MY PROCESS--DOCUMENTING "WORKS IN PROGRESS"- NEW PAINTINGS AND PRINTS. -- INCLUDES PALETTE AND COLOR NOTES.
Wednesday, September 08, 2010
HERE I GO AGAIN! Another New Beginning
8 September 2010 - It's that time of the year again when I begin to block in new paintings to work on through the winter. Have had several field trips so far with a lot of new material. In the right hand corner of this photo is the new 48"x48" canvas called "POPPY LOVE GRANDE" which I will reveal in stages on this blog. This week I will also post photos of original oil paintings to be sold via EBay store. Stay tuned for previews of my new studio work. If you have any questions, just give me a call (575)758-7454 or send query via e.mail.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
"FROM THE HIGH ROAD" - NEW ORIGINAL OIL
#2011 - "FROM THE HIGH ROAD"
16"x20" Original Oil on Linen
Framed in Gold with Linen Liner
For price and availability, please call Taos Studio at
(575) 758-7454
"LOS CAMPOS DE CUNDIYO" - NEW ORIGINAL OIL
#2010 - "LOS CAMPOS DE CUNDIYO
11"X14" ORIGINAL OIL ON LINEN
FRAMED IN GOLD WITH LINEN LINER
For price and availability please call Taos Studio at
(575)758-7454
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
"CUNDIYO" - NEW! 11"x14" Original Oil
#1710 - "CUNDIYO"
NEW! 11"x14" Orig. Oil on Linen
Framed in Gold with Linen Liner
For price and availability please call Taos Studio at (575)758-7454
Friday, July 09, 2010
"TAKING THE SUN" - NEW! 11"x14" Original Oil Painting
#1610 - "TAKING THE SUN"
NEW 11"x14" Orig. Oil on Linen
Framed in Gold with Linen Liner
For price and availability please call Taos Studio at (575) 758-7454
Thursday, July 08, 2010
"SPRING THAW" - NEW 11"x14" Original Oil Painting
#1510 - "SPRING THAW"
NEW 11"x14" Original Oil on Linen
Framed in Gold with Linen Liner
For price and availability, please call Taos Studio at (575)758-7454
Thursday, July 01, 2010
11"x14" Original Oil - "PENASCO AFTERNOON"
#1410 - "PENASCO AFTERNOON"
New 11"x14" Original Oil on Linen
Framed in Gold with Linen Liner
For price & availability, call Taos Studio at
(575)758-7454
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
BACK TO THE EASEL!
23 June 2001 -- Every so often I realize I don't know who I am without a paintbrush in my hand! That's when I have to take a break - time to observe the world without a camera or sketchbook. This hiatus took a little more time than I had planned, but it was well worth every minute. What did I do on my spring/summer "vacation"? My living space required repair and cleaning. My office needed a good straightening up -- filing, proofing new prints, preparing my space to work on some books I plan to work on this fall. I reconnected with friends -- some I hadn't seen in many, many years. Entertained a great group from the American Bar Endowment.....Art Friends from Virginia, Louisiana, Ohio, Santa Fe, Illinois and Wisconsin. Went to Taos Pueblo for some fantastic fry bread. A wonderful lunch at Rancho de Chimayo. Visited Santuario de Chimayo and gave some prayers of thanks for good friends and this amazing place where I live and paint.....gratitude is good! DC
Monday, May 24, 2010
Wednesday, May 05, 2010
"TAOS AFTERNOON SHADOWS" - NEW 48"X36" OIL PAINTING
"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!
Thursday, April 22, 2010
#1310 - CAPILLA DE ESTACA --SOLD
"CAPILLA DE ESTACA" - Sold
12"X6" NEW Original Oil on Linen, Framed in Gold with Linen Liner -- Completed 4/22/10 - Now available for sale through my Taos Studio. Visa, Mastercard, Discover and American Express thru my studio for your convenience. E.Mail or call (575)758-7454 for price and availability.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
SPRING FLING! STUDIO EDITION ARCHIVAL PRINTS - 3 for the price of 2
SPRING FLING!! THREE PRINTS FOR THE PRICE OF TWO ($210.00) - Now available from my High Road Catalogue - http://www.donnaclairart.com/prints.html Offer good until April 30th. "LILAS DE TAOS" - Spectacular spring show of lilacs in front of the old Taos News Building! - Available in two sizes - Small: $60, Large: $110. Prices include shipping. - Call my Taos Studio at (575)758-7454.
