A year ago, before the pandemic became real, I was invited by the Tampa Regional Artists to do both a demo and a workshop for artists in their group as well as anyone visiting the Tampa area. 

Along came a virus and this all went up in a puff of disbelief. 

Fast forward a year, and we are moving forward with both the demo and workshop, but it will all be online and the best part? 

You are invited to join the fun! 

The class demo will be held on Thursday evening, May 13th, during the monthly meeting online (non-members are welcome!) and the class will be held the following Saturday, May 15th.

Because we are not actually getting together on location, the class will be based on photos from the area around the TRA art center as if we were. The area is a mashup of beautiful old houses (many on the historical register), some of which have been converted to businesses, old oak trees, gardens and if you walk several blocks, Tampa Bay. 

The class will focus on working quickly as if you were really on location, the benefits of working quickly, embracing our quirky styles and handling those pesky mistakes that are bound to happen!

Sound like your kind of visit?

Click here to learn more about TRA.

Click here to learn more about the demo. Non-members are welcome!

Click here to learn more the class and to get registered!

There is something about capturing moving water on our pages that makes us feel like we're 10-feet tall and bullet-proof! I think in part because we fear the subject...but I'm going to work to demystify the process to capturing water in your sketchbook, easily and accurately.

Sound like something you want to learn? Come and join me at Indian Rocks Beach Art Center on Thursday, July 26th at 1:00 pm.

To register, please click here.

Two upcoming classes this week are just chocked full of fun tips, techniques and tricks to get you journaling in no time!

Beach Art Center
The first one is going to be at the Beach Art Center over on Indian Rocks Beach this Thursday, 7/12, from 1 to 4 p.m.

We're going to be painting staghorn coral, learning to incorporate values to create depth, adding in a quote and suggesting texture. Sound like your idea of great way to spend your Thursday afternoon? Come join us! For more info and to register, please go here. Class info is on the right side of the page, midway down!

Keeton's Office & Art Supply
This coming Saturday, July 14th, we're gonna be doing a little (sea) horsin' around! Summer is made for bright, happy colors and this project has them in spades!
The white design over the top along with the bubbles floating in the background really push this over the top and make it lots of fun to create.

We'll be working with making washes interesting by mingling color on the paper as well as how to quickly create the white design with the seahorse's body.

Last, we'll add some lettering to finish the page.

To come and learn how to create your very own seahorse, please click here. Please call Keeton's at 941.747.2995 to register!

Hope to see you there and if not, I hope you're keeping your brushes wet and the pages, full!

Come and join me on Saturday, June 23rd at 9:30 for Art On The Rocks: The Magic Of Art Journaling!

Art journaling on the beach...does it get any better?! We'll be at the Beach Art Center in Indian Rocks Beach for an introduction to keeping an art journal, using watercolors and pens as well as the different ways a journal might fit into our lives. We'll be journaling about the fun treasures to be found along the beach.

You'll receive an eight-page watercolor journal along with a couple of permanent black ink pens and a mechanical pencil to get you started. Best of all, you'll receive a handout with step-by-step instructions to help you create even when you're not in class!

After the first introductory class, there will be two classes a month during July, August and September.

If this sounds like just the thing you'd like to try, please visit the Art Center's web site by clicking here to learn more and to sign up for class!

After class, weather permitting, maybe we can take a stroll down the beach to find some treasures! Hope to see you there!

Hello again, my friends! I am back from my walkabout. Blogging is something I started years ago because I liked connecting with likeminded friends and artists. It takes a certain mindset—and a lot of work—to post week in and week out for years.


Keeton's Office & Art Supply
June 9, 2018
Keeton's Office & Art Supply
Bradenton, FL
9:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Sea Nettle
Love or hate them, jellyfish are a fact of life if you live at the beach! While sea nettles can be quite dangerous, even deadly, there is no denying their beauty as they float along with ocean’s currents. Capturing the changing colors along with the long tentacles vary in length based on the creatures age. The bell (body) can grow up to over 2 feet in diameter!

Things that show the passage of time like an old tin watering can is one of my very favorite subjects to capture in paint! If it shows a few bangs and dent from daily use, all the better. I've often wondered what tales we'd hear if old tools could talk.

I will be teaching how to capture these lovely beauties this Saturday, April 14th at Keeton's in Bradenton.

These cans might seem like a difficult subject, but they're really not. The patina is quite forgiving and you get to use all the colors in the paint box. If you're worried about the drawing aspect, don't be! You draw only one can and then you move it around and trace on the page two more times.

I hope to see you at Keeton's on Saturday! Please click here for information on how to register!

Maybe I was feeling a bit nostalgic when I created this image or maybe I just wanted to depart from "reality" for a bit, but regardless of the reason, this image looks NOTHING like the photo reference. The photo I used was taken in a large craft store and it featured 3 pastel watering cans on a white wire shelf with big sale tags everywhere.

It takes time to build up experience and courage to create something that doesn't exist. I think it also help to throw in a dash of crazy, as in being crazy enough to not be so invested in the end result that you're not willing to take chances.

I have always found that taking risks with my artwork is what keeps it fresh and exciting. When I get too invested in the final results, I almost always squash my willingness to take chances...and then I wonder, "If I would have done X, would the art be better/strong/more exciting?"

I will be teaching how to draw and paint "Crusty and Rusty Waterin' Cans" at Keeton's on Saturday, April 14th at 9 AM.  Come and join in the fun! 

