I Love M. Graham Oil Paints

Creating beautiful oil paintings without poisoning myself and the world is important to me. I have been oil painting for nearly four decades and have never been happier than when I paint with M. Graham & Co. walnut oil based paints. Over the years I have tried nearly every high-priced professional art oils on the market and I keep coming back to M. Graham.

Crystal Gazing and a Limited Palette

Recently old photographs of my family have fascinated and inspired me to reinterpret them in paint. Its a special way to connect to some really wonderful people. Here, for example, is my aunt Lolo, and my father, Richard in 1927. They were Americans both born in Paris, France during the 1920s when my grandfather, Lewis Adams, was studying architecture at the École des Beaux Arts.

John O’Donohue on Creativity and the Divine Imagination

The late poet philosopher John O’Donohue’s concept of beauty goes far deeper than popular culture’s superficial view. He wrote, “At the deepest level, creativity is holiness. To create is to further the dream and desire of the creator. When the world was created it was not a one-off, finished event. Creation is a huge beginning, not a finished end. Made in the image and likeness of the Divine Imagination, human creativity helps to add to creation. The unfinished is an invitation to our imagination. This is what happens in experience: the unfinished reaches towards us in order to come to form and expression…Everything we feel, think and do, even the smallest thing, expresses and unfolds the dream of God.”

White Mums
A Short Video Demo

White Mums was an early experiment in floral painting for me. I was fascinated by the surfaces and textures and found the challenge of recreating their effects exhilarating. I have to say I was happy with the results. DEMO NOTES: 0:04 – Pencil drawing on primed canvas 0:10 – Viridian and Yellow Ochre thinned with […]

Leather Box
Short Video Demo

This leather box originally belonged to my grandfather, Lewis G. Adams. He has been my life-long inspiration and hero. An American art student in Paris during the 1920’s, he became a major architect in New York City. He was also an accomplished watercolor painter. Above all, he was one of the most creative, funny, generous and compassionate human beings I ever knew.