About Me

  Hi! I'm Sarah. I'm a thirty-something mom, wife, and artist. I spend my time painting, running, cooking, reading, blogging, and chasing my three-year-old daughter. I live in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. It's gorgeous here, but it rains a LOT - which perfectly suits my passion for indoor painting. While I do aspire to begin plein-air painting, I admit that I love my cosy home-studio and the endless possibilities I find to paint there - subjects ranging from eggs to floral bouquets or my morning cup of coffee. I always paint from life. The only photos I use in my work are the ones you see on this blog!     

                                                                                        My first oil painting experience was when I was ten years old. I had private art lessons (thanks, mom and dad!), and my excellent teacher took me out to her family's farm for the afternoon. We set up my easel in the horse barn, and she left me alone to work. My subject was a sleepy-looking black horse with a long shaggy mane hanging over one eye. After a while I noticed that he was moving around more and more restlessly. It turned out that he'd come untied, and while I sat transfixed on the stable floor, he slowly came out of his stall, bent down to sniff me, and then sauntered out of the barn. My teacher came back, saw my painting, the empty stall, and my nervous face, and couldn't help laughing out loud! We ended the afternoon picking blueberries. 

I went to art school in Baltimore, at Maryland Institute, College of Art (MICA, for short). I loved it! I got a BFA in Illustration and a minor in Art History. After college, I ended up moving back to Cleveland and marrying one of my closest high school friends. We moved to Oregon in 2007, and have been loving it here ever since.

Hiking with my family, 2010

After I graduated from art school, I went through a period of intense self-doubt during which I did almost NO art for about seven years. I can't believe it, but it's true. What did I do with myself during all that time? I waitressed, I partied, I fell in love with my husband. I moved into and out of half a dozen apartments and all the way across the country. But once we were settled here in Oregon, I knew it was time to begin again. And then I found Daily Painting.  

My first daily painting, February 2008

 Daily Painting is a movement of artists who have taken on the challenge of creating a new, small piece of art each and every day, and blogging about it. I fell in love with the possibilities immediately. Because the paintings are small, they are by their very nature not "precious" and so if something isn't working out perfectly, it's not a cause for stress. Tomorrow will be a new day. And so, tomorrow has been a new day for me for over four years now, and I'm never quitting! Daily painting, along with writing my blog and coming together with the fabulous community of artists online has given me a new lease on art, and provided a perfect complement to my figure and portrait painting practice.

In the past few years, I've had a lot of great opportunities, including two big art shows, teaching workshops, and some really cool commissions. I always love meeting the art-loving public at festivals, art walks, and galleries. 

Phew! Thanks for reading this far. My blog will always be a work in progress, and I continue to appreciate and rely on all of your love and support.  

Painting from a live model, Summer 2012