Painting – Mike Chambers Art

Detail of oil painting of a man in a blue shirt, seated and facing the viewer

Inspiration My creative process Painting

Little Gems: Learning Big Lessons from Tiny Canvases

A few months ago, I decided to return to foundational technical practice. Specifically, I wanted to sharpen my color mixing accuracy, strengthen my compositions, and bring more discipline and thoughtfulness to my brushwork. My initial theory was simple: if I painted on tiny canvases, I…

Mike ChambersOctober 23, 2026

Oil painting of a young man wearing a wrinkled shirt by artist Mike Chambers

My creative process Painting

Gaps in Knowledge: What a Studio Cleanup Taught Me

For the past few months, I've been working on my craft—mostly concentrating on revisiting good practices that, for one reason or another, were abandoned or even forgotten. I'm focusing on the importance of composition, the benefits of a limited palette, and the rewarding discipline of…

Mike ChambersJune 6, 2026

Photo of a hand holding a small painting of a plein air artist in a landscape by artist Mike Chambers

Landscape Painting

A Painting from the Land of Nod

If I could carry a painting of a dream in my pocket, it might look like this -- a tiny little 3 inch by 4 inch canvas showing a painter in a landscape. The image is a bit grainy. It's not quite realistic, is it?…

Mike ChambersMarch 4, 2026

Photo of Mike Chambers painting a landscape

Landscape Painting

Beginning Again

A long time ago I promised myself that I'd one day return to landscape painting. Have you ever made a promise to yourself? You gotta keep it! A couple weeks ago I bought a French easel, stocked it up with good brushes and paints and…

Mike ChambersOctober 6, 2025

Digital Art Figurative My creative process Painting

Soubrette

Leah, 2000 Soubrette, 2025 One of my favorite things to do is to read the Goings On section of the About Town page in the New Yorker. In this week's issue, I came across the word soubrette in a description of an actor's role in…

Mike ChambersJune 15, 2025

Oil painting of three women standing in an arched doorway by artist Mike Chambers

Digital Art Figurative Painting

From Bad Photo to Masterpiece: Fixing ‘Green Goddesses’

Green Goddesses, not a great photo Green Goddesses I was thinking about how to fix my painting Green Goddesses. I remembered reading a story about Jackson Pollock going into a house where someone had one of his paintings and he insisted on making corrections to…

Mike ChambersMay 17, 2025

Two versions of the same painting of a woman in a robe standing in a doorway holding a cup of coffee by Mike Chambers

Figurative Interior My creative process Painting Work in process

A Wrestling Match: Layers, History, and the Truth of Painting

This is my artistic process: my paintings and drawings are the result of a wrestling match between me and the canvas. During this process I rework, erase, and even turn everything upside down to correct things, repaint and retry. One of the unexpected things that…

Mike ChambersMay 29, 2022