by Jill Stefani Wagner

  Well, there's no getting around it. Sometimes we artists just hit a wall. The last couple of months have felt very much like that for me.   I can think of all kinds of excuses.   My favorite three seasons of the year were undeniably over. The excitement of painting outdoors, in new venues, with my cherished plein air friends, in a competitive but supportive environment ended in September. Plein air festivals flip my switch for so many reasons. As a driven athlete and business owner, they're similar to the way I've lived my whole life: quickly coming up with bold intentions and strong ideas, [...]

  Earlier this year I felt like I was in a real painting slump. All my ideas seemed boring for some reason, and I just couldn’t get excited about getting back into my studio. Instead of doing absolutely nothing, I decided to get busy toning canvases just in case the muses returned to me sometime in the future. And, as often happens, just the act of doing SOMETHING lead to a little excitement.   I found three 9″ x 9″ gallery-wrapped canvases that were very deep at 2.5 “. I have no idea where they came from. (Could it be the muses?) They seemed [...]

  Another step-by-step pictorial of my oil painting process… this time in just 3 steps starting with the small value study. I always plan to stop every so often and take photos. But I get so caught up in the creating that photography is the last thing on my mind…  ;o(       Interior oil painting    20 inches x 20 inches     See Pricing ___________________________________________________________________This artwork was created on: Linen CanvasMedium: Sennelier, Gamblin, Utrecht and Richeson Oil Paints [...]

    I thought I’d show one of my oil interior paintings from idea to completion–with just pictures. A kind of work-in-progress journey… The first image is a small 8″ x 8″ black and white value study and the other images show the larger painting in color.         Interior oil painting    20 inches x 20 inches       See Pricing  ___________________________________________________________________This artwork was created on: Linen CanvasMedium: Sennelier, Gamblin, Michael Harding, Utrecht and Richeson Oil Paints [...]

“Misty Morn” plein air landscape oil painting    10 inches x 10 inches      See Pricing What a lovely year 2018 was for plein air painting. Besides attending 5 national plein air festivals, I painted constantly around my own home town. There’s something about creating art on location that gives me waaaaay more information than any photo ever can. I painted this piece onsite on a foggy, wet, fall morning which allowed me to capture:   Big Shapes – I find it easier to see these fundamental building blocks of a composition when I squint my eyes outside and ignore the smaller shapes.   Atmosphere – The moisture in [...]