ASSEMBLA DE DIOS (Truchas, New Mexico) New 40"x40" Original Oil

ASSEMBLA DE DIOS (Assembly of God Church, Truchas, New Mexico) - 40"x40" Original Oil, unframed. Completed 11/20/14. Note: I rented the small adobe house to the left of the church from my friend, Susie Romero, and it was my studio once upon a time.  Click here to Preview/Purchase.

Studio No. 215 - ASSEMBLA DE DIOS - 40"X40" Work in Progress (The Glazes) - Glazes are transparent and semi-transparent oil colors which I believe add richness and depth to the final painting.  Glazes are mixes with Oil Painting Medium (Recipe will be posted next week).  Trees and Yellow Grasses:  Transparent Gold Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Gold Ochre Deep.  Green Trees and Grasses:  Burnt Sienna and Prussian Blue - with some Chrome Oxide Green Opaque.  Note:  Opaque colors can be thinned to a semi-transparency.   Reddish Grasses:  Burnt Sienna and Alizarin Crimson.

LAS NUBES DE TRUCHAS - 12"x44" Original Oil

 

LAS NUBES DE TRUCHAS (The Clouds of Truchas, New Mexico) - New 12"x44" Original Oil on Belgian Linen completed 11/7/14.  Preview/Purchase.

ASSEMBLA DE DIOS - 40"x40" Work in Progress (Underpainting)

ASSEMBLA DE DIOS (Truchas, New Mexico) - 40"x40" Work in Progress (Underpainting).  Almost all colors are mixed with Winsor-Newton Underpainting White.  Note: Am testing this new white - doesn't dry as fast as Grumbacher MG.  Sky:  Thalo Blue, Thalo Green.  Trees and Grasses:  Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Yellow Light, Cadmium Red, Burnt Sienna, Chrome Oxide Green Opaque and Yellow Ochre.

ON THE EASEL - ASSEMBLA DE DIOS - 40"x40" New Work in Progress

ASSEMBLA DE DIOS (Truchas, New Mexico) - 40"X40" Work in Progress - Basic sketch in Prussian Blue and Burnt Umber.

HOW I PAINT - Creating a Portable Work Station

CREATING A PORTABLE WORK STATION - I am an easel painter and I need a comfortable and easy set up for my palette and tubes of paint.  I have a stationary taboret where I keep my additional supplies of paints and brushes.  This steel utility cart (purchased through Amazon) can follow me all over the studio and this set up works perfectly.  This arrangement is great for part-time painters who can't keep a permanent set-up - you can put a cover over your palette and tuck the cart in a corner or closet.  Remember:  It is much more efficient to have your colors set out where you can use them at any time - that way you don't have to wait to be inspired, you can just put on some salsa music and paint, paint, paint!

LAS NUBES DE TRUCHAS - 12"x44" Work in Progress

 

LAS NUBES DE TRUCHAS - 12"x44" Work in Progress (Underpainting) - Original Oil on Belgian Linen.  All colors mixed with  Winsor Newton Underpainting White and Turpentine -Clouds: some Naples Yellow Light.  Payne's Grey for darker areas.  Sky: Cobalt Blue, some Thalo Blue and Thalo Green.  Foreground:  Olive Green, Chrome Oxide Green Opaque, Yellow Ochre and Mars Orange.  Stand of Oaks:  Mars Orange and Cadmium Red.

MORE SOURCE MATERIAL - INTO THE SUNSET......

Gather ye source material while ye may!!!  A quick sunset trip through the hiways and byways of Tesuque Village and Rio en Medio last evening - 10/30/14.......

PREPARING MY CANVAS - GESSO/TONED GROUND

PREPARING MY PAINT SURFACE (Canvas, untempered masonite panels, birch panels, Italian Gessoed panels) - All my paint surfaces are prepared with two to three coats of toned gesso.  What I like about the gessoing is that it fills up the interstices of the canvas and the toned ground softens the final layers of paint.  (Toned Ground:  Renaissance painters used a "grisaille - or a sketch in various shades of grey).  I also don't have to worry about covering all those darned white spaces at the edges of trees, buildings, etc.  I mix a large amount in an old coffee can, apply with a regular "trim" paint brush and tone many canvases of different sizes at one time.  Gesso "days" can easily turn into a "gesso week" - but once this is finished,  I am free to think of the painting, rather than the preparation.  Recipe:  Liquitex gesso (amount depends on how many canvases you want to cover) - small jar(s) of Liquitex Payne's Grey (mix to desired tone) - small amount of water to loosen gesso (I don't want it to leave brush marks once it is applied).  Apply in a loose fashion and try to have the canvas positioned in the same direction as the final painting.    10/30/14 

