Relax Chair"

This is my "relax" chair.

I love to sit out here in the evenings when there's a cool breeze and just do nothing. My dogs come and lay near me and I can hear the birds singing. Very peaceful. The roses are at their prime. They are so pretty and I didn't even prune or fertilize them this year. They're pretty forgiving. Tomorrow morning I'm going over to take pics of my neighbor's yard and garden for future paintings. if I get any good shots, I'll post one.

"GETTING ORGANIZED"

This is my "show organizing" system:

I buy more canvas than I know I'll use. I look through past paintings, reference material, photos, and new things I'd like to try. I then organize them by subject matter and by size. The photo you see here are all of the small pieces - ranging in size from 5"x5" to 12"x24". I know I won't complete all of these but I will have plenty of canvas for my show in July. I include sunflowers, canyon women, Taos, landscapes, wild meadows, adobes, etc. I like to have a well-rounded show with lots of variety. I actually have about 70 canvases right now ready to go, the largest being 48"x60". These will carry me all the way through to September when I will start painting for a November show. Tomorrow night I will show you a pic of the scenery outside my studio door where I go to relax, read, and forget about work for awhile.

"JOURNEY'S END"

"JOURNEY'S END"

6" x 12" Acrylic on Canvas

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Tonight's painting is from a photo I took on the way to Taos. I love the sky and the red that shows through in lower parts of the landscape

"GOLDEN HILLS"

"GOLDEN HILLS"

8" x 10" Acrylic On Canvas

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Well, here is tonight's painting.

I love landscapes and started looking through some photographs and became inspired to do this piece. It portrays the end of the day and shows a dry arroyo with the last little bit of golden light playing over the hills.

I already have tomorrow's painting completed because tomorrow it's SHOWTIME!

I will be painting nonstop from now until the middle of July and will try to do two small paintings each week for your viewing and bidding pleasure.

P.S. I'm trying to get to those requests that several of you have asked for.

Keep watching....

Grad Party

Hi Everyone,
I was too tired from getting ready for the graduation party to complete a small painting today. The party was a great success, but if you're like me, when you get ready for an event like this, you have to make sure that you clean things that haven't been cleaned in years. So I haven't even been in my studio today. The party was great though - all kinds of enchiladas, guacamole, and Nana's homemade sopapillas, yum.

Look for a painting tomorrow night.
Dee

"FINISHED COMMISSION"

Here's a look at the completed painting. I love it!

Lots of house and yard cleaning for the party tomorrow so the next small painting will be Sunday night. Any requests, let me know.

Happy Memorial Day.....

"WORK IN PROGRESS"

Work in progress 30"x40"

Tonight I am showing you the progression of a commission I'm working on. The first pic shows the toned canvas with a rough sketch in thinned paint. The next pic shows the completed painting before outlining. I will show the finished piece tomorrow. I painted the original piece about 4 years ago and it's been my favorite ever since. I've never been able to duplicate it to my satisfaction. But this comes pretty close. You can see the original on my website www.deesanchez.com titled "Blanketed".

See you tomorrow night.

"ORANGE CLAY"

"ORANGE CLAY"

8" x 10" Acrylic on Canvas

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I was missing my sunflowers so here they are! Normally I tone each canvas, but these flowers I painted straight on white - it gives them a brighter, bolder look. I will be finished with my commission tomorrow and then spend a day or two getting ready for a graduation party. I will sit down tonight and work up my subjects and sizes for the June and July show and get my cardstock and post-it notes out to set everything up.

May 19

Hi Everyone.

I haven't had time to do a daily painting - I'm finishing up a commission and getting ready for a graduation party that we're having next weekend. That means lots of cleaning. Like behind stuff and everything. The kind no one likes to do!

I got my new easel!

I'm happy that it's so big but mostly I love the fact that it has wheels and I can position it all over the studio. It's going to be hard to do that first painting and break it in. I plan on having a new small painting on Sunday night ,

so stay tuned.....

"SUNFLOWER CROSS"

"SUNFLOWER CROSS"

8" x 8" Acrylic on Canvas

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I have always wanted to do a series of crosses, working on large canvases, but just never seem to find the time. So I am presenting this small painting for your viewing.

It's the first of many.

"OLD TOWN SUMMER"

"OLD TOWN SUMMER"

8" x 10" Acrylic on Canvas

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This painting is from a photo I took when I was doing painting demonstrations at Old Town last summer. I walked by this little shop that had hollyhocks in full bloom. I really wanted to get out my paints but didn't have time, so I took a photo. I hope this painting captures just a little bit of the essence of those flowers that day.

"LEGACY ART EVENT"

Hi Everyone,

I had a great time last night at the Legacy Art event. Here are photos of featured artist Kevin Red Star's auction painting and also of Lou Diamond Philips during the live auction. We all raised a lot of money for art scholarships. There will be a new small painting up for auction tomorrow night.

Happy Mother's Day!

"WILDFLOWER GARDEN"

"WILDFLOWER GARDEN"

8" x 10" Acrylic On Canvas

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Today I had no plans to do a small painting - we had so many things going on - but I decided to and I had no idea at all what to paint. I asked my daughter and she said, "Flowers", so I started throwing paint on canvas and this is what burst forth. I like how colorful the piece is and I like the fact that it was totally spontaneous. Thanks, Mog!

DAY 5

This is a small painting I created for my friend Judith's birthday.

