The Raven Paints: Looking Back, Painting Forward

Welcome, 2026.

I haven’t sent a newsletter for a few months—and that’s okay. As a painter, I’ve been using this end-of-year pause to reflect on creative practice, time, and what it takes to keep moving forward. I’ve been thinking, processing, waiting for the light.

There always seems to be a lot going on in my world. Looking back to February, when I began a personal mentoring journey, I didn’t realize I was entering a period of significant transition—one that set me back down in November, around the time I launched my new website. That stretch now feels like “Phase One of Something”: a restructuring meant to establish a new way forward.

Maybe now is the beginning of the next phase. It took me from just before Thanksgiving to this moment—at the start of the new year—to name it. I know what I need to do next. The sorting will happen in its own intelligent way, natural to me and to my creative timing.

This is the ongoing work of negotiating time: balancing self-care, studio life, managing a website and social media, a part-time job, and the things that inevitably pop up. It goes much slower than I want it to—slower than I plead for—and gives me no choice but to practice patience. Time isn’t just the clock. It’s built into how things are made, and into how I move through my life.

In simple language, starting this month I am putting my Jumpstart Painting Essentials course back online on a new course platform. This build takes time—and patience. You can sign up for the courses waitlist to be the first to hear when it’s ready.

In the studio, I have numerous works underway—from early- to mid-summer pieces, to more recent paintings that need completing, along with new ideas not yet started, inspired by winter temperatures and their effects on atmosphere of the landscape. There is so much to do, and I am deeply grateful for that.

Thank you for being here.

Until next time—stay present and keep making things.

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Garden Daisies, 8"x8", oil/linen panel, 2025