What is your medium now? (oils, acrylic, pastel, watercolor...) What medium have you always wanted to use, but haven't yet? What mediums have you used in the past? Why do you prefer your current medium?

My current, and probably future, medium is oil.

I always thought it would be really interesting and rewarding to sculpt - the whole three-dimensionality of it. However, my ultimate goals are usually pretty lofty and while I would want eventually to see a sculpture of mine in bronze, the whole process to get it to that stage seems fairly complex, messy, time-consuming, expensive and altogether daunting.

Since I began painting "late" in life, I feel that I will make the most progress by sticking to one medium. My view is that oil - while it is the least portable - is nonetheless the most versatile, the most forgiving, the richest and the most durable of the choices.

On the monthly paintouts, how do you decide what to paint? What draws your eye to a particular scene?

The juxtaposition of shape, color and light. While for me it is generally a question of simply seeking out a scene or a vignette that appeals to my personal aesthetics, there are occasions when I purposely seek a perspective or a frame that looks to be really difficult to capture satisfactorily. I do that when I am in a "learning and improving" mode, because I know in advance that while the chance of a "successful" outcome are slim, the tradeoff is that I am almost certain to discover something new to incorporate into my repertoire for future works.

What time of day are you most creative? Early morning? Afternoon? Early evening? Late at night? Which season do you feel most creative? Winter, Fall, Spring, Summer? Why?

Definitely in the morning, preferably the very early morning. Although I do not like the act of getting out of bed early, I do love it once I am up, and the warm light of the rising sun and the mood of the early mist always inspire me. Too bad it is so fleeting, but I suppose if it stayed like that all day it wouldn't be nearly as psychologically attractive. Early evening for the same reason.

And as for season, my favorites are late summer and fall, when the warmer color spectrum spreads into the otherwise all-too-green landscapes dominating the summer months. When the colors of the season are less inspirational to me, I spend a greater percentage of my time in my studio working on my still life paintings.

What do you think creates artistic blocks? How do you solve them?

For me, artistic blocks are sometimes created when I discover either a technique or a composition or a particular group of colors that appear to be so successful that I repeat them too often. In other words the inadvertent creation of, and mindless following of, a "formula". When I have an artistic block, the first place I look is to see if I have fallen into this trap and if so, my solution is to get out and paint something that would ordinarily never occur to me to paint; sometimes it is a subject that doesn't even necessarily appeal to me, using an "alien" palette of previously "nixed" colors. That usually breaks the pattern and fires up my inspiration in new directions, not to mention adding to my experience, knowledge and expertise.

Do you support yourself from your art? Or do you have another job? Or are you retired? How does this affect your time to paint?

I am retired from my 9-to-5 career and able to devote as much or as little time as I like to my art. I paint exactly when I want to paint. Sometimes I just might not feel inspired to paint for a couple of weeks and other times I paint virtually nonstop for days and nights on end. While I am fortunate enough at the moment not to have to support myself with my art, it is fair to say that I do need to support my art with my art. Depending on one's equipment, supplies, studio, education, etc., the expense of the profession can be high, but luckily my work does in fact more than pay for itself.

Do you have a personal website? Did you design it? Do you maintain it? If yes, how has that helped you market your art?

As I write this I do not have a personal website. I do, however, expect to have one in the not too distant future. As an artist, I see the necessity for this. Whether art is actually sold over the internet or not, a website certainly helps to familiarize potential future collectors with one's work, not to mention the accessibility of photos to one's doting families!

I elected not to have an "expert" build my site for me because I anticipate my wanting to tweak it every time I get a new idea and I don't want to be calling my geek every time that happens. So a couple of months ago I set about learning html. Thought it would be a piece of cake. Thought I would simply write some stuff on Word, import a couple of pictures, learn how to get that up onto the web, and I'd be set. Boy was I surprised! Anyway, I am in far enough now that I can actually see a light at the end of the tunnel and am very happy that I chose to go this route.

Be on the lookout for saritamoffat.com shortly!

Though most of us prefer working outdoors, do you prefer a studio where you live or maintaining a separate space? Why?

For myself I decidedly, absolutely and positively prefer a studio where I live. I cannot count the number of times I woke up in the middle of the night, quite inspired by a dream or just by thinking or by God knows what, and just had to get into my studio - for me a very well lit basement with lots of space - to paint that minute.

I really would not like to have a studio away from my home. I have been offered some lovely ones and the idea of working closely with other creative souls would be really attractive, but what happens when you go to all the trouble of getting there and the inspiration or the desire to paint had disappeared? What happens if you just need to frame one painting for a sale or a show? What happens when you have to face "rush hour" traffic getting home, not to mention the waste of time getting there and back other times? I did all that when I worked 9-5.

No, for me, I'll take the home studio any day. I can pop into it for 5 minutes or 5 hours, no planning needed. Now, if the "separate space" you are talking about is not someplace miles away but rather a perfect studio in a separate large-windowed, air-conditioned, heated, building in my back yard, then we could talk!

Do you listen to music when you are painting? Have a TV on? If yes, what are your favorites?

En plein air I prefer the sounds of nature - the wind in the trees, the bees buzzing, the rustling of the grasses, the trickling of water. Somehow all these contribute to the creative process. Da Vinci said that the degree to which our work is successful is directly related to the degree to which all our senses - not just "seeing" - are involved. In my studio I prefer to listen to music. The range of my favorites is pretty wide and flows from the classical Pavarotti, Bocelli and Groban to spiritual choral to African beat, Spanish flamenco, French torch songs, Portuguese fado and good old US country.

When did you first want to become an artist? (And when did you realize you were one?) Did you draw or paint as a child? What were your subjects?

I have wanted to be an artist for as far back as I can remember. But there was a pretty big gap between that and the time I realized I was one….

After taking up my long-repressed passion of painting following retirement at age 57, I had been at a 5-day workshop in Scottsdale, Arizona and I was delivering my paintings, packed in large, flat boxes, to the airline representative at check-in to be flown home. When she asked me what was in the boxes and I explained that they were paintings, she asked me if I was an artist. After a slight hesitation, and to my surprise, I found myself replying "yes". That was the first time I ever called myself an artist and the first time, to my utter delight, I realized I must actually be one.

As a child I drew constantly - mostly people, cartoons, flowers, simple still lifes.

How do you feel about art education- the value of a college degree, attending workshops, etc.? Art School vs a liberal arts education? Which path did you follow?

First of all I think that it takes three things to be a good artist - talent and knowledge and practice. The talent you have or you don't and the practice is up to you.

The education we're talking about here is actually the accumulation of the knowledge, and while I believe that it is indeed one of the elements crucial to reaching one's full potential, I think the manner in which this knowledge is gained is of little importance.

I can't really speak to a college degree in art, since I do not have one. I never studied art in school except for very rudimentary lessons in my early teen years, and had no instruction or experience until I retired. At that point my first step was to take a two-weekend still-life workshop. My art education consists of about 10 workshops from different artists, the devouring of numerous books on the subject, a handful of instructional videos and experimenting as much as I can. I intend to continue with all of these pursuits indefinitely. I have been asked why I did not study with one artist, and my response was because I did not want to paint like one artist. I want to paint like myself only better. My goal in taking the workshops was to learn as many techniques as possible from artists I admire, and then to set about applying whichever of those works for me. Some I try for a while and they stick, others get tossed as I work my way towards the goal of excelling at expressing on canvas what is in my heart.