A Painter’s Journey

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Part 4 – Diamonds in Your Own Backyard

In this seven-part series, artist John Hulsey takes you on a visual journey through his outdoor and studio painting processes.

Ilove to travel around the U.S. and Europe to paint. I have been honored to have been selected to work as an artist in residence in numerous national parks. There is something very freeing about being in a beautiful environment, far from our day-to-day concerns with nothing else to think about but inspiration and painting. Our hearts and spirits soar in those moments, but they are generally relatively rare in our everyday art lives. The remainder of our art-making hours are spent at home, in our studios and communities. Except for those who live in wonderfully scenic locations, most of us live in ordinary places, like the Midwest, where I live. Can beauty and inspiration also be found there? Of course! However, it can take some extra effort to find the diamonds in our own backyards. Everyone has either a backyard or a neighborhood in which to find interesting painting subjects, but often, we don’t consider what is near and very familiar to us as worthwhile. Why? It may be,

Where my ideas often get started is in my sketchbooks. Here I am studying water reflections and lilies in my little water feature on the patio. Keeping a regular sketching practice is essential to my art process.

A page from my watercolor sketchbook. I now have a shelf of these books filled with ideas and inspiration from which I can make larger paintings.