scratchboard

I am proud to share my latest art show news. First, my scratchboard “I Love A Challenge” is an award-winner in the 14th Annual Exhibition of the International Society of Scratchboard Artists (ISSA). My still-life of favorite game pieces won the Ampersand Award for the Active Member Division. Forty-two artists from around the world are represented with 60 outstanding scratchboard paintings. This year’s show takes place through November 15, 2025, at the Page-Walker Arts & History Museum, Cary, NC. The … Read More

Have you ever heard that scratchboards are unforgiving and mistakes can’t be fixed? Forget those rumors, I’ve proven this is not true (fortunately)! This project began three years ago, when I took a one-day workshop focused on setting up still life arrangements as references for paintings. The class was presented by my dear friend and gifted trompe l’oeil artist Laurie, who is also a terrific art instructor. When each student was ready to create an arrangement, Laurie provided different sized … Read More

My newest scratchboard is an alpaca, from photos I took several years ago of the three alpaca pets a friend was raising. Not long after my photo shoot I did my first alpaca painting, a colorful watercolor on Aquabord™ titled “Happy Harley.” For this newest art, I selected one of the alpacas named Charlie – I was inspired to create a scratchboard painting of him. The hair kept grabbing my attention!

I’ve been having a terrific time creating small scratchboard artwork, while also exploring subjects new to me. Each of these four new scratchboards is just 3”x5”, the size of an index card. The beauty of scratchboards, and one of the reasons I love creating art on them, is the ability to render very fine details – even at a small size. This characteristic is what draws viewers to my scratchboard paintings, always curious how such precision and exactness is achieved … Read More

A walk through my friend Lil’s gorgeous gardens inspired my newest scratchboard “Summer Hummer.” I had been pondering a suitable painting subject to use some new metallic watercolors. A male ruby-throated hummingbird seemed perfect, with his sparkling emerald crown and red throat. I could paint our summer visitor as if he were hovering in front of a flower to sip nectar; Lil’s brilliant red tubular flowers of “Crocosmia Lucifer” (native to South Africa) gave me the ideal floral reference. A … Read More

When I display my scratchboard artwork, these are the most common questions I hear: What is Scratchboard? How long does it take you to do a scratchboard? Do you need a lot of patience? How do you add color? What if you make a mistake? I answer all these questions below. My newest scratchboard “Warm Fuzzies,” which I recently showed in progress for several scratchboard demonstrations, is now finished and posted below, with detailed step-by-step photos and explanations to help … Read More

I’ve just hung over 40 pieces of my artwork in a 3-month solo exhibition! My scratchboards are featured, along with many of my watercolors, acrylics, and prints. The Art Gallery walls are full at the Rarity Bay Community Activity Center in Vonore, Tennessee. It is a beautiful venue and I am delighted to be able to present my work there. “Making Our Marks” is the title of the show, and it is the first in the gallery to feature artwork … Read More

Have you ever noticed a background in a photograph which has blurry circles of light against darker areas? This is a “Bokeh” effect, and is comes from a Japanese word meaning “blur quality.” Evidently it means than just the blur, it’s the overall effect of the soft out-of-focus background, from an aesthetic viewpoint. I have used this effect in watercolor paintings in the past, and recently saw other scratchboard artists apply bokeh nicely to their backgrounds. So I decided to … Read More

Knoxville Tennessee hosts a First Friday ArtWalk every month. In October two of my paintings will be featured in a gallery opening! The Emporium Center presents “As We Interpret Our World,” a special juried exhibition of artists from the 200+ members of the Art Guild of Tellico Village. My scratchboard “I Love A Challenge” and my watercolor “Blackberry Blossom” were selected to appear among 48 works of mixed media chosen for this show. But wait, there’s more… “I Love A … Read More

One of my newest scratchboards has been accepted into the 2023 Exhibition of the International Society of Scratchboard Artists. Members from all over the world will be featured at this 12th annual International Exhibition at the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum in Tucson Arizona from October 14 – December 10, 2023. The scratchboard art in this show would take your breath away, it is so amazing. I am proud to have my “Hillbilly” among such great company. A fabulous goat photo … Read More