Still life painting has a very different dynamic than plein air and landscape painting. With still life, what you’re painting doesn’t move, change with the wind or the light of the day. It gives you a chance to arrange, dictate the composition, even choreograph the lighting. I find it refreshing, soothing, a very different learning curve after the ‘caffeinated’ experience of plein air painting.

 

These days many of my still life paintings are from objects in the collection of the Yellowstone Heritage and Research Center. I began painting there more than a decade ago. The wide variety of objects in their collection are fascinating and full of stories. With all the history wrapped in there, the archives thoroughly intrigue me…. Like a kid in a candy store, I keep going back for more!