Follow A New Collection Created Live
A 40-day chronicle documenting a new collection from first idea to finished work, in real time.
Most art shows up finished — framed, polished, already explained. This isn't that. For forty days, I'm building a brand new body of work completely in public: the first sketches, the failed attempts, the decisions I second-guess, and the moments when something finally clicks. If you've ever wondered what it actually takes to create a collection from nothing, you're in the right place.
The Making of Milk & Honey
The Promise
Receiving the vision. Exploring symbols. Defining the collection.
The Leaving
Moving from idea to action. Committing to the journey. Starting the work.
The Wilderness
In Progress
The long middle. Doubt, persistence, and learning to trust the process.
The Arrival
Coming Soon
The destination comes into view. The collection starts becoming what it was always meant to be.
The Inheritance
Coming Soon
Moving from idea to action. Committing to the journey. Starting the work.
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Milk and Honey
Coming Soon
Phase 1: The Promise
Every collection begins long before the paintings.
The first phase of Milk & Honey focused on exploring the vision behind the work and turning abstract ideas into something visual. Through scripture, symbolism, sketches, mind maps, mood boards, and concept development, the foundations of the collection slowly began to take shape. By the end of this chapter, the visual language was established and the first layers of paint had finally reached the canvas.
Phase 2: The Leaving
The collection moved from rough underpaintings into real paintings. Compositions shifted, foregrounds were reworked, and the first pieces finally emerged through layers of acrylic and oil paint. Three paintings were completed and named, while a growing group of new works began taking shape across the studio. Along the way there were unexpected interruptions, difficult days, and a much needed pause for rest, but the collection continued moving forward. What began as sketches, ideas, and experiments is now becoming a body of work.
Day 17: Preparing for the Week
Today has been quiet.
It's Sunday, which usually means less painting and more preparation. I've spent the day working on blog posts, organizing social media content, and getting things lined up for the week ahead.
Projects like this have a rhythm to them. Some days are all paint and creativity. Other days are planning, writing, organizing, and making sure the structure can support the creative work.
It's not the most exciting part of building a collection, but it matters.
One thing this project continues to teach me is that a collection doesn't appear because of a single inspired afternoon in the studio. It grows through hundreds of small decisions made consistently over time. The painting, the writing, the photography, the editing, the planning. All of it becomes part of the finished work.
Tomorrow I'll be back at the easel with eight paintings waiting for attention.
Today is simply about preparing the ground for the week ahead.
Day 18: Pivot
Today didn't go according to plan.
A large part of the day disappeared into appointments and dealing with some ongoing health issues, which wasn't how I expected to spend my studio time. There are seasons where life politely works around the creative process, and there are seasons where it absolutely does not.
Thankfully, I still managed to get some painting done.
The biggest win was finally figuring out one of the pieces I've been struggling with for days. I've been wrestling with the composition, trying to force something that wasn't quite working, and today I finally gave myself permission to change it.
The funny thing about painting is that sometimes progress looks like adding more paint, and sometimes it looks like letting go of an idea that isn't serving the piece.
Once I reworked the composition, everything started falling back into place. The painting finally feels like it's moving in the right direction again.
Not every day produces dramatic results. Sometimes the victory is simply showing up, making one good decision, and ending the day with more clarity than you started with.
Today, that was enough.
Before and After Today
Day 19: Back on Schedule
Works in progress ready to move from acrylics to oil tomorrow
Today was mostly about putting my head down and working.
By the end of the day, I finished the acrylic stage on all seven paintings currently in progress, which means they're ready to move into oils tomorrow.
That might not sound particularly exciting, but it feels like a major milestone from where I was standing a few days ago.
Between some unexpected health challenges over the weekend, losing half of yesterday to doctor appointments, and having a sick kid home today, the schedule took a few hits. That's life. It happens.
The good news is that the paintings kept moving anyway.
Sometimes progress looks dramatic. Sometimes it's a breakthrough, a finished piece, or a new idea.
