Phew summer is flying by and I have been out there enjoying life (in real life)! June was spent at the beach - Atlantic Beach, NY - where my grandparents used to have a beach house that we would visit every Labor Day. That house has long ago been sold, torn down, and rebuilt, but my sister was feeling nostalgic now that we have kids, so we found a monthly rental in this small, quiet, Long Island community, and decamped there for a whole month.

It was a month spent hosting family and friends coming and going, hitting up the waves and the swing set and grilling burgers while drinking beer. I didn't get as much painting done as I had hoped, but I did a ton of reading, catching up on The New Yorker magazine and finishing a few books on the Kindle - catch my whole summer reading list here.

I worked on an abstract floral commission in periwinkle, and that painting process continued to spur on my desire to create more and more of these expressive up-close-and-personal flowers. So that's my current plan for the rest of the summer ~ create a whole collection dedicated to these florals that I'll be able to launch for sale come fall. Stay tuned, and for a sneak peek, become an HLC Insider here.

In other exciting news, Arts Letters & Numbers, the artist residency program I attended last year in Upstate New York, has been named one of Artsy's "Most Inspiring Design Residencies" - read the full list here. Reading about this and the others on the list makes me want to venture afield to paint some more!

Happy painting, reading, swimming and SUMMER

xo

Hannah