TAOS WINTER SUNRISE 1/23/10 - (Photo)

1/23/10 - Up really early this morning and photographed the beginning of the sunrise through my kitchen window.  It was just a special moment - everything felt as though it was at the beginning again - that from this sunrise there will be a renewal - another spring.  "If winter comes, can spring be far behind?" - Shakespeare  Am planning some small studies from these photos this week.

48"x36" Orig. Oil Painting - "TAOS AFTERNOON SHADOWS" - Work in Progress

16 January 2010 - I didn't want to miss this beautiful light I saw from my kitchen window last winter.  Grabbed my trusty digital camera and shot the photo right through the window.  The 48"x36" canvas is gesso toned with Payne's Grey.  The "cartoon" of the painting is Prussian Blue.  I ran the photo through my large Epson printer to get a 16"x20" print of the photo as a point of reference.  Yesterday I placed a grid on the photo (not the canvas) to guide me in proportions.  This is one of the five large canvases I want to complete this year.   I will begin to lay in the underpainting this afternoon.  DC, Taos, N.M.

"CALYPSO" - Work in Progress - Underpainting

A perfect day today -- kind of cloudy, waiting for snow.  Here is the underpainting - am working mostly with pure colors - ochres, cadmium reds, cobalt blue, chrome oxide green opaque, cadmium yellow.  Background is a combination of Payne's Grey, a little ochre and MG Fast Drying Underpainting white.  Will let this canvas dry for about a week while I block in new canvases.

"CALYPSO" - Work in Progress

14 January 2010 --  Here is the "cartoon" for my new 24"x24" oil painting "Calypso".  I have done the drawing in Prussian Blue -- working loosely.   I love this color  for sketching in paintings because I believe the strength of the blue comes through the eventual layers of colors.   This is an important week for me -- I have been gathering sketches and photos for about ten new paintings.  The background work is to decide the sizes and shapes of this material, then purchase and prepare the canvases for each work.  Sometimes it takes as many as 100 sketches and photos to make ten paintings -- they need to be edited for composition, color and light -- always subject to artistic license, of course.  Stay tuned.  Am hoping to post my progress on this new work more frequently than usual.  DC, Taos.   

"VETERAN'S DAY/SANTA FE PLAZA" - SOLD

                          "VETERAN'S DAY/SANTA FE PLAZA"- SOLD    In one of my recent "clear outs" I found the slide for this painting which I took sometime in 1969 or thereabouts.  I worked on this painting today and all the while debated whether I would disclose the  surprise it held for me as I worked on it.  Normally I don't "explain" my work, but after forty years and some quiet moments of sketching and painting this piece I realized what it was.....three veterans from different wars on the same bench on the Santa Fe Plaza.  The man on the left is a WWII vet -- dressed in his afternoon best and not quite comfortable with the other two.  The fellow in the middle is transitioning from Viet Nam, dressed in his old sport coat and slacks, hoping to find some kind of normal.  The fellow on the right has been home a while and hasn't been able to find "normal" nor does he want to try any longer -- he lives quietly in a commune somewhere in northern New Mexico.

Peace!

AFTER -- Getting Organized

6 January  2010 - Today is the Feast of the Three Kings at Taos Pueblo -- dances, celebration.  Cleaned up the studio finally -- all prepared for my New Beginning......

#820 - THE NEST (NEW BEGINNINGS) - NEW ORIGINAL OIL

4 January 2010 - "THE NEST" (NEW BEGINNINGS) - NEW 10"X10" Original Oil on Linen, Framed in Gold with Linen Liner.  Call (575) 758-7454 for price and availability.

"Every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end" Seneca, Roman Philospher, mid-1st Century AD.  Found two quotes from Seneca recently.  Another is "Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life."   Am a firm believer in starting over -- and the New Year is a great place to begin!  New Year's resolutions don't work for me --  I do, however, have some goals for my work this year (always subject to change, of course).  I'd like to complete at least four large "environment" canvases, do more field work, complete my 100 small paintings project - and work on a book I want to self-publish in time for next Christmas.  My all time favorite quote when I dream big..... "How do you eat an elephant? -- One bite at a time!" DC. Taos, N.M.