And sometimes progress is simply getting the work to the next stage.
Tonight the studio is full of paintings waiting for oil paint, and for the first time in several days I feel caught up.
I'll take that win.
Day 20: Alive
Today was a big day in the studio.
I finished the acrylic stage on all seven paintings currently in progress and finally moved them into oils.
This is always one of my favorite transitions in a painting because it's the moment where everything starts coming alive.
The acrylic layers do a lot of heavy lifting. They establish the composition, solve problems, build structure, and figure out where the painting wants to go. But there's always a point where I know I've taken acrylics as far as they want to go.
That's where these pieces were this morning.
By the end of the day, every painting had received its first oil glazes and the change was immediate. Colors deepened. Atmosphere appeared. Areas that had felt flat suddenly started glowing.
There is still plenty of work left to do. Most of these pieces probably have another couple days of painting ahead of them.
But tonight feels different.
For the first time, I can see where they're going.
And I am very excited about it.
Day 21: Finding the Color
Today was less about building the paintings and more about deciding what they want to feel like.
Yesterday was all darks and structure. Today I started adding midtones, light, and color. This is the stage where the personality of a painting really starts to emerge.
One of the biggest changes happened in the color palette itself. The acrylic layers are mostly about solving problems. Composition, values, movement, structure. Once I switch to oils, the focus shifts toward atmosphere and emotion.
And some of paintings changed dramatically today.
Colors that felt cool and muted yesterday suddenly became warm and luminous. Areas that were mostly placeholders started becoming intentional. The overall mood of several pieces shifted as I made final decisions about where the light would live and how I wanted each painting to feel.
It's one of my favorite parts of the process because this is where the paintings stop being ideas and start becoming experiences.
There's still work left to do. Details, highlights, refinements, and all the little decisions that make a painting feel finished.
But tonight they feel alive.
I’m still deciding some of these but I’m pleased with the progress.
Day 22: My Birthday
Today is my day off.
It's Friday, it's my birthday, and somehow I am now 45 years old. When exactly did that happen?
This morning was mostly spent catching up on a few administrative tasks before shifting gears into something much more important: spending time with my kids.
We're in the middle of all the end-of-school-year activities right now, which means field trips, festivals, celebrations, and a calendar that suddenly feels very full. Today includes a school festival, a bowling field trip, and a movie and pizza night since that's what my 3 minions decided I wanted for my birthday.
The paintings will still be waiting for me tomorrow. I'll be back at the easel tomorrow with more progress photos and hopefully a few more paintings moving closer to the finish line.
Day 23 and 24
I've been debating how much I wanted to say about what happened this week.
The short version is that hormone issues combined with perimenopause landed me in the ER on Friday. I'm alright, but significant blood loss left me anemic, and recovery is going to slow me down more than I expected.
This weekend has looked less like painting and more like recovery. I've been writing, scheduling content, and reorganizing my workspace so I can continue working while giving my body the time and space it needs to recover.
It's not the update I wanted to give this weekend. I was hoping to be sharing finished painting reveals instead.
For now, Milk & Honey is still moving forward, just at a slightly slower pace than I anticipated.
Day 25: One Painting at a Time
Today I made it back into the studio. Not for one long painting session, but for several shorter rounds throughout the day.
Something unexpected happened because of it.
Up until now, I've mostly been thinking about these paintings as a collection. I've been moving groups of pieces through the same stages together, building layers across multiple canvases at once and focusing on the overall body of work.
Today forced me to slow down.
Instead of pushing several paintings through the next layer, I found myself sitting with one painting at a time and moving a lot slower. Looking at what that particular piece needed. Evaluating its color, composition, and atmosphere independently from everything happening around it.
In some ways, it felt like meeting the paintings again.
When you're working on a collection, it's easy to start seeing everything as part of a larger whole. Today reminded me that each painting still has its own voice, its own problems to solve, and its own destination.
