The caption for a painting workshop I taught last July was "Break Free and Loosen Up—Brave and Bold Abstract Painting.” For me, painting means taking risks with the art elements- but it also means taking risks internally- ignoring perfectionism, quieting worries and letting go of a perceived end product. So when a student asked me one morning in class if I would demo an abstracted landscape that same afternoon-using only my knives-I did. I selected a quick sketch I’d done while on my road trip through New Hampshire in May, used the paint on my palette from the morning, and stood in front of my students, voicing my thoughts as I spread paint across the surface. Thank goodness my public school art teacher years prepared me to model “making” for an audience, though I still call on my reserves of inner courage. That's why I call this painting “Be Brave.”

Available March 7 at the opening of Lost and Found, Dare Gallery, Charleston SC