ALMOST HOME - WORK IN PROGRESS

"ALMOST HOME" - UNDERPAINTING

30"x30" Original Oil on Fine Artist's Canvas --A full color turpentine wash over the whole canvas.....my usual mixtures from Cadmium Yellow, to Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Red, Chrome Oxide Green Opaque, Prussian Blue, Burnt Sienna and some Diox. Purple. Next come the glazes.....Stay Tuned!

"CHAMISA DAZE" - NEW ORIGINAL OIL-SOLD

"CHAMISA DAZE" - SOLD

New Original Oil Painting - 11"x14" on Italian Gessoboard
Framed in Gold with Linen Liner.

"DOWN A COUNTRY LANE" - New Original Oil - SOLD

"DOWN A COUNTRY LANE" - SOLD

NEW ORIGINAL OIL PAINTING - Completed 3/27/08
11"x14" on Italian Gessoboard
Framed in Gold with Linen Liner

LLANO SAN JUAN -PHASE TWO - GLAZES

"LLANO SAN JUAN" - PHASE II - GLAZES

The glazes are transparent colors -- usually the darkest on my palette. The color at the top of the canvas is a mixture of a glaze (Burnt Sienna) and an opaque (Yellow Ochre). The same combination for the winter bushes, as well as the addition of Mars Black added with a script liner to connote branches. The darkest colors at the bottom of the bushes in the foreground is a combination of Prussian Blue and Diox. Purple. The snow: These colors are opaques -- I have laid in the "middle tones" of the snow with various combinations of Paynes Grey, Permalba White, and a Neutral Grey -- My final layer of paint will be Permalba White with touches of Cadmium Yellow and Cadmium Red. This color will be applied as the highlights with a bristle brush and palette knife. I am still hoping this painting will have a "quiet waking up feeling". This layer of paint will need to dry for about ten days before I can begin applying the final opaque colors -- the "light". STAY TUNED!!!

This painting is scheduled for exhibit at McLarry Fine Art Gallery, 225 Canyon Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico sometime in May.

SUMMER ELEGY - SOLD

NEW! SUMMER ELEGY - SOLD

40"x30" Original Oil on Fine Belgian Linen
Framed in Gold with Linen Liner

VALDEZ AUTUMN - COMPLETED OIL - NEW

"VALDEZ AUTUMN"
New - Completed 12 March 2008

30"x30" Original Oil on Fine Artist's Canvas
Framed in Gold with Linen Liner
For more information please call MC LARRY FINE ART GALLERY, 

225 Canyon Road, Santa Fe, N.M. (505) 988-1161.

HIGH DESERT AUTUMN - SOLD!

"HIGH DESERT AUTUMN" - SOLD!

6"x12" Original Oil Painting on Gessoboard
Framed in Gold with Linen Liner.
©DonnaClair2008 - All Rights of Reproduction Reserved.

"CHAMISA DAYS" - SOLD!

"CHAMISA DAYS" - SOLD!

6"X8" Original Oil on Belgian Linen
Framed in Gold with Linen Liner.

"SUMMER ELEGY" - Work in Progress

"SUMMER ELEGY" - Work in Progress
40"x30" Original Oil on Fine Belgian Linen Canvas.

This painting is far more complicated than it appears -- a lot of detail even though the brushwork is laid in very loosely in places. I hope this photo gets across the true value of glazes and how they add such richness to the final painting. Again, these are transparent colors -- a layer of paint thinned with medium (see Palette Colors and recipe for painting medium in the margin of blog) over the pastel colors of the underpainting. Can you see how the light is refracted through all the way to the toned ground (gesso and Payne's grey) then bounced out again? -- there is LIFE to these colors! Working on this canvas while the glazes on the Valdez Autumn canvas dry -- having several canvases going at one time allows me to come to each canvas with a certain excitement and freshness -- it never gets boring! Stay tuned.

VALDEZ AUTUMN - WORK IN PROG. - GLAZES

"VALDEZ AUTUMN" - WORK IN PROGRESS- GLAZES
30"x30" Original Oil on Canvas
To be framed in Gold with Linen Liner

AH, THE GLAZES AGAIN! --- This is where I would like to just give up because there seems to be so much work. My walls are blank, a new year and all new canvases -- I have a lot of work ahead of me!!!