810 - THE NEST (NEW BEGINNINGS) - WORK IN PROGRESS

#810 - "THE NEST" (New Beginnings) - 10"x10" New Oil Painting - A solid start today -- here are three phases of this new oil painting.  The photo of the nest - the oil sketch - outlined mostly in Prussian Blue - and the glazes.  Will let this set up overnight and am hoping to complete this canvas tomorrow or Wednesday.  HAPPY NEW YEAR!

WELCOMING THE NEW YEAR!

WINTER GIFTS........

There  is nothing I can give you which you have not;
But there is much, very much that while I cannot give it,
 you can take.
 
No heaven can come to us unless our hearts
find rest in today.  TAKE HEAVEN.
No peace lies in the future which is not hidden
in this present moment.  TAKE PEACE.
 
The gloom of the world is but a shadow.
Behind it, yet within reach is joy.
There is a radiance and glory in the darkness, could we but see,
and to see we have only to look.  I BESEECH YOU TO LOOK.

Life is so generous a giver, but we, judging its gifts by
their covering, cast them away as ugly, or heavy or hard.
Remove the covering, and you will find beneath it
a living splendor, woven of love, by wisdom with power.
 
Welcome it, grasp it, and you touch the angel's hand that
brings it to you.  Everything we call a trial, a sorrow, or
a duty, believe me that angel's hand is there; the gift is there,
and the wonder of an overshadowing presence.
Our joys, too, be not content with them as joys.
They, too, conceal diviner gifts.
 
And so, at this time, I greet you.
Not quite as the world sends greetings, but with
profound esteem and with the prayer that for you now and
forever, the day breaks, and the shadows flee away.

Fra Giovanni, 1513 AD

Wishing you and those you love all the blessings of this holiday season.

Sincerely,

Donna Clair,

Taos, New Mexico

BEFORE -- AN OVERWHELMING URGE TO GET ORGANIZED!

21 December 2009 -- The New Year is almost here!  Yes, it's time for me to roll up my sleeves and get organized!  HAH!  Perhaps some Christmas elves will show up this week while I am dreaming of Sugar Plums dancing!

"ADOBE WALLS/SANTA FE" - NEW 24"X30" Original Oil (Completed)

"ADOBE WALLS/SANTA FE" - NEW 24"x30" Original Oil Painting on Fine Belgian Linen,  framed in Gold with Linen Liner.  This painting was completed about an hour ago. Have worked on this canvas over the past two months -- wanted that coziness one feels after a good ol' New Mexico snowstorm.  For price and availablility, please e.mail or call (575)758-7454.  Visa, Mastercard, Amer. Exp. and Discover.

"The moment I saw the brilliant, proud morning shine high up over the deserts of Santa Fe, something stood still in my soul -- In the magnificent fierce morning of New Mexico one sprang awake, a new part of the soul woke up suddenly, and the old world gave way to a new.  There are all kinds of beauty in the world, thank God -- but for a greatness of beauty I have never experienced anything like New Mexico."
D. H. Lawrence, published in Survey Graphic Magazine, 1931.

"ADOBE WALLS/SANTA FE" - Work in Progress

16 December 2009 --  Worked all day yesterday on the foreground, after putting dark glazes (burnt sienna, ultramarine blue and burnt umber) on the walls.  There is a heavy impasto in the foreground - added cadmium red and cadmium yellow to Permalba White for the snow.  This is the stage of a painting where I could happily quit -- my mind races ahead to the completed canvas -- what I want it to look like - and the painting really has a mind of it's own -- in a way it tells me what needs to be done.  It's a very strange collaboration!  DC - Taos

WINTER POEM IN THREE COLORS - New Original Oil - SOLD

"ADOBE WALLS-SANTA FE" - WORK IN PROGRESS

"ADOBE WALLS-SANTA FE" - A Work in Progress -- This photo is of the painting after it has been glazed; now I will work on the opaque paints and hope to finish it sometime this next week..... DC, Taos, N.M.

"LAST LIGHT" - 9"X12" ARCHIVAL GICLEE (Click here to purchase)

"LAST LIGHT" (TAOS)

A late afternoon view from my kitchen window

NEW SIZE!  9"X12 STUDION EDITION PRINT

TAOS SNOW DAY!!

3 December - View through my kitchen window - First significant snow of the season.  Am ready!  The "extra" snow day groceries are in the pantry, all my painting supplies are in -- going to varnish and frame some small paintings today - and prepare my palette to start some new underpaintings tomorrow!  I love it!   DC

GESSOING CANVAS -- PREPARING TO PAINT

PREPARING TO SPEND THE WINTER PAINTING!  GESSOING CANVAS.  For large and medium paintings I usually use a double-primed linen canvas.  I mix up gesso with Payne's Grey.  This creates a "grisaille", or a grey ground, much favored by the Renaissance painters.  Letting each coat dry thoroughly between applications, I apply two or three coats, depending on the coarseness of the canvas.  Personally I like to smooth out the brush strokes on the gesso.  Because I work with glazing, I find that this is the best preparation for my paints.   Let these canvases "cure" for a week or so -- don't stack them together until they have dried thoroughly.  This is the first step to good painting -- once I start, I don't have to worry about "white spaces" and this "toned ground" mellows out my colors.  Stay tuned!  DC 

#7806 - PASSING STORM-Archival Giclee - Click here to Purchase

"PASSING STORM"

NEW ARCHIVAL GICLEE - Follow above link for details.

GIVING THANKS.....

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

"VALDEZ AFTERNOON" - SOLD

"VALDEZ AFTERNOON"-Sold

NEW!  8"X10" Original Oil/Fr. in Gold

7-Day Auction beginning Wed. November 11th

WINTER ROAD - Special Print Offer - Visit the HIGH ROAD PRINT CATALOGUE

"WINTER ROAD"

Winter on the road to the ranch at Llano Quemado (suburban Truchas). My first winter there was an unknown -- I bought a little freezer from Sears and filled it to the brim with groceries. Foresight was rewarded when it snowed for days over the Christmas holidays -- the snowplow didn't come through for a week -- the wood was stacked on the porch (in the morning, bear prints in the snow), the fireplace kept the little adobe house warm and cozy, and many pots of green chile stew made for quite a comfortable existence. I might add a lot of good books and great music added another measure of enjoyment -- solitude is so underrated!

Purchase any two prints from THE HIGH ROAD PRINT CATALOGUE  and get one FREE!  Offer good until 30 November 2009.  Call (575)758-7454 to order.  Visa, Mastercard available.

DOS ARBOLES DE TAOS - Click here to visit THE PRINT STORE

3 November  -FYI -- Have begun a new web log entitled "THE PRINT STORE".  This blog will be a venue for new print images, both small and large, available through my Taos studio.  It is my intention to post to this blog on a regular basis.  You are invited to bookmark that page and visit often.  If you have any questions or would like to make an order, just give me a call at (575) 758-7454. - DC

"EVENING PRAYER STICKS" - Click here for the High Road Print Catalogue

"EVENING PRAYER STICKS"

ARCHIVAL GICLEE - FOR MORE INFO VISIT

THE HIGH ROAD PRINT CATALOGUE

(SPECIAL OFFER ENDING 30 NOVEMBER - BUY TWO, GET ONE FREE)

"RIO CHIQUITO - SOLD

"LA PUERTA DE SANTA FE" - SOLD

"LA PUERTA DE SANTA FE" (CANYON RD.)
10"x8" Orig. Oil/Linen - Fr. Silver/Linen Liner
SOLD

"ACEQUIA DEL LLANO" - Archival Giclee (Click here for THE HIGH ROAD PRINT CATALOGUE"

22 October 2009 - Still cloudy today -- much to do -- some shopping for extras in anticipation of large snowstorm like the one that hit us last year. Shipping a painting off to a collector in Maine. Focus for the next four or five months....new paintings (the large "environment" canvases and small auction pieces), internet sales. Winter is always a long period of preparation. Am feeling quite free to follow my Muse wherever she leads me......DC, Taos, N.M.

WINTER DREAMS - Click to Visit the High Road Print Catalogue

21 October 2009 -- Cloudy, raining - just looked out of my kitchen window to the hills in the distance -- SNOW! My first thought was "I'm not ready for winter"! Going to visit with son, John, today -- fix him a nice lunch. Clean up the studio -- set up a new palette -- pull out some good music to inspire me - and settle in to do some serious painting. I actually love the quiet of winter -- it's time to stop striving, relax and just put a blank canvas on the easel and lose myself in some new work! DC

48"x60" Original Oil Painting "FIRST LIGHT"

"FIRST LIGHT"
48"x60" Original Oil on Fine Belgian Linen
Call Taos Studio (575)758-7454

Earth, give me back your pristine gifts,
towers of silence which rose from
the solemnity of their roots.
I want to go back to being what I haven't been,
to learn to return from such depths
that among all natural things
I may live or not live. I don't mind
being one stone more, the dark stone,
the pure stone that the river bears away.

ABSENCE AND PRESENCE, Pablo Neruda

FIRST LIGHT - 48"X60" WORK IN PROGRESS - OPAQUE COLORS

23 September 2009 - Making progress! Have concentrated on the top one-third of the painting. The sky and distant landscape are completed and, I believe, inform the light for the rest of the canvas. The middle ground - I have found some long forgotten tubes of Transparent Oxide Yellow and Transparent Oxide Red -- Am also mixing Indian Red, Mars Orange, Ochre and Chrome Oxide Green Opaque. This painting is taking on a life of it's own -- it's like the movie "The Red Shoes" -- Moira Shearer couldn't stop dancing and I can't stop painting! DC

FIRST LIGHT - 48"x60" Oil Painting (Work in Progress)

21 September 2009, Taos, N.M. -- "PENTIMENTI is an alteration in a painting....that the artist has changed his mind as to the composition during the process of painting - the word derives from the Italian pentirsi, meaning to repent".

First of all I changed the name from "Donde Nace la Vida" to "FIRST LIGHT" - (48"x60 Original Oil on Fine Belgian Linen) -- and then I began "deconstructing" the composition - am trying to simplify as much as I can so that the light is the subject of the painting. Sky: Combinations of Permalba White, Cadmium Yellow, Payne's Grey and Davy's Grey. Middle Ground: Yellow Ochre, White, and Mars Orange. Foreground: Grasses - Burnt Sienna, Prussian Blue and Chrome Oxide Green Opaque. River: Prussian Blue and Burnt Sienna. I will be working on this canvas for the next three or four weeks and will try to blog my progress as I go along. DC

DONDE NACE LA VIDA - 48"x60" UNDERPAINTING

(PLEASE CHECK OCTOBER 13, 2009 POST  TO VIEW COMPLETED CANVAS NOW TITLED
"FIRST LIGHT" --"DONDE NACE LA VIDA" (UNDERPAINTING) -- NEW 48"X60" Original Oil on Fine Belgian Linen -- Started the drawing for this canvas in late May. Tomorrow I will post the photo of this underpainting with the first layer of glazes. Have passed the canvas 15/25 times a day as it stands on the wall directly across from my easel -- realize that I want to change things -- I want the mood to change - a dreamier feeling, perhaps. At this stage in a painting, I have a picture in my head of what I want it to be -- once the painting takes over, it's out of my control -- the canvas evolves and it just "becomes". In the next couple of weeks I will post the "pentimenti" -- the changes. You are invited to follow this Work in Progress to it's finish.......DC

ARROYO SECO AFTERNOON - Click here for the HIGH ROAD PRINT CATALOGUE

"ARROYO SECO AFTERNOON" - Now available as an archival giclee print from THE HIGH ROAD PRINT CATALOGUE. (BUY TWO, GET ONE FREE).

9/9/09 -- Have had good intentions all week, but unable to get into the studio. Making green chile chicken soup for daughter Mary and her husband's visit tomorrow. On Friday a visit from my favorite "little people". Am going to relax and enjoy them all, knowing that there will be many winter days when I will wish they were here. In the meantime I will post images from my print catalogue.

Birthday Roses in the Morning Sun

5 September 2009 -- Another year! Friend John sent these roses from LA -- they are brightening my kitchen bookcase this morning -- making me smile. This was one of those BIG birthdays that brought up a lot of strange feelings of getting older -- one remedy for that is for me to get back to painting this coming week. Have replenished my paint supplies -- gessoed my boards and canvases -- have new material for new work. I want to continue with my 100 SMALL PAINTINGS and have several larger paintings in progress. Will begin new posts Tuesday - stay tuned.

SOMBREROS DE SOLOLA (Guatemalan Journey) Orig. Oil

"SOMBREROS DE SOLOLA"

NEW! 14"x11" Orig. Oil on Belgian Linen
Framed in Gold with Linen Liner
For price and availability, e.mail or call my Taos Studio at
(575)758-7454

#15 - HIGH ROAD AFTERNOON - SOLD

"HIGH ROAD AFTERNOON" SOLD
NEW! 6"x8" Orig. Oil unframed on Italian Gessoed Panel
This painting was sold within an hour of studio newsletter - in it's place
see "Vecinos de Truchas" below)

#14-FAMILIA SANTA DE CHIMAYO - SOLD

"FAMILIA SANTA DE CHIMAYO" - SOLD
New! 100 SMALL PAINTINGS
6"x8" Orig. Oil unframed on Italian Gessoed Panel

#13 - SUMMER FIELDS AT RANCHITOS - SOLD

#13 - SUMMER FIELDS AT RANCHITOS - SOLD
New! 6"x8" Original Oil unframed on Italian Gessoed Panel

#11-TAOS AFTERNOON - SOLD

"TAOS AFTERNOON" - SOLD
6"x8" Original Oil unframed on Ital. Gessoed Panel

ADOBE WALLS - NEW WORK IN PROGRESS

8/10/09 - Here are the glazes on a new canvas "ADOBE WALLS" - 24"x30" Original Oil on Fine Belgian Linen. I posted the underpainting June lst -- you can scroll down to see the color combinations. Will let this dry for several days before working into it again. Am all set to begin new work - including my 100 SMALL PAINTINGS and GUATEMALAN JOURNEY. DC

"CASA VIEJA DE CHIMAYO" - Visit THE HIGH ROAD PRINT CATALOGUE

5 AUGUST 2009 - "Casa Vieja de Chimayo" - Available as a Studio Edition Print -- You are invited to visit THE HIGH ROAD PRINT CATALOGUE on my website -- just click the above link. Deciding to spend most of August prepping for new work -- gessoing canvas, blocking in new paintings -- am anxious to start my new canvases, but know this "down time" of doing the work that no one sees is one of the most important steps. Saw the documentary of Mark Rothko's "Rooms" again yesterday for about the 20th time....I never fail to be inspired by his bravery! DC

CORDOVA AFTERNOON -Click to View All New Original Paintings at my online Collector's Gallery

"CORDOVA AFTERNOON"

NEW 24"x30" Original Oil on Fine Belgian Linen
Framed in Gold with Linen Liner
Email or call Taos Studio (575)758-7454