Art can come alone. Individual artworks appear because the spark struck and their creation became inevitable. Yet sometimes entire groups of artworks, visually intertwined, are born together. I thought I would share with you my process for the latter—how and why I create a collection of artworks and what that looks like inside my mind and studio.

The inspiration

Unlike an individual artwork sparked by a single source—say, a plein air painting inspired by a landscape or an abstract piece serving as personal therapy—a collection is often born from an idea. Perhaps nature provides the seed: the ocean, seashells, or a remembered place.

For example, my latest collection, Gilded Portals (still in progress), began with memories of the worlds I invented as a child: a tropical island, a windswept meadow, a cliffside forest. I tried to paint these imagined places before, but they often fell short of the magic in my mind. With time, study, and the influence of great landscape artists—like the Hudson River School painters and the Impressionists—I began to see how these worlds might finally come alive.

The weaving of imagery

For many collections, I create a vision board by collaging printouts, magazine cuttings, and my own work to gather imagery in one place. For this collection, I was drawn to the garden and the seaside—motifs I wanted to thread throughout the art. I was also pulled toward gold and metallics. These materials catch the eye immediately and can make almost anything feel elevated and sacred. After which I often sketch out ideas for the collection in a notebook and then begin with a smaller painting called- a study.

*the first completed study from the Gilded Portals collection*

The study

I have painted with gold trim before, mainly because I love the look of old master paintings framed in ornate baroque styles. Since I couldn’t afford antique frames for each piece, I thought: why not paint them in? That sparked the idea that these dreamworlds could be bordered in trompe l’oeil frames, guiding the eye inward—a gilded portal into my imagined world.

But there remained a challenge: how to translate a place in my mind (foggy, unbound by physical rules) onto canvas in a way that is visually compelling. Enter AI.

*an image I generated thru Chat GPT with incredibly detailed descriptions and instructions of the place I saw in my mind*

I resisted at first, feeling it might be “cheating.” But when I entered detailed descriptions of these places, with colors and moods inspired by favorite artists, some of the generated images were surprisingly close. They became reference photos. I realized this was no different from using any other reference. The guilt faded. This tool arrived just in time to help me make the art I had always dreamt of. (Not every piece in the collection uses AI references; some are drawn from real places or earlier works.) Together, they form a body of images that represent the kind of romantic world-building I want to bring forth. From this place was born the first study of Gilded Portals.

The process and learning curve

As with any collection, there were hurdles. I used real gold foil, which was sometimes a struggle. Some images required more fine-tuning on canvas than I expected. I also saw clearly what AI could not capture: the exaggerated texture of a brush, the irregularities of paint. Those became points I leaned into, emphasizing the hand of the artist.

The push

You’ve likely heard of “flow”—that state when art seems to create itself and time stops. I experienced it here. But what isn’t talked about often is the plateau. I’ve almost always lost the flow before a collection is complete. The key is the pause, the breath, and then the push.

When I reached that plateau, I took a vacation and began a 30-day painting challenge devoted to my surroundings. Nature still inspires Gilded Portals—earth itself informs the imagined places in my mind. I needed to reconnect with the real world before returning to the one I was creating.

Now I’m back in the final push, with just a few paintings left to finish. I’m proud of this group. These works pull you inward like portals—conceptual yet familiar, painterly and alive, framed in gold to remind us that beauty and richness are not reserved for a few, but exist within and around us.

Gilded Portals will be released by the Autumnal Equinox, and I can’t wait to share them with you. Sign up here for my newsletter if you don’t want to miss the release.

A note for collectors

If you’re drawn to landscapes on a more intimate scale, I still have several works available from my 30 Days of Presence series—smaller, affordable originals created during that daily painting challenge. They’re a wonderful entry point for collectors who want to bring one of these moments of presence home. Click here to view the collection.

Starting a New Collection