their breath. Then, of course, the instructor immediately realized his misstatement. During a painting workshop critique in Costa Rica, one of the students had painted yellow in his sky. But skies are sometimes yellow or have lots of orange and red in them in the late afternoon. Sometimes they are […]
Author: Jean Wilkey
Making a cigar box Shelf Palette for Plein air painting
Today in my painting class I talked about Plein Air painting over the summer break. So I thought I’d share the shelf palette I showed everyone. When painting in Plein Air it is useful to have your palette set ahead of time so as not to take too much time getting set up in the […]
Oil Painting Essentials Bootcamp
There are a few spaces left in my workshop which begins next Saturday. Call me for information or register now using this link. OIL PAINTING ESSENTIALS BOOTCAMP Start off the new year by pursuing your dream of becoming a painter. Workshop dates: Saturday, January 11th & Sunday, January 12th, 12-5 pm $120 You’ll […]
Watery birthday wishes for everyone
I used to hate drinking water. It’s not that our water tasted bad when I was growing up, it’s just that it wasn’t laden with sugar like Kool-Aid and Dr. Pepper. I never fully appreciated water until I lived in Latin America where clean, fresh, parasite-free water was not always available. In Honduras, we’d go […]
A Room of One’s (My) Own
Years ago, I read Virginia Wolff’s book, A Room of One’s Own. In it, she posits that in order for a woman to do creative work she needs space of her own and her own money. I’ve been lucky to have had a studio space, even if it was sometimes part of the living room, […]
My Desert View
When I was a kid I brought back souvenirs from my wanderings in the outdoors. Rock, shells, leaves, frog skeletons – really, just bits and pieces or anything I found that l thought was interesting or pretty. I’m not sure where the urge to collect comes from but these natural morsels reminded me of where I’d […]
What I learned from the film about Antonio Lopez Garcia, Dream of Light
Recently a friend visiting my studio asked me why I paint the way I do. She asked if I paint the ceramic figurines in my paintings to look real merely to show that I can do it or if I had other reasons. I answered her that I thought it was a matter of fidelity. A […]
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Spring Small Works Studio Special
This week I’m offering new small works and studies (and a few older ones) at special prices with free shipping* just in time for Mother’s Day, from today through May 6th. You can view the work at my PaintingHabit gallery at this link. Use the secure checkout on the site, or contact me with questions at jeanwilkey@gmail.com (*Free […]
The Yarka Field easel for plein air painting
Spring always makes me want to get outside to paint. A while ago someone wrote to me and asked about my Yarka plein air easel. It is a wooden field easel similar to the French easel, but with the materials compartment in the front of the easel instead of behind. So it opens more like […]
Studio Challenge – Week 4 – Put it all back together
Spring is officially here, and we are wrapping up our studio challenge just in time. Now for the fun part. Since we finished de-cluttering and cleaning, it’s time to re-create our space. A few years back I did a major overhaul of my studio, but it can still use some tweaking. Mine is a multi-use […]
Studio Challenge – Week 3
Joshua Milburn and Ryan Nicodemus from The Minimalists blog, posit that organizing is well-planned hoarding. It’s just organized hoarding. If we don’t do the work to ask questions about whether we truly need and use something, and about what it means to us to have it in terms of preserving illusions about ourselves, etc., we […]