Last month, my Opa (my maternal grandfather) passed away at age 99. As a tribute to his life, I painted this portrait of him sitting on his favorite bench in British Columbia, gazing at the beautiful mountains of Creston Valley

Stowed away in a little box, I have a set of 20+ journals from the beginning of my marriage, starting in June 2011. I'm slowly recreating them with illustrations and curation, giving them a second life and giving me endless inspiration for creating art with gouache, a type of paint I wanted to try out.

“Balcony Sunbeam” is my second painting in a series called Fear/Love about conflicting emotions, darkness and light. It was inspired by the little balcony we had when my daughter was a toddler and relished being outside in the sun.

This painting is part of a series entitled "Fear/Love" which explores conflicting emotions and plays with darkness and light. Since I enjoy reading about the process behind art, I've started this blog to share the process behind my own work, beginning with this portrait.