EL CORAZON DEL NORTE - Underpainting

"EL CORAZON DEL NORTE"
(UNDERPAINTING)
30"x40" Original Oil on Fine Belgian Linen

30 November -- The weather is really rainy and snowy -- more snow expected tomorrow; a perfect time to just block in new canvases I plan to complete over the winter months. Each canvas has a drying time of about ten days before I can work with the glazes on top of the underpainting --so I block in several pieces at a time, while I am excited about my new material -- over the next few weeks, I will paint these canvases in my head a hundred times before they are completed! Stay tuned!

SUMMER ELEGY - UNDERPAINTING

"SUMMER ELEGY" - UNDERPAINTING
40"X30" Original Oil on Belgian Linen

Am so happy with all the new material gathered in the past six weeks, I have decided to begin several large canvases and work on them through the winter months. So, I will be "blocking in" a few more and will keep you posted on their progress via this journal.

This painting is blocked in loosely with my usual palette(see blog index), MG White and turpentine. As with "Valdez Autumn", it will need to dry a week to ten days before I can work on it again, due to the turpentine in my painting medium. Stay tuned.

VALDEZ AUTUMN - UNDERPAINTING

#108 - VALDEZ AUTUMN DAY - Underpainting
30"X30" Original Oil on Fine Artist's Canvas

Here is the very beginning of a new painting (most colors are mixed with MG Fast Drying White and Turpentine-- My colors in the sky are Indanthrone Blue and a little Thalo Green. The highlights in the clouds are MG with a little Cadmium Red and Cadmium Yellow; the greys are a combination of Davy's Grey and Payne's Grey mixed with the white. The darks in the mountain are a combination of straight Prussian Blue and Burnt Sienna -- the lighter colors are the sky colors mixed with the dark combination. The trees and chamisa - different combinations of the following: Cadmium Red, Cadmium Ochre, Chrome Oxide Green Opaque, Cadmium Orange, some Diox Purple and the joys of a "DIRTY BRUSH" -- Don't rinse your brushes after each color -- just keep on going with all the colors -- it adds a certain coherence to the color mixtures. This underpainting needs to dry for about a week before I attempt the glazing process. Stay tuned!

GIVING THANKS

GIVING THANKS 2007

Just watched the news and all the frenzy about whether or not the stores will be up or down in sales this Christmas season.......this obvious time filler seems so superficial considering all that is going on in the rest of the world.

Sometimes it's so easy to believe the commercials and think that there is something missing in our lives if we don't have the latest, greatest or biggest thing. This morning I sat down and journaled a "thank you" list. Prominent on that list is this place where I am blessed to live and paint......and all the people who are so generous in their support of my work! I am truly grateful to each and every one who has ever cheered me along the way!

The book on my easel, "Women Painters of the World", came from an old and dear friend's library. As you can see -- the blank canvases are piled up on the floor, on the easel -- my taboret is brimming with new tubes of paint -- and I'm ready for my winter work! - absolutely nothing is missing and life is truly rich and full!

Wishing everyone out there in the "real world" a peaceful and blessed Thanksgiving -- Hug each other today!

Donna Clair, Taos, N.M.

WORK IN PROGRESS - "SIESTA" ORIG. OIL

"SIESTA" - WORK IN PROGRESS

24"x24" Original Oil on Fine Belgian Linen
To be framed in Gold with Linen Liner
For more information, please call my Taos Studio at
(505)758-7454