Thursday, July 31, 2014

I have four new Retro Challenge paintings!
to view, please click HERE 
or go to www.deeretrochallenge.blogspot.com

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

finally...a little vacation

We just had our 37th wedding anniversary
and decided to celebrate by going to our favorite place,Taos, New Mexico.
We rented a house and spent two nights.

I have put the images in large format so you can better view them.
Please let me know what you think.

Taos and the surrounding area is always beautiful, even in the height of summer.
We got rained on coming in to the canyon and this was our view of the 
Rio Grande Gorge after horseshoe curve.
It was very misty and mysterious.


Arroyo Seco was beautiful too. 
Lots of puffy rain clouds and beautiful mountain shadows.


The house where we stayed had these beautiful horses 
running around in the field next door.
We found the secret to getting them to come and talk to us - apples!


A beautiful sunset on Blueberry Hill.
This so reminded me of an ocean wave - I almost expected a surfer to emerge!
I just painted my version of this, #74 on my upcoming Retro Challenge show.
I had to eliminate the telephone wires from the panting.
To view on the Retro Challenge blog, please click HERE.


As usual, Arroyo Seco is beautiful.
I really want to live there!
I envision having art retreats and painting workshops in my little adobe casita.
The picture below is a little shop full of colorful scarves, red chile ristras, 
and that old beautiful truck.


I took a drive through Valdez one morning.
This little village has a beautiful view of Taos mountain.
This is a cute little hacienda driving through the main road.
I loved the orange color of the wood on the roof mixed
with the turquoise windows and the brown of the adobe.


My favorite Taos horse.
This guy lives on the road to the Taos pueblo.
I have painted him several times.


 A thistle in bloom.
There weren't too many left but lots of spent blooms.
I think if I had come a week earlier, 
I would have seen fields of thistles in full bloom.


I drove into town to take a few photos.
My destination was a row of hollyhocks along the main street.
This truck happened to be in my way!
There was a grower's market going on and this was about 6pm in the evening.
I loved the sign!


One of the hollyhocks next to the truck.
Love the dark deep burgundy color.


Another favorite horse.
Actually, he was a new friend.
Look at all the beautiful sagebrush and chamisa surrounding him (or her).


 The beautiful village of Arroyo Seco.
We got breakfast burritos from Abe's the morning that we left 
and ate them by the stream.


A scene painted on one of the adobe walls in Arroyo Seco.
Not sure what's going on here, but I do see Our Lady of Guadalupe.


The most beautiful village of Valdez along the toad to the Taos Ski Valley.
I love the shadows on the mountains in the back!


My husband Mac posing next to the little tower by the stream.
i don't know if you can see the water behind him but it was running strong.
I guess you're going to find graffiti everywhere.


This is the first day trip I have been on since my friend Tom passed away
and my cousin moved to Atlanta to be with her kids.
It just felt really weird. I just kept wanting some fellow creative person
to share my photo and experiences with.
My husband is as tolerant as he can be, but he'd rather be hiking or playing
frisbee golf or something that involves physical activity.
Anyway, I'm slowly getting back into the groove.

I want to than all of you who offered support when Tom passed away.
i miss him every day and know he would have loved to take this trip.
He was there in spirit.

Thursday, July 17, 2014

ROLLING ALONG

Here we are halfway through July and I am plowing along,
almost to the halfway point in my 150 Retro Challenge small paintings.

THEN I start on ornaments.

THEN I start on the 20 larger paintings.

I am feeling good right now.

Here is #88, "THE DAHLIA."  

 To see all of the completed Retro Challenge paintings, click HERE.

This is one of my entries into the one day Weems Gallery Show and Sale.
It's titled "FIERY" and is 30x30."

I'm going to try to get to the gallery about 10:30 - a little late, I know, 
but I want to see all of the great paintings and say hi to everyone.

I have about 28 paintings in the show, some large, some small.

The doors open at 10:00am and it's usually pandemonium for about
an hour and a half.

If you are interested in paintings, you can go to Weems and preview the show tomorrow.
Contact weems@weemsgallery.com or check out www.weemsgallery.com.


Friday, July 11, 2014

Life

WHAT'S GOING ON

I have been remiss in not posting more often but 
i just really haven't had time.

I've been painting a lot, getting ready for the retro Challenge show.
To see all Retro paintings so far, click HERE.

 This painting is #89, "TAOS CASITA."

I'm also working on a large 30x30" painting for 
Weems Gallery's upcoming one day $285 show.
It's on Saturday, July 19, and everything in the show
is $285 or less.

I figured painting a sunset would be the easiest to do
and I love the colors in this one.

 I finally had time to run by and take pictures of my favorite field.
There is a gorgeous background of the Sandia mountains.
I went a little late in the day so the lighting is not great,
but I have never seen the field this green.
And the clouds were perfection.


One of the reasons I haven't posted so much is because of my granddaughter.
Man, I love this girl.
She just had surgery to repair her cleft lip and this is about a week after surgery
when her stitches came out.
She's not very smiley yet, because I think her mouth is still sore.
They also repaired part of her palette inside and I think that is sore too.

She has her next surgery to repair the palette inside her mouth in October.

I have my Retro show September 26 and Weems Artfest on November 13. 14, 15, and 16.
If I don't have any paintings for the Artfest show,
 I hope you will still come by and say hi - just kidding (I hope).

 I managed to get out to Corrales for about five minutes last week to take photos of
my favorite cornfield.
I also ran across this chile field at irrigation time. 
Love this photo.
I can't wait to take more pics when the chile is higher and ready to harvest.

 Here is a photo of the cornfield, it still looks really awesome, 
especially with the mountains in the background.

hollyhocks in my neighborhood on the same day

Well, I have lots of ideas rolling around in my head right now:

- finishing up the Retro show small paintings
 - painting 50 ornaments for same show
 - painting 20 large paintings for same show
- painting for Weems Artfest
- Sawyer's surgery in a couple of months
- knee replacement surgery in January and again in late April
- getting back to daily paintings for sale
- painting figures
- a new direction with plein air painting
- finding a little truck to facilitate my plein air adventures
- looking for a little house in Taos
- more date nights with my husband
- teaching some workshops
- starting a women's art group

And that's just the tip of the iceberg!

Please hang in there with me and if I'm not posting that often,
it's because life is calling!