Creating patinas and rust really isn't a hard thing to do and it allows for all kinds of palette play! You can use just about any color on the palette, but especially in the earth pigments and granulating pigments.

Please click here and scroll down to April 14th for all the info on this class.

I have to admit I was a bit surprised by these sea creatures when I started researching them for the class—they're kinda fun!

Did you know:

• The name "urchin" is an old word that means hedgehog?
• That there are more than 950 species of sea urchins?
• Did you have any idea an urchin could live up to 200 years in the wild?!
• Sea urchins can grow up to as large as 14 inches or be as small as 1.2 inches?
• That their outer shell is called a "test?"
• They they have lots of predators including sea otters, eels, triggerfish and starfish, but their biggest predator is man due to ocean pollution and over harvesting?
• That sea urchins can live in tidal pools as well as up to 16,000 feet below the ocean's surface?

Me either! These sweet little hedgehogs are far more than just pretty shells or sweet meat and they're a delight to create in an art journal.

Come and join me at Keeton's in Bradenton, FL, this Saturday for a super fun class on adding dimensionality to the page.  To learn more, please click here.

Hope to see you there!

More often than not, I find myself working in patterns and much of the time it's subconsciously until the pattern can no longer be ignored. Case in point: two upcoming beach classes full of fun!


Sea Urchins are so much fun to create on the page that it's hard to stop. Kinda like potato chips, you cannot have just one.

These sea creatures are created by using two pieces of paper to give them the look of having an "interior" and we'll use white ink to quickly and easily recreate the dots on the outer shell.

Sound like your kind of fun?!

Come and play with me at Keeton's Office and Art Supply on Saturday, February 10th at 9 AM.

Click here for more info on the class and for info on how to register!

I look forward to seeing you there!






Starting Thursday, February 15th, come and enjoy found treasures, boardwalks, beach structures and the gorgeous views during An Imaginary Visit To The Beach!

We'll spend four weeks exploring and enjoy the warm sun and salty breezes. Who knows we might even see a dolphin or two, maybe a sea turtle!

We'll work on our sketching and page layout skills.

For more information on the class, please click here to come and join me for this online adventure!

Feeling sluggish getting the new year started? Come and join in the fun at one of these classes to help you get back to the joy of creating in your sketchbooks!

Keeton's Office and Art Supply, Bradenton, FL
Saturday, January 13th, 9 am - 12:30 pm

These little, orange balls of sunshine evoke memories in the best of ways! I think in part due to the strong olfactory element and because they're just so darn cute.

Having lived in Florida my entire life and having a host of different citrus at fingertips' reach, I've always taken these fruits for granted. When I first posted the class, I heard some very delightful stories about coming in from the cold and snow to smell these treats sitting in the kitchen as well as the small wooden crates they were shipped in.

Capturing these beauties in our sketchbooks comes down to utilizing not one, but two, white gel pens as well as really working our analogous and complementary palettes. It's gonna be fun, so I hope you'll come and join us this Saturday! For more info, please click here.



Postcards In The Garden, Bok Tower Gardens, Lake Wales, FL
Saturday, January 20th, 9 am - 1 pm

Do you like to make your own sketchbooks?! I love to make my own as I get to personalize it to the size I want, the paper I like as well as adding special touches like different closing methods. But there are times when I don't have time to drag out all the paraphernalia you need to make a book, the glue,  the clamps and weights, cutting down the chipboard, waiting for things to dry, adding book cloth and so on. It's easy to become too intimidated by the idea of attempting to make a book and possible ruining a perfectly good sheet of (expensive!) watercolor paper?

I've been in both places actually, but there is something that's just too cool about making and using your own sketchbook that I keeps me coming back for more!

Do I dread the mess and the process of traditional bookmaking? Yes. It's mostly because I don't have an area where I can leave all the stuff out during the process (cutting, assembling, and drying time, etc.)

Have I messed up a sheet of paper before? Yep! The paper was still usable, just not in the format I had intended...which I try to look at as just another art adventure (after I get over being mad at myself).

If any of this sounds familiar to you, I invite you to come and join me at a Live and Learn Workshop on Saturday, July 29th! We'll be learning to create a Reverse Piano Hinge Sketchbook out of a single sheet of watercolor paper. Part of the reason I like this style so much is because there are so many ways to individualize the books to show personality and charm! Plus, it doesn't require any glue!

Below is the basic book we'll be learning. It is nearly square and has a self cover with a string tie closure which we'll also be making:

The back of the sketchbook shows the unique look of the binding. The actual hinge is "hidden" on the inside of the sketchbook. The hinge on the right in the image below shows some of the ways this sketchbook can be personalized:


 These next two sketchbooks are variations on the basic book. Regardless of size or format, they are both made from a single sheet of watercolor paper! The sketchbook below shows the added fun of changing up the string tie to a couple of silver leaves for the closures.
The next sketchbook is an even bigger departure in that it uses scrapbook paper for the covers (rather than a self-cover) and hinge. By using scrapbook paper, I also gave myself more pages inside. I also changed the size so that I have a long landscape view.

Another fun size for this book is  the 5.5 x 7.5 inch size. Again, it can be customized in endless ways!

Want to learn how to make your own sketchbook? Click on this link or the image on the sidebar for more info! Hope to see you in July!