A theme for me this year (and probably forever, going forward) is creating these colorful dreamscapes to music. I have always been a music lover, from simple appreciation to growing up playing the flute, piano, guitar, singing…nothing has ever moved me quite like music. That is, until I started painting.

Music and painting together? I’m in heaven.

So, these dreamscapes are a glimpse into what heaven looks like in my mind. Bits and pieces of places I’ve been, sunsets I’ve witnessed, landscapes that make my heart ache, filtered through the lens of the magic and melody of whatever is playing in my ears.

I seek to paint with movement, like a dance between brush and surface. I use color to evoke the mood and energy. When it’s done, maybe it’ll take you somewhere. I invite you to stay a while and gaze. Zoom in close. Let your mind wander and your imagination frolick.

The Creative Process

For this, I pulled my color palette from my last dreamscape painting into Adobe Fresco on my iPad. I used an Apple Pencil and created lots of layers, played with texture brushes and erasers, trying to mimic how I’d work over a physical canvas. I haven’t created a digital piece since last June (“Cinque Terre”), so I’ve learned some things in that time about how I want to create.

From there, I pulled it into Photoshop to add some surface texture as the final step.