I paint with acrylics on watercolor paper, using the process of layering the paint and scratching back to reveal unique colors and textures in my paintings.
 
White Dove Flying ~ was the first painting of 2024. I actually sketched the bird out months ago for the crow but then decided to use a larger size paper for that painting. I had been looking at the sketch in my studio and soon decided to turn the crow into a dove. It seems to me we need more peace in our world with the wars being fought now. I wanted to focus on creating a lovely white dove to symbolize peace. It was fun to layer all the colors around the dove to see what unfolded. I’m fairly pleased.
On twitter tthe other day I saw a quote by the Buddist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, He says, If we want peace we have to be peace, peace is a practice not a hope. That struck a cord in me, it makes sense, I had some challenging issues come up in these past few months and was in a somewhat negative frame of mine. This quote helped me get more perspective. I’ve made it one of my goals for the year to practice peace. If more of us practiced being peaceful, maybe we can add more peace to the world.