"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!  

"VADITO" - SOLD

"VADITO" - SOLD

6"x8" Orig. Oil on Italian Gessoed Board

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!

#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

"STORMY WEATHER" - SOLD

 

"STORMY WEATHER" - SOLD

New! 6"x8" Orig. Oil (unframed) on Italian Gessoed Board

HIGH ROAD AFTERNOON - SOLD

 

"HIGH ROAD AFTERNOON" - SOLD

NEW! 6"X8" Orig. Oil (unframed) on Italian Gessoed Board

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

"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

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.