Monday, March 29, 2010
"POPPY LOVE" - Archival Studio Edition Print
"POPPY LOVE" - Now available as a Studio Edition Print - Ultra Chrome Inks on Matte Presentation Paper - 17"x22" sheet size. $110.00, Free Shipping. Call (575)758-7454 to order.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
30"x60" Original Oil - NEW! "CANCION DEL SOL" - SOLD
SOLD
STUDIO #1010 - "CANCION DEL SOL" - 30"X60" Original Oil on Fine Belgian Linen - Framed in Gold with Linen Liner. Completed 3/21/10. This painting has been a long time in the "dreamtime" -- which is where I usually spend most of my days. It is a view from Middle Road here in Taos on a late summer evening's walk....quiet, pastoral....peaceful. As I hinted in an earlier post, I had "painted" this canvas in my head so many times that all I had to do was essentially sit there, mix the paint and hold the brush....something else took over. However, once it was completed this weekend, I sat back and looked at it and realized it is one of my very best paintings. Once I walked away from the easel, I felt stunned and a little lonely....this image has been my companion for years!STUDIO NEWS: Am working on a 48"x36" canvas which I previewed in yesterday's post - "TAOS AFTERNOON SHADOWS" -- I love the colors so far. It is from a digital photo I took through my kitchen window (one of my favorite places on earth) -- I made a digital print of the photo and am working freehand from that image. House repair and spring cleaning taking up the rest of my time -- and watching the apricot tree in front of the house "bud" -- lots of happy chirpy birds in that tree this week! DC
Monday, March 22, 2010
48"x36" Orig. Oil Painting - "TAOS AFTERNOON SHADOWS - Work in Progress -- The Glazes
STUDIO #1010 - "TAOS AFTERNOON SHADOWS" - 48"X36" Original Oil on Fine Belgian Linen - THE GLAZES: Sky: Dark snowstorm moving off into the Pecos Wilderness - Prussian Blue, Mars Black -- a touch of Permalba White at the horizon. Trees: "Mud" color from mixing leftover colors on my palette. Shadows in the foreground" Cobalt Violet Hue, Rose Grey, Payne's Grey, Permalba White. Stay tuned.
Friday, March 12, 2010
"CANCION DEL SOL" - WORK IN PROGRESS - PHASE II-THE GLAZES
"CANCION DEL SOL" (SONG OF THE SUN) - 30"x60"WORK IN PROGRESS -- Phase II - The Glazes. Have had the canvas and frame for this painting at least two years and I have painted this in my head at least a thousand times over the past five or six years. This week I have been working over the glazes to the final painting which should be completed sometime early next week. From it's inception, from the blocking in stage, this canvas has almost painted itself -- all I have been doing is holding the brush -- it's almost like automatic writing! Because this is that very last moment of sun at the end of the day, I needed to have the glazes darker than usual. When the opaque paints are applied, I will put them in lightly in order to protect the essence of this moment in time. Foreground: Prussian Blue and Burnt Sienna. Middle Ground: Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna and Italian Pink. Clouds: Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Red, Violet, Permalba White, Payne's Grey. Sky: Thalo Green, Thalo Blue, a touch of Yellow Ochre and Permalba White. Will send photo of painting as soon as it is completed. I am really excited to see the finished canvas -- it is truly surprising me!!!! If you have any questions regarding this new work, just give me a call. (575)758-7454.
Thursday, March 04, 2010
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
30X60 CANCION - WORK IN PROGRESS - GLAZING THE FOREGROUND
"CANCION DEL SOL" (SONG OF THE SUN) - 30"X60" WORK IN PROGRESS. From the bottom up today -- Prussian Blue and Burnt Sienna in the foreground. Middle ground a combination of Alizarin Crimson, Burnt Sienna and Italian Pink. I want the feeling of sunset -- early evening -- will work the opaque paints into the dark colors. I will finish glazing the middle ground tomorrow and then move on to the sky -- which will inform the opaque colors.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
"CALYPSO" - 24"x24" ORIGINAL OIL PAINTING - SOLD
"CALYPSO" - SOLD
New! 24"x24" Orig. Oil on Linen
Framed in Gold with Linen Liner
Call Taos Studio (575)758-7454
Thursday, February 18, 2010
"CALYPSO" - WORK IN PROGRESS - The Glazes
2/18/10- Here is the phase of the painting where I could absolutely go out for a cup of coffee and not return! The glazes....the middle stage of the painting. Transparent and semi-transparent colors over the underpainting -- Thalo Blue and Green, Cadmium Yellow, Prussian Blue, Rose Red -- background: Permalba White, Ochre and Payne's Grey. Stay tuned!
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
30"x60" Orig. Oil Painting -"CANCION DEL SOL" Work in Progress
"CANCION DEL SOL" - 30"x60" Underpainting - New Work in Progress - Original Oil on Belgian Linen. Have had this large painting in mind and heart for about five years now, and I am very excited to have gotten it down on canvas this week. Now I have two large format pieces in the works, with two more that I plan to "block" in this weekend. What I love about putting down several underpaintings at a time is that each morning when I "bounce" through that door toward the easel, I just choose whichever one excites me that day. Eventually it all gets done.....large canvases are as delightful as a big, heavy book one cannot stop reading -- it is even a little sad on the day of completion!
Thursday, February 04, 2010
#1110 - LLANO SAN JUAN - Available
Studio #1110 - LLANO SAN JUAN
NEW 12"X6" Original Oil on Linen
Framed in Silver with Linen Liner
Call (575)758-7454
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Sunday, January 31, 2010
FEBRUARY MORNING, LLANO SAN JUAN, NEW MEXICO
"FEBRUARY MORNING" - LLANO SAN JUAN, NEW MEXICO
Now available as a Studio Edition Print
19"x13" sheet size - $60.00 includes shipping
Call (575) 758-7454 to order
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
"LADIES WHO LUNCH" - Click here for 100 Small Paintings
"LADIES WHO LUNCH" - Santa Fe Plaza circa 1969
6"x8" Original Oil on Italian Gessoed Board unframed
Call Taos Studio at (575)758-7454
Saturday, January 23, 2010
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.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
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.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
"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.
Saturday, January 09, 2010
"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!
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
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......
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
#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.
Monday, January 04, 2010
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!
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
WINTER GIFTS........
Sincerely,
Donna Clair,
Taos, New Mexico
Monday, December 21, 2009
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!
Saturday, December 19, 2009
"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.
"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.
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