Tell us a little bit about your artistic journey. When did you first discover your passion for art?

I wish I could say I was immersed in art since childhood, but that isn’t the truth.  While I always loved art, I grew up thinking that artists were people who lived in books and museums, which was not something I could relate to.  It didn’t help that I couldn’t express myself on paper and regularly had bad grades in art when I was in school.

When the world opened up through the Internet, I saw that artistic expression is something available to everyone, so I slowly started creating.  At first I learned how to make paper, then how to bind it into beautiful books, then I started painting… And once I started, I couldn’t stop.  I wanted to paint everything – still life, portraits, imaginary things, abstracts, and landscapes…. I wanted to paint tiny and huge, in books, on canvases, on paper…

For the past several years I focused on painting birds.  I use many mediums to paint them, but watercolors are something I reach for most often.  I adore watercolors made by SWM and am thrilled to be your guest artist in January.  I hope you’ll enjoy seeing my birds all through the month!

Birds are fascinating on many levels!  As an art subject they provide an endless inspiration of shapes, sizes, colors and textures.  Plus – they have different characters, which makes it fun. I can never tire of painting them.

That’s a great question!! I would be a dove.  I like that they are gentle, peaceful, have loving partners and don’t seem to bother anyone.  Plus they make music with their wings, which is cool.

Btw - tomorrow I might choose a completely different bird! Albatros, for example.  Imagine those wings and the ability to fly over the ocean for so long! I’d love to be able to do that!

Picking a favorite Stoneworks Mill product is extremely hard to do.  I love so many colors!  I am going to cheat and say that I love The Great Outdoors palette the most!  I have used it to paint many birds… it is a perfect selection of colors that play well together but are each perfect by themselves too. 

Some of the colors have a discreet sparkle which makes my heart happy 😊 I love them so much that I purchased them in large pans, and tiny ones too, so that I can stash them in my travel pack! 

I don't sell my work.  I will start offering originals and prints on March 1st.  

My website is - surprise- Ipaintbirds.com and it should be open on March 1st as well.