diana stetson

Diana Stetson

Today I am bragging about my friend, Diana Stetson.

She has a beautiful new website 

and I want to share it because her work is so

unique and wonderful.

 Diana lives in Albuquerque and I met her when we were 

forming the Alameda Studio Tour.

 Diana's artwork is BEAUTIFUL.

Stunning and serene.

Recurring themes are trees and birds,

but her art is much deeper than that.

 I think I'm attracted to her work because

it's so different from mine.

I feel like sometimes I attack the canvas

 to get in the darks and highlights and the main color notes

before the light changes.

And her work is not like that.

Diana's work is built up in many layers

and uses many different materials.

This piece is a more abstract version of lily pads.

 Gorgeous

Please don't take my word about his beautiful artwork.

Please visit Diana's website and read about her history, 

vision, and her journey.

www.dianastetson.com

To go directly to her site,

CLICK HERE.

Balloon Blog

Hi all,

I didn't blog about balloons for a couple of days because 

when they went up, they drifted further north. Or south.

But they have been back for a couple of days now,

so I'm posting again.

Only two more days of mass ascension left!

 This one is really really bright.

Almost too much for my sleepy eyes to take first thing in the morning.

 Hiding in the trees

Going to land?

 Nope, back up for another few minutes.

 Okay, who or what is this?

 Nice view of the balloon under-carriage.

 Between the trees

 Almost touching down

 Uh-oh, is this another Mr. Creepy Eyes?

 No, she's a look-straight-ahead sweet little cow.

I will call her Lulu-Belle.

 Lulu Belle is headed this way....

 In the meantime, another balloon is going down next door.

 Whoa, Lulu Belle is directly overhead!

 There she goes, over the house.

 Floating away...

  I was out and about found this one landing on the street.

 This one landed in the Wagner cornfield in Corrales.

Lots of help there.

 Pumpkin fields in Corrales.

I couldn't find any more balloons, so I got distracted.

 Scarecrows!

Soon Corrales will be full of them!

 Red chile ristras at Wagner Farms

 The pumpkins are ready for taking home.

These look perfect for carving.

 Saw these beautiful sunflowers at the local market.

 Red chile ristras.

Every home should have one of these hanging on the porch.

 Next day, more morning balloons

 Blurry through the trees

 Another between the trees

Not too many today.

Hope we have great ballooning this weekend.

This weekend will be the last mass ascension of 2016.

On another note, my little thorny tree is full of berries for the birds

and the leaves are turning this color.

Fall is here!

new small paintings

 New Small Paintings
Please click on the images to enlarge

 "DREAM HOLLIES"

8x6"

oil on panel

I LOVE this painting!

The dreamy quality just speaks to me.

Maybe I should paint under nighttime studio light more often!

"SUMMER SUNS"

8x6"

oil on panel

I am seeing sunflowers all over Albuquerque right now.

This is actually an image from a trip that some of

my collector friends took to Tuscany, Italy.

If you are interested in either of these paintings, please email

me at dshadowtail@aol.com.

Thanks!

"OLD TOWN HOLLIES" new palette knife painting

"OLD TOWN HOLLIES"

9x12"

oil on panel

Oh my gosh - I have a lot of photos to show you from the Corrales paint out

I just finished, but here is my newest painting, "OLD TOWN HOLLIES."

I love this scene. The little shop behind the door is no longer there.

It's something different and most of the hollyhocks are gone.

Sad.

But there are still some really pretty hollyhock scenes to see. 

I am so glad I took these photos a couple of years ago.

I love the warmth of the adobe and the softness of the flowers.

I was not aiming to capture the light, but more to

push the paint around with the knife and make marks that gave me joy. 

"SANDIA SHADOWS"

12X16"

SOLD

A commission of the Sandia mountains in progress...

I toned my canvas in a loose wash of burnt sienna and red acrylic, 
then loosely sketched the subject in paint.

I blocked in my dark shapes, hit a few highlights and 
then concentrated in the middle values.

The blue near the center is my tribute to the Rio Grande river 
without actually looking like a river.

I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out and I hope that my client likes it.

Balloon Painting

This painting is already finished, but I wanted to show you  the day by day progress.

A client wanted a simple 8x10" rendition of my poster for the 2012 Balloon Fiesta.

And he wanted it "old school" as in acrylic with lines.

I started off by toning the canvas with my usual burnt sienna and red.

I sketched a lose composition to get the main components in place.

As you can see, my balloons are not really balloon-shaped, at this point.

Well, sort of.

I will post the finished painting tomorrow.

Oh, and I broke in the kitchen on Sunday by making enchiladas for a crowd of about 25.

It was fantastic!

Christmas Time!

I've been busy the last few days, 

so I am posting several photos here at once.

It will probably be like this through Christmas - crazy as always!

I hope everyone is doing fine and 

the holidays are wonderful for everyone.

 This is my new Mabef field easel. 

I think it's cool because it's not too heavy, 

it takes larger canvases out on location, and it tilts.

I can't wait to try it.

My favorite Christmas tree lot and the same one I've used for the last ten years.

Boy, trees went up this year! What was $40 last year is now $65.

But they were all beautiful.

This is one I chose.

This lot is at a home where the Christmas tree business 

was started by a man who will turn 100 years old this year.

His kids took over the business, now their kids are helping out.

I believe all of the trees are from Mora, New Mexico.

Aww, it's pretty.

I always like a tree that's kind of sparsy - I think the ornaments hang better.

 All loaded up.

I'm only going about eight blocks!

 Whew, I got it inside.

I forgot to saw off the bottom a little and drill a few holes in the bottom.

Oh well.

 I also took a little side trip yesterday to the local greenhouse to see the poinsettias.

They are GORGEOUS!

This is a varigated variety and it's really beautiful.

 Tons and tons of locally grown ponsettias.

Mind boggling.....

 Big hanging baskets.

I would love one of these in my house.

But it would die shortly thereafter.

I have no green thumb inside the house.

 We are making plates of goodies for some of our friends and family this year

and on Thursday, we had a day-long baking day.

The cookies you see above are my biscochitos.

I also made fudge and chocolate chip pumpkin cookies.

My daughter made truffles and mints. 

Yum.

 My biscochitos had a special ingredient this year.

Can anyone guess what it is?

My daughter and son-in-law Ben putting lights on the tree.

 My husband Mac showing off his ornament.

 Morgan adjusting the lights.

 Mac and Ben posing.

Well, Ben is posing.

 My tree with the movie "THE NUTCRACKER" in the background.

 The family Christmas tree, ready at last.

I think it's pretty.

 Close up of a few of my favorite ornaments.

Can you tell I have a thing for birds?

 Another bird ornament - I found this at a little antique store.

Speaking of birds, we have a million of these birds at our crabapple trees, eating the berries.

I think they might be called cedar waxwings, but I don't know. 

I've never seen one at my feeders until now.