Over the last few years, I’ve struggled with motivation when it comes to painting. I put some pressure on myself to paint more often, and when I force myself to paint when the mood isn’t there, it becomes work. And, well… I don’t ever want my paintings to feel like work.
So, those feelings combined with the joys of perimenopause wreaking havoc on my brain, I have really struggled to paint much in the last couple of years. Gotta love when hormones mess with motivation, executive function, and focus.
In September of 2025, I finished Lone Peak in the Clouds after more than 18 months of no painting at all.
Back in April of this year, I set out to paint this view from Coyote Gulch from a photo I took when I backpacked there in 2021. It took me a while, I painted little bits of it over the course of a few weeks. But I was really happy with how it turned out and it brought back lovely memories of my trip thru that amazing place.
I definitely had more motivation after finishing this one, so I set out to figure out what to paint next knowing I was having a booth at Art in the Barn in mid-August.
Later in the summer, I was feeling a little ambitious and decided to tackle this painting of The Wave from Vermillion Cliffs National Monument in northern Arizona. I had the privilege of hiking there last summer and I took this photo when we first got there. We were advised that the best time of day to view The Wave was around noon when shadows were at a minimum. We got there a little after 7am and were greeted by this stunning reflection. We ended up hanging around until noon to see The Wave at it finest and it was definitely worth it.
I really took my time with this painting, starting out with a really meticulous pencil drawing and then starting with the purples and blues and slowly adding in the oranges and yellows. I added quite a bit of detail with gouache for this one because I really wanted the amazing lines to really pop on this painting. I wanted viewers to do a double-take on whether this was a photo with a first glance.
I bought myself some paints from Blue Pine Arts for Christmas and was playing with them; enjoying the creamy pastels. I painted a couple of purple and pink skies and then had no idea what else to put on the paper. A few were just small 4x6 or 5x7 pieces, so I finished them up and cut a simple mat to sell them at Art in the Barn.
This painting is a bit larger than the little studies, and it was one that I worked on while at Art in the Barn. After I painted this purple and pink sky, I thought The Watchman at Zion National Park would be lovely. I really like how it turned out.
I’m not sure what I’ll paint next, but I have a painting-in-progress of Pfeifferhorn in the Wasatch Mountains with another one of these purple-pink skies. Fingers crossed it doesn’t piss me off too much. I also still want to do a painting or two of Lake Tahoe this year.