I asked her to choose the subject matter. I am just finishing up commissions - and I got HALF of my studio cleaned up. It's funny, my neighbor across the street (you know who you are, Marcee!) reads my blog and I saw her outside today and she yelled across the street, "Hey Dee, have you cleaned your studio up yet?" It's like a black cloud over my head.....

DAY 4

Since we were in the car running errands ALL day, there's not much to report. I did pay off my easel, they're delivering it next week. Woohoo! I bought some 8"x10" canvases for daily painting and tried to start organizing some of my canvases for the show. They picked up my finished painting for the Legacy Art event that happens this Saturday. I'm attending an artists' party this Friday night, it's so nice because they really treat the artists well and have a cool get together with a wonderful spread of food. Below is a picture of our newest boy, Roy. He's a year old and he and his five year old sister Rosie sleep in my studio every night. Tomorrow my plan is to stay home all day, finish my commissions and get this studio clean once and for all.

DAY 3

I finally got some work done today!

I finished the piece for the Art has Heart Foundation (www.arthasheart.org) and had it framed. I also worked on a new painting for my upcoming show. You can see pics below. One thing I did not get done was CLEAN MY STUDIO. Ugh. I guess I'm putting it off as long as possible. Tomorrow I am getting a new easel! I've been paying on my easel for 5 months now. I can finally paint HUGE works without having to put them on the floor. I have to seriously sit down tomorrrow and plan for the June show. I organize on the wall with post-its full of canvas sizes and subject matter. Sizes range from 8x10 to 48x60 and subjects include sunflowers, landscapes, canyon women, wild gardens and much more. It's always fun to do this part - much harder to actually complete the work! I always think about doing prints or notecards, in addition to originals, but never seem to have the time. I have four commissions to complete within this time frame and will work on those for the next couple of weeks. I would like to go to the local nursery and buy a few tomato plants too, maybe I'll put that on the list for tomorrow. I think the hardest thing about being an artist is finding balance within work, family, health, friends, etc. There just never seems to be enough time and your art just sort of becomes your life. It's solitary and an artist needs that time alone to think and dream about future work. Do any of you artists out there have the same dilemma?

"WARM GLOW"

"WARM GLOW"

8" x 10" Acrylic on Canvas

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I painted this piece because I really need to be sitting on that hill right now!

What a day -

I started off with great intentions; meditate, exercise, finish outlining a painting to take for framing and CLEAN MY DIRTY STUDIO. Well, let's just say so far the only thing that has been accomplished was the exercise, mainly because I gave my husband a list of "healthy and fit" things I was going to do every day this week and Go to Curves on Monday was on it.
We're trying to spruce up our house a bit and this morning I dealt with two guys and a big backhoe putting in a new sewer line, four guys doing a much-needed yard clean-up, a lady who came and gave me a ONE HOUR window replacement presentation. ONE HOUR, mind you. I know more about window replacements now than she does. I also took numerous phone calls, went to get gas, the bank, the store. I should never try actually get any work done on Mondays.
So tonight I will work for a bit, then sit down and get ready for the TV show "24", which makes me bite my nails off but I love it anyway. Tomorrow I will make a list of canvases I need for the show, start a new commission and I will send pics of MY CLEAN STUDIO , along with some new things I'm starting to work on.

Adios

DAY 1

Hi and welcome to Day 1 of my "Getting Ready for the Show" blog diary.

Today has been an outlining day. I'm working on a fundraiser piece for the Art has Heart Foundation, which was started by the well-known artist Amado Pena. This event is such fun. I will take some pictures and have them next Monday for you to see. Several celebrities attend and they have a great live auction. This painting has taken forever and I should be done with it tomorrow and it goes to framing. The pictures following are the piece almost complete and some up close detail of the outlining.

Tomorrow I will clean my studio, start working on my next three commissions and plan for the show.

Stay tuned!

Outlining Close up

"Getting Ready For Showtime"

Hi Everyone -
Well, it's "Getting Ready For Show Time" again!
Which is exciting but also a lot of work.
I have shows in both June and July which means that Daily Paintings will become Weekly Paintings starting this Monday until after July 15.

I have decided to chronicle the entire process of getting ready for these shows on the blogsite, so you can follow and see what's involved from start to finish. This will include everything, from decisions about subject matter to setting up the booth for the shows. I'm hoping to keep you interested with lots of photos and commentary. The "blog diary" starts Sunday, so stay tuned. I appreciate your comments and feedback and if I post a painting for the show and you would like to purchase before the shows, please email me for more information. deesanchezart@hotmail.com

I am also doing a five day plein air Paint-Out this July in Santa Fe with an exhibit at a Santa Fe gallery to follow. I will also blog about that experience, which should be a blast!
I will be sending daily email blogs, so if you would like to be notified when they're complete, please add your name to our email sign-up list.

Thanks for watching!

"OLD WINDOW"

"OLD WINDOW"

10" x 8" Acrylic on Canvas

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This painting makes me happy.

I love old windows, especially when they're surrounded by adobe and the flowers make me think of spring.

"ASPEN VALLEY"

"ASPEN VALLEY"

12" x 6" Acrylic on Canvas

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Just a nice little painting of a New Mexico valley overflowing with aspens. There's also a canyon with touches of rusts and reds to draw your eye downward.

"LITTLE HACIENDA"

"LITTLE HACIENDA"

8" x 8" Acrylic on Canvas

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I love this painting - it's a composite of several photos of little adobe houses. To me, it feels like a grandma's house. She's just waiting for someone to come visit and she probably has a good supply of beans, red chile, and hot sopapillas ready.