Paintings | Thomas Michael Nieman Art | Pennsylvania based Painter

The Beginner’s Guide to Nature Journaling: Unlocking Curiosity, Memory, and Wonder As a naturalist, I have observed that our human attention is a fragile thing. We are lucky if a powerful experience stays with us for more than 15 minutes before the brain’s default setting—to "select all and delete"—kicks in to make room for the next distraction. Our attention is the most precious currency we have, yet we spend it recklessly. Nature journaling is your defense against this eras

There's a trap a lot of us fall into before we ever pick up a brush, a pencil, a chisel, or a camera: researching the "right" way to do something until the research itself becomes the whole activity. It feels productive. It even feels like progress. But at some point, reading about technique stops teaching you anything a blank page or an empty canvas couldn't teach you faster — and a lot more honestly. I've come to think the fix isn't trying harder to get it right. It's chang

I used to think mistakes arrived the way disasters do in movies — one big, obvious moment where you clearly should have known better. The more I've paid attention to my own, the less that's turned out to be true. Almost none of the mistakes that have actually cost me anything showed up as a single dramatic choice. They showed up as a pile of small, forgettable ones, made on autopilot. Often they offered short and intermediate-term benefits. Quietly, and upon reflection quite

Recently, the water pump went out on our pickup truck while I was driving home from a workshop I'd hosted about an hour from our house. It was, needless to say, a frustrating experience. The unexpected expense, the lost time, the added stress — all of it added up to a rough couple of days. But one thing from that experience has stayed with me: the ride to the repair shop in the AAA tow truck. The driver was friendly, and he had reggae music blasting the entire way. What struc

The more I experience life, the more convinced I become that the act of noticing is not a one-time event. Noticing is more of a process — one that unfolds in stages, evolves over time, and requires active maintenance if we wish to perceive the world in a meaningful way. Active maintenance is well-worth the effort because our attention and what we tend to notice also tends to create our reality and influences what we become. "The luminous and shocking beauty of the everyday i

Your Minimalist Painting Adventures Await... Stop hauling heavy gear. Master the "Pocket Studio" with the new Mini Mint Tin Plein Air course. Learn how to fit your entire professional setup—including a 5-color landscape palette and wood panels—inside a standard mint tin and head out to paint beautiful scenes in 20-30 minutes! It’s the ultimate way to paint spontaneously while hiking or traveling without the bulky equipment . This course will provide all you need to enjoy the

What if you could take home more than photos from your time in the Poconos? In this relaxed, beginner-friendly creative workshop, you’ll learn how to capture your travel experience through visual journaling — combining simple drawing, expressive mark-making, and reflective prompts in a way that feels playful and accessible. No prior art experience is needed. If you can hold a pen, you can do this. Hosted by a working artist and daily open-studio creator, this experience is de

Most mornings, before the emails start and the workday pulls in its claims, I go live. The Early Morning Open Studio isn’t a performance. It’s not polished. It’s not optimized. It’s simply a quiet hour of showing up. Coffee nearby. Blank canvas. Sketchbook open. Multicolored ballpoint pens or whatever materials are within reach. Sometimes I’m studying a master. Sometimes I’m working through a problem. Sometimes I’m just trying to see more clearly. The point isn’t to create a

“A Treatise on Painting” Leonardo da Vinci Translated from the original Italian by John Francis Rigaud Illustrated with Twenty-three Copper-plates, and other figures This work is in the Public Domain. See link below to full free pdf copy. Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Rennaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested

Imagine stepping outside with your easel, paints, and brushes to capture the natural beauty of the Pocono Mountains in real time. Now, this dream is a reality with the launch of Plein Air Paint in the Pocono Mountains on Airbnb Experiences. This unique offering invites art lovers, beginners, and seasoned painters alike to immerse themselves in the outdoors while creating original artwork inspired by the stunning landscapes of the Poconos. Whether you want to try painting for

Keys to Painting Trees and Foliage (edited by Rachel Rubin Wolf, North Light Books) is what you’d call a practical instructional art...

How to Use Facebook Collections to Organize Artistic Reference Material Introduction: If you're an artist, you know how crucial it is to...

Have you ever wished you had an inexpensive, sturdy, flexible and reliable system for carrying your wet plein air panels after a painting...

Yes! Mental models —those powerful thinking frameworks used by top performers in business, academia, investment titans and science...

If you're a plein air painter, you know the struggle: you're out in the field, the light is changing fast, and your gear is a mess. Your...

9 rules from Stoicism grounded in wisdom, and translated beautifully into the life of a landscape painter , tailored to help guide...

Hikers, fishermen and dog walkers seem to love walking along the path left behind in years past by the Wilkes-Barre & Eastern (WB&E)...

Long ago, seeds for several book ideas were planted in my mind. Admittedly this was not one of them but about eight months ago I started...

“Morning Walk on the Pathway Behind Blue Mountain Lake” 5” x 7” oil on linen. Painted on site and finished off in studio Healing Through...

The more I paint, the more I realize that it’s just not that important to always find a new place. This group of paintings and sketches...