HOW I PAINT - FIELD WORK - Photography

FIELD WORK - Photography -- Years ago I painted plein air when I could.  Had three small children at home and worked a full time job!  Would get together with friends and pack my paints to have some wonderful autumn afternoons painting in Madrid and Golden, N.M.  Then some kind soul gifted me with a Canon camera with a zoom lens.  That camera became so familiar it was an extension of my arm for years and years.  Recently gave it to my son who just happens to be a very talented photographer.  Then -- TaDah! - along came digital cameras, the computer and Photoshop and everything changed!  Back in the day it was shameful for an artist to admit that they used photography.  I read a life changing book by Van Deren Coke from UNM, The Painter and the Photograph (some copies used and new are still available from Amazon).  Realized that the camera was an essential TOOL for me to use.  Made a pact with myself to know this place that inspired me so deeply - and then it would be possible for me to FEEL what I painted.  10/29/14 

HOW I PAINT - WHAT TO PAINT? FIELD WORK

HOW I PAINT - FIELD WORK:  CHOOSING MY SUBJECT MATTER.  Before leaving Chicago for Santa Fe, N.M. 48 years ago, I was able to be one of thousands who lined up at the Art Institute for the major Andrew Wyeth retrospective.  After waiting in lines that stretched almost to Lake Michigan, we were only given seconds to view each painting.  This exhibit had a powerful effect on me in that I realized Wyeth focused on what he knew best - his own love of place where his spirit was completely "at home".  After visits to Mexico and Guatemala, it took me a while before I came to know "my place".  This knowing settled in slowly once I came to know and love northern New Mexico - especially my sometimes home, Truchas, and the surrounding villages.  Authenticity is important to me - I paint what I know - and especially the places I love best. 

CHIMAYO, N.M. - Oct. 18, 2014

FROM THE TOP OF THE HILL - CHIMAYO, N.M. - Starting some sketches today - organizing paints, setting up a new palette.... life is good!

ON THE ROAD IN NORTHERN NEW MEXICO - 10/18/2014

ON THE ROAD with the Dollie Sisters yesterday (Jan McDowell and Jolene Allen) - Almost 250 new pics! The trees are at their glorious peak all over the north country - Truchas, Chimayo, Dixon - heavy frosts are late this year. Canvases are gessoed in many different sizes - making a list and ordering the paints tomorrow. One or two more trips to my favorite places and then it is time to settle in for my winter work! What an amazing day!

U. S. HILL (Taos, New Mexico) - 8"x10" Original Oil, Framed

U. S. HILL (Taos, New Mexico) - 8"x10" Original Oil, Framed in Gold with Linen Liner - Sold.

GARCIA PARK (Taos, New Mexico) - 30"x60" Original Oil

GARCIA PARK (Taos, New Mexico) - 30"x60" Original Oil on Belgian Linen - wrap-around painting.  Now available for purchase. - Preview.

BEING GRATEFUL TODAY......

EARLY SNOW CLOUDS AT PICURIS - Archival Print from an original painting - you are invited to visit The High Road Print Catalog.

Oh yes!  It's that time of year again - fall sneaked up on us here about two nights ago - a chill in the air.  This morning landlord checking the heating zones in the house so I won't freeze and fall on a brush midstroke!  Moved to New Mexico 47 years ago this month.  This morning I was looking at all these images in this catalog - painted over my years in Truchas - and I wondered how it happened that I got so lucky to land in this place - such a chaotic set of circumstances brought me here all that long time ago - another storm of events brought me full circle to Tesuque - right up the street from El Nido where I had my first New Mexico "art show" - bet those paintings still resonate with the sweat and stomps of flamenco dancer Vicente Romero!  Just coming home to myself again (I am slow to change) -  carry these places with me every day when I sit down at that big easel of mine.  What I am feeling today is a deep and profound gratitude.

ON THE EASEL TODAY: CALLECITA DE TESUQUE, 40"x40" Original Oil

On the Easel:  CALLECITA DE TESUQUE, 40"x40" Original Oil on Belgian Linen.

CORAZON SAGRADO (Tesuque Village, N.M.) - 20"x20" Original Oil

CORAZON SAGRADO (Tesuque Village, New Mexico) - 20"x20" Original Oil, wrap-around painting.  $750.00 - Preview/Purchase.

PUESTA DEL SOL (Taos, N.M.), New 30"x40" Original Oil - Sold

Studio No. 3414 - PUESTA DEL SOL (Taos Mountain, Taos, New Mexico) - New 30"x40" Original Oil on Belgian Linen, unframed. $3500.  Completed 8/13/14 - Sold

0N THE EASEL - PUESTA DEL SOL - 30"x40" Work in Progress

ON THE EASEL NOW -- WORK IN PROGRESS - STUDIO NO.3414 - PUESTA DEL SOL (Taos, New Mexico) 30"x40" Original Oil on Belgian Linen. ( This is the second in a series of 30 new paintings from northernNew Mexico) The color notes and process of the beginning of this painting are posted below.