Between Brushstrokes
Welcome to Between Brushstrokes.
This is where I share the thinking, the dreaming and the real stuff that happens in between creating. There is no perfectly curated version of creative life here - just me being honest about this journey.
I am self-taught, I paint from the heart, and I believe art should feel accessible to everyone - whether you know your chiaroscuro from your impasto or you just know what you love.
Pull up a chair, I’m glad you’re here.
X Bri
Briar LOVES Blooms 4ever - Our origin story
"I've been thinking lately about where it all began.
Not the painting - I mean the obsession. The deep, cellular, can't-explain-it L O V E of flowers and botanical things that runs through everything I make and everything I am.
I keep coming back to the same place. A blessed childhood."
Why are you holding back?
"I was mid-painting the other night and this thought just dropped into my head out of nowhere — Why are you holding back? And honestly? It stopped me in my tracks. Because it's not the first time I've heard that."
The perils and payoff of the last 10%
"The last 10% of a painting is where it either becomes extraordinary - or where you completely blow it. I've done both. Here's what I've learned, including the time I painted a random person into a perfectly good painting and then had to pretend it was intentional."
Two Shops, zero regrets
"I needed to give myself permission to play — without it affecting my serious work. When everything lived together, my playful experiments felt like they were undermining the fine art. Neither could breathe properly."
Coming back
"I had to practice giving myself grace. And I'll be honest — I wasn't very good at it. It's a lot easier to say be kind to yourself than to actually do it when you're exhausted, stretched thin and quietly mourning a part of yourself you've had to put on hold."