Southwest Artist Exchange

I was happy to participate in the Wet Canvas Southwest Forum Artist Art Exchange.  My partner was Jenna and this is the piece that I created for her.


Things here have been busy.  With the new house, traveling, and being sick its been hard to paint.    The three months of being sick has taken a bit of a toll.  Not painting everyday has left me feeling a bit intimidated when looking at a blank canvas on the easel.  I think I have my studio set-up where I can be happy painting again and since I'm feeling better I have no excuses. 
My hope this year is to start painting bigger.  But now I really have to paint bigger.  I ordered a couple of large format canvas boards along with my usual sizes, but there was a mistake when the company shipped them.  Now I have 50 large canvases and the company didn't charge me for the panels since it was their mistake..  Told me just to keep them.  Hmm must be a bit of a God Wink going on.  So painting bigger it is. :D

Montezuma's Well Cacti

5x7 OIl  Hardboard

      Did this one during a visit to Montezuma's Well. I liked how the cacti was nestled out on a ledge. People thought I was a bit nuts just doing the cacti when there was so much open space to be painted. Ah well its not their painting its mine!  :D  

    Still not used to people taking my picture with my painting, which I took it in stride. Then there are the people asking me if I would pose with their family too. Now this request I found to be extremely odd. The ones that wanted me in their family pic all came from China. After the third family asked to have a group picture with me, I was itching to ask if it was a cultural thing. But because I didn't know how to phrase it without making it seem awkward I let it go. Made me feel a bit odd/weird. 
       Joe says I'm just to personable for my own good.   Nah.. That is not it the case. But right now I'm just waiting for the adoption papers to come through.    :D

Anyway.. took only a 1/2 hour because I had premixed some earth tones and reds the night before so was not hard to slop it on to the canvas.

Sedona Plein Air

5x7 oil    Hardboard

     Wishing everyone a safe and happy new year!!!

      This is a plein air I did in Sedona.  Its of the rock formation outside our condo.  I was not interested so much in the composition, but in the true representation of color.  The colors have to be right to make up for the camera not seeing the true value, temp., and hue.  This will be a big help with working off of photos in the studio.   I painted this from inside, looking out.  Much warmer! Since most of the weather during our trip was unseasonably cold it made it hard to get out and paint.  Not feeling well was a factor in not having as many plein air pieces as I wanted finished. :/    I'll post some of the others soon.
       Right now I'm working on a larger format painting and this piece is a very helpful reference. So even if your not comfortable at plein air painting, please at least dab come colors in a note book with an entry about it.  It will help your studio paintings come to life.