Blog
Notes from the Paper Bird Studio

2015 – Business On Hold, A Time For Recovery
I have been contacted by many nice people wishing to purchase wall easels. Too often, I have been slow to reply and unable to provide an exact time frame for when I expect to resume selling easels. I should explain why. Earlier this year, we learned…

Introducing The New Tueller Wall Easels
A number of artists have asked me to custom build extra tall wall easels for them. To ensure that the masts will remain as straight as possible at larger dimensions, I’ve redesigned them to be more rigid and lighter weight…

2015 – Winter Delays in Wall Easel Production
For those who have asked about the availability of Tueller Wall Easels, I am indeed still making them! There have been some necessary delays while I’ve been making upgrades to my humble, one man woodworking operation…

How I Built An Artist Taboret for Under $200
This is a followup post, providing an overview of how I went about constructing an artist taboret for myself for under $200…I cheated a little bit and started with an old, battered, mouse infested dresser that my parents had stored away for decades in a shed…

Walnut and Oak Artist Taboret
With my renewed interest in oil painting, I decided that I needed a proper artist taboret for my studio. I had some pretty specific ideas in mind about what features I would need. After several weeks of tinkering around, here’s what I came up with…

Lucas, Little Bed Head
I’d promised myself that I’d make at least one painting before his second birthday…So without further adieu, here’s a pastel painting of Lucas at 21 months, bathed in the early morning sunlight in the moments just after waking up.

Two New Portraits, Robin & Kayla
After lingering on the easels for several months, being worked on a little here and there, I’m finally calling these portraits of my lovely and brilliant stepdaughters, Robin and Kayla, complete…

Space Saving Wall Easel Revisted
Back in December of 2012, I wrote about the do-it-yourself space saving wall easel I’d conceived and built for our art studio. Since then, I have received a surprising number of inquiries and comments about my design…To those who have inquired about purchasing wall easels, I am actively looking into what it might cost to construct, package and ship easels similar to what I’ve made for myself…

New Figurative Painting
This painting of my stepfather was started last Winter as a simple monochromatic figurative study in casein. It was cast aside for other projects until recently being resurrected and developed further with soft pastel…

Seeing Artworks in Person
This day and age any person can see an endless world of art online. Google some artist’s name or subject matter, browse through museum databases — Why even bother going to a museum when one need not leave the comfort of their home to get a general impression of an artwork? …

The Emotional Perils of Making Art
Each time I start a new painting, I feel a particular excitement. I feel inspired, even confident. I see limitless possibilities…Two or so days later, I am feeling dismal…

Portrait of Lucky the Dog
Our dear friends Carey and Lisa commissioned me to paint a portrait of their boxer, Lucky. The photo session was a lot of fun. Lucky is an extraordinary dog — handsome, outsized personality and a lot of energy! Cindy took over two hundred photos of Lucky during the course of the photo shoot as Lucky was in nearly constant motion…