Bethany Studios

Yellow Bird

5x7"

January 2026

After dinking around with watercolor for the first time in over a year, I began dabbling in this so-called technique of squeegee painting.  This is where a medium - in my case acrylic ink, is scraped across the surface of paper with a tool of some sort. I bought mine at an estate sale.  I had some inks, but the bulk of my colors came from my sister - the depository of all art supplies.

I made some larger works first, which I may or may not showcase here, but decided that since I was just dinking around a smaller size would be more achievable.

A little background on my recent evolution as an artist: In 2021 I began dabbling in watercolor.  Up until quite recently I would only use words like dabble and dink to describe my art-making.  But a funny thing happened on the way to the forum: I began to produce artwork that was really good.  I mean, really good.  And this was such a surprise and revelation that I proceeded to get all in my head about it, quickly becoming addicted to the dopamine hits provided by social media comments and likes. And the pressure to keep surprising myself became poison.  So I stopped painting for a while.

Returning to the beginning of this year, which is when the pressure to create became greater than the pressure to surprise myself, I got my watercolors out and began making works based on colors and patterns and texture.  And they were fun to make and no pressure.  But I felt that I was making art that was not unique to who I am - I follow a bagillion accounts on Instagram that are people making just this kind of art.  And while we all find those process videos inspiring and entertaining, I knew I was capable of something more like me.

But how to go there?  Start painting birds again, but this time without pressuring myself.  I changed medium from watercolor to acrylic paint markers - a gift from my daughter which I initially thought I wouldn't enjoy that much ( especially since I had just invested a bunch of money in a set of prismacolor alcohol markers).  

Then I found the scraper at an estate sale and knew I wanted to try squeegee art.  My backgrounds became fertile, colorful places onto which I could make marks with a variety of implements, and placing a bird in the midst of all that pattern was the clincher - that and giving my birds a gold dotted halo because why not?

This series is not nearly as crazy-making as my watercolors were, and I approach each one with a sense of play and experiment.  This has allowed me to crank out a large portfolio of which I am quite proud to share with you and the world.  I think it is apparent in the work that I am having fun, finally, and that I have come home to where I belong, doing what I was created to do.