Down By the Abita River

For this weeks class we met under the Rails-to-Trails bridge in Abita Springs. Just a block away there is the noise of a small town with big trucks barreling through town but here it was quiet and peaceful and we could just enjoy the moment.

October Plein Air Painting Class

Thursday was my first time teaching plein air. There were five students in the class and we met at Fountainbleau State Park. After a week of rain we were lucky to have a lovely sunny day. On Monday and Wednesday I had done some practice painting. I find rainy day paintings a little gloomy but several people liked my darkest version of the scene.

New Mexico Art

 I am privileged to be juried into the Placitas New Mexico Holiday Show and Sale the weekend before Thanksgiving.  I've got a little stockpile of art at my house there.
 The churches of New Mexico are always eye catching to artists. They are also wonderful to visit, especially the one in Chimayo. On a recent visit we met the priest who has been there for 50 years. What a wonderful giving man. He escaped the communists in Spain and has dedicated his life to the parishioners and to improving the sanctuary

grounds ever since. He pointed with pride to all the trees he had planted.

Fun with Torn Paper

In the Carol Nelson workshop I took this year we learned to create colorful papers and then turn them into paintings. At first I found it frustrating but now I am enjoying it. The first step is an acrylic underpainting. Once I am happy with the painting I can start glueing torn paper in matching colors on top of the painting. This probably takes 5 times longer than the acrylic underpainting did but the result is so cute and original

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Down on the Farm

A customer that had bought a cow painting asked me to do some companion pieces. She had many happy memories of summers on her Grandparents farm, a Mennonite dairy farm near the Blue Ridge Mountains. She was sad that her Grandmother had left the farm for a nursing home and that her children would not experience the farm. Someone just last week had

said to me that we buy things that remind us of where we want to be. I had never thought about that but she is right, since I made the decision to move to New Mexico I've been buying things like an antique horse collar and other rustic Western things.

Toys from the 50s

I found a rusty old Radio Flyer red wagon that had been kicked to the curb by my neighbor. I asked my class to bring something that would have been in their red wagon to the next class. Everyone in the class grew up in the 50s and 60s so they knew what I was talking about. Ferris brought baseball bats. I have a Teddy Bear. Leslie brought her wonderful doll collection including Raggedy Ann and Andy. I had so much fun painting them. I posed them on a child sized chair that my daughters Great Grandfather had made and put the spot light on them. Ann had been obviously been 'loved' a little more than Andy.

Counting Paint Strokes = Big Shapes

Today I taught my class a Peggy Kroll Roberts exercise to help them simplify and use more paint. The goal was to cover the whole canvas in only 25 strokes. I practiced the day before and my first attempt was 43 strokes, way too many. It is the long narrow painting at the top.
  The next attempt was the demo for my class. The pressure was on and I made it! Just 25 strokes and the whole canvas is covered. From here I may add more detail but I am happy with the colors, values, and composition so it will be worth my time to work on it more.