The #1 Question I Get Asked
It’s the question I hear most at art fairs and exhibitions, and honestly, I’m ok with it.
Someone stops in front of a painting, tilts their head, and asks, “How long did this take you?”
I give them the honest answer.
A week.
Two years.
Three sessions in my studio.
Sometimes less.
And then I watch them do the math. What I don’t say, but what I’m thinking, is that the painting they’re looking at also took the six months before it, when I was quietly wrestling with a color problem I couldn’t quite name. It took painting over a canvas six times two years ago that taught me everything about what not to do. It took a moment in a workshop when something cracked open and I thought, oh — so that’s what I’ve been trying to make.
This one was started at a workshop in Santa Fe in 2023.
After 2.5 years, I finally decided it needed resolution. Well, many layers and hours later, this is where I stopped…
Crazy, right? But over those 2.5 years, my style matured and I was finally ready to bring this piece to completion.
You can’t put a price on that process.
I came to painting later in life. I raised five children, created lesson plans,and crafted words. But somewhere in all of that I was also quietly noticing light, storing away color combinations, learning how to really look at things. By the time I picked up a brush with any seriousness, I’d accumulated lots of material to work with.
Because what you’re really buying isn’t hours logged. It’s the thousand small decisions that don’t even look like decisions anymore — because I’ve made them so many times they’ve become instinct.
A painting that looks easy usually has a lot of effort hiding inside.
And that, I think, is worth something.