The blue in the sky is a mixture of Permalba White, Indanthrone Blue, Thalo Yellow Green and a little Payne's Grey. The highlights in the clouds are Permalba White mixed with just a touch of Cadmium Yellow and Cadmium Red -- the shadows: that same combination with a little Davy's Grey -- the darker shadows, Payne's Grey. The tall poplars: Burnt Sienna, Olive Green - some Prussian Blue to enforce the "cartoon". The shadowed mountains: Prussian Blue and Burnt Sienna. The highlights in the mountains: Chrome Oxide Green with Cadmium Orange. The same combination in the grasses in the foreground. The chamisa in the foreground: Yellow Ochre -- then a dirty brush with all the earth colors, plus Diaxozine Purple into the darkest darks. Stay tuned?

For price and availability, please call my Taos Studio at (575)758-7454 - or send e.mail to dclair@donnaclairart.com.

LLANO SAN JUAN - UNDERPAINTING

"LLANO SAN JUAN" - Underpainting
36"x48" Original Oil on fine Belgian Linen.
To be framed in silver with linen liner.

Am hoping that this painting will have a quiet, "waking up" feeling to it. It is a large canvas, which I prepared with three coats of gesso mixed with Payne's Grey. This "grisaille" sets the tone for the painting -- it also takes down the color a bit so that the end result is more subtle, less "cartoony". For the underpainting my palette colors have been mixed with MG White and Turpentine. I have used bristle brushes to paint and "draw" in the composition. I am trying to build a rhythm with the shapes and lights and darks.....hoping to draw the viewer's eye into the canvas and keep it there for a long time. There are so many elements that go into this first step -- it is the foundation of the painting -- the next step will be the glazes......Stay tuned.

Be the first to see this completed painting -- you are invited to join my list of Art Friends. Send your e.mail address to me at dclair@donnaclairart.com -- your privacy is fully protected and your information will never be given to a third party.

EL CORAZON DEL NORTE - SOLD!

"EL CORAZON DEL NORTE" - SOLD!
30"x40" Original Oil on Fine Belgian Linen
Framed in Gold with Linen Liner

San Antonio Catholic Church in the heart of the Hispanic village of Valdez in northern New Mexico (view from the Rim Road). This painting was completed 27 December 2007. For price and availability, please e.mail at dclair@donnaclairart.com or call my Taos Studio at (575) 758-7454.

CORAZON DEL NORTE - PHASE II - GLAZES

"CORAZON DEL NORTE" - GLAZES
30"x40" Original Oil on Fine Belgian Linen

This is the second phase of this painting -- adding the dark, transparent and semi-transparent glazes over the underpainting after it has dried. For the dark greens: Prussian Blue and Burnt Sienna -- then for the richer, lighter areas of the trees - Chrome Oxide Green Opaque and Cadmium Orange. The grasses - Burnt Sienna, Olive Green some Transparent Gold Ochre and some Alizarin Crimson. This step adds the richness to all the colors as the light is refracted through to the underpainting. These dark areas also make the opaque colors appear to dance off the canvas! Projected completion date for this work is January 7th, 2008.

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

"DIAS DE ORO" - COMPLETED ORIGINAL OIL

"LOS DIAS DE ORO"
Completed October 9, 2007

36"x48" - Original Oil on Fine Belgian Linen
Framed in Gold with Linen Liner
For price and availability, please call my Taos Studio at (575) 758-7454

LOS DIAS DE ORO -- PHASE II - GLAZES

WORK IN PROGRESS - LOS DIAS DE ORO
(Color notes from July Blogpost)
(GLAZES II) - 36"x48" Original Oil on Fine Belgian Linen
Projected date of completion - 10/10/07

In my last post to this web log, I demonstrated the difference between the underpainting and the beginning of the glazing process -- laying in the dark, transparent colors. This week I covered the entire canvas with glazes -- even thinning opaque paints to a semi-transparent consistency.

The two autumn trees: I thinned Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Yellow and Cadmium Red and brushed those colors over the shape of the trees to "tone" the ground. Then I began laying in the darker colors (Alizarin Crimson, Diox. Purple, C. Ox. Green Opaque) to create volume and shadows. I used Prussian Blue, Burnt Sienna and Chrome Oxide Green Opaque in the pinon trees at the top of the painting. The pastureland in the foreground and middle ground is a combination of all these colors to varying degrees of light and dark. I will let these colors set up for a few days before working into them again, otherwise the turpentine in my painting medium will mix with the heavier, opaque paints and create "mud".

If you have any questions regarding this new painting, just give me a call at (505) 758-7454.