Monday, February 12, 2018

when one door closes.....

DOORS

Sometimes a door closes and you are a little sad.
For a minute.
Then you have to look at it as a good thing.
What's behind Door #2 is probably way better than Door#1.
Or maybe you will wait until Door #3 comes along!


This beautiful and fun show happened because I
was at loose ends and decided to do something I'd never done before.
Not artistically anyway.
Create a Challenge - paint 150 paintings in 150 days for $150 each.
I invited my favorite band, all
of my friends, family, and my collectors.
We sold over half of the paintings on opening night.
And most of the rest during the month after opening.

The show was so successful that I did it three more times 
(about two years apart, because it is ROUGH creating
all of those paintings).
At galleries, and once on my own, online.





As you can see, it is a lot of fun on opening night.

So, anyway, back to doors.....

I am planning a brand new adventure!

Guys, this is BIG for me!
A brand new big studio with space for workshops, classes,
art retreats, women's retreats, workshops by other artists,
gallery space, and much more.

We are just in the planning stages now.
I am hoping to have it ready by fall for my annual ART PARTY,
so stay tuned. I am SO excited!!!

Doors truly do open if you are ready for the adventure.

 In other news - 

We have started our "LET'S PAINT STILL LIFE" facebook group.
The first Challenge was a doozy, so hard.

 Challenge Image

My rendition - "THE BLUE BOWL"
I like it, but man, it was hard to get to this spot.

Here is Challenge Image 2:

I love seeing what other artists come up with using the 
images as their muse.

Oh, and I will be writing my personal blog 
post here every Friday starting this Friday.
I am working on a catchy title.

Okay, that's all I have for now.
Lots of painting and ideas to come.

And remember, keep those doors open.
Because you never know what great things are behind them....

Windows are good too!






Thursday, February 08, 2018

time is flying

I can't believe it's already February.
The time is passing way too fast.
And the fact that we really haven't even had a winter
this year - not even a snow - makes it really seem like spring
is right around the corner.

Oh, how I want to trot out my "spring"
photos, but I still think it's too early.
We may get a snow yet!

I've been working on a few things.
I'm trying to balance my time and not take on
too many projects or shows, but
things seem to find me.

Here is my commission of two roosters,
"GERTRUDE AND HEATHCLIFF"
14x11"

This is for a good childhood friend of mine and
I hope he knows just how much I enjoyed
painting this for him!


I guess I am in the mood to paint flowers.
This is a wildflower bouquet that was just a joy.
I loved putting mounds of thick color between the flowers!


Now, when I get bored, or uninspired,
or just need a break, I take out my latest art magazines,
sit in the recliner, and veg out for an hour or so.
I never fail to be inspired by seeing other
artists' work.
I have to make sure I don't stay TOO long though.
Procrastination is one of my strongest traits.


 Okay, so an artist friend (Robyn Wellman) has an idea and
put it out into the facebook universe.
We already have a great challenge group called,
"LET'S PAINT NEW MEXICO!" that I started several
years ago and she wondered if there was a  
facebook group doing the same thing with still life.
I said no, but hey, let's start one!

So now we have a group called, you guessed it,
"LET'S PAINT STILL LIFE."
Each week, I pick a still life image and we all use 
it as a muse and paint our rendition of it.
This is our first Challenge - THE BLUE BOWL.

 Challenge Image 1 - THE BLUE BOWL

 Here is my rendition and boy, was it daunting!
Getting the bowl to have the right perspective was impossible.
So I gave up and just let it be.

This is Challenge 2 - ALGODONES DESCANSO
This should be fun.
The two groups are about the journey, not the destination.
And we accept beginners to professionals.
No deadlines and no judgement.

Now I am working on another project - a big one!
It's a big painting commission for my sister-in-law.
I don't want to get into the story but let's just say that this
painting is 8 years overdue.

Here's the sketch

 Here's the sketched canvas.
A little hard to see, I know.
It will be aspens, El Salto peak in Taos, 
water, flowers, and vegetation.

 In the meantime, I'm trying to paint every day.
This is last night's painting,
"WINTER TREES" in Algodones
The reference photo was not that great, 
but I dug out the palette knife and pushed paint
around until I was happy with it.

And this is my favorite painting I've done so far this year. 
"INNER LANDSCAPE"

I hope you are following your dreams and
making things happen for yourself.
But stay balanced.
It's the key to a good life.