"TAOS AFTERNOON SHADOWS"
New! 48"x36" Orig. Oil on Linen
Framed in Silver with Linen Liner
Began this canvas in January, although the source photo was made the year before....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.
More than participants in life, I believe artists are, of necessity, observers. Have looked out at this view from my kitchen window for over twenty years. One of the advantages of not having a dishwasher is that my daily clean up becomes a wonderful meditation and I get to observe all the life that would normally pass me by. These trees didn't even exist when I first looked out this window. What I saw was the little Baptist Church to the east across Salazar Road -- and on Sunday evenings heard the beautiful guitar music and hymns echoed across the field. The spring winds blew the seeds of these trees from Santistevan Lane across the fence. Now I get to watch the magpies build their nests and hatch their babies. I see the crows swirl menacingly around the nests each spring and then swarms of magpies defend their hatchlings. Hundreds of migrating birds rest in these trees each November on their way south -- and an occas ional Sandhill Crane passes by on her way to my neighbor's pond. Wonder if I somehow missed my true calling by spending most of my time at an easel........I could just spend all my days sitting in the middle of a forest, just watching and listening!
More than participants in life, I believe artists are, of necessity, observers. Have looked out at this view from my kitchen window for over twenty years. One of the advantages of not having a dishwasher is that my daily clean up becomes a wonderful meditation and I get to observe all the life that would normally pass me by. These trees didn't even exist when I first looked out this window. What I saw was the little Baptist Church to the east across Salazar Road -- and on Sunday evenings heard the beautiful guitar music and hymns echoed across the field. The spring winds blew the seeds of these trees from Santistevan Lane across the fence. Now I get to watch the magpies build their nests and hatch their babies. I see the crows swirl menacingly around the nests each spring and then swarms of magpies defend their hatchlings. Hundreds of migrating birds rest in these trees each November on their way south -- and an occas ional Sandhill Crane passes by on her way to my neighbor's pond. Wonder if I somehow missed my true calling by spending most of my time at an easel........I could just spend all my days sitting in the middle of a forest, just watching and listening!
