The Artist’s paintings are beautiful, enchanting, and ever so real. Churning blue waves crashing on a rocky shore—so real you can hear the waves.

Painting and the experience of being an artist, embracing that talent, is a flowing undercurrent of The Mark of the Artist.

So, you may wonder, since she writes so much about painting, does she paint?

NOPE.

The closest I’ve come to painting, aside from finger paints as a child, was one of those paint and sip (minus the sip) places where the real artist says, “ok let’s pick up the bigger fat brush and smear this red pain in an arch on the canvas.” Even then I was hesitant, and wondered if I was holding the brush the right way, or the paint was watered down right, or if I was moving the brush right. Ahh, so much overthinking! 🤔

I do come from a line of talented painters. Many in my family paint: my Dad 🩵, grandfather, great-grandfather, an aunt and an uncle. And my kids are wonderful at drawing 🩷💙. Apparently I got skipped!

The true artist in my life is my DH. He draws and sketches. I love to watch him when he’s drawing. It’s so magical to me, watching things come to life on paper like that.  🖼️

He helped me with much of the lingo and the mechanics of how painters and artists look at things and then add them to their works.

But me? Here’s the painting I did at the paint and sip:

This was the equivalent of a paint by number project. Looks like I did ok with following directions! 😆

If nothing else, by enjoying a session of guided painting it gave me that little bit of insight into how the characters of Sebastian and his mentor Argento may feel having the brush in their hands. 

What is an Artist?

This is a different question. No, I am not an artist in the painting, sculpting, drawing sense.

But I am a writer. Are writers artists? I would like to think so.

One of the nicest things I’ve heard from people who read my book was that they loved the descriptions. The places the characters went, the cities, the sounds. One person said they loved the way the book talks about the paintings in the story. I was surprised and humbled.

Does that mean my writing was artistic!? Did I (ahem) Paint with